'Every single time they end up folding': Critics slam 'spineless' Republicans

05 July

Lisa Murkowski

Critics can’t seem to stop being astounded by the amount of backtracking holdout Republicans did on Trump’s controversial budget bill this week.

“The contortions they made before they voted for it were funny,” said Sam Stein to Bulwark Podcast Host Tim Miller. “… They just continued to draw lines in the sand that they knew they were going to flagrantly violate. … [Rep.] Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said $500 billion in Medicaid cuts is my red line. And I’m like, ‘no. You voted for $1 trillion.’ … But the one that killed me was [Rep.] David Valadaeo (R-Calif.) … You can’t put out a statement like ‘I will never vote for the Senate version, and then—three days later—be like, ‘alright. I’m ready to ride.”

“If I had a piece of advice for them or whoever’s doing their [communications] it’s don’t do red lines if you’re only going to cross them,” Stein said.

Stein took particular offense at Rep. Victoria Sparts (R-Ind.).

“She always has the most hilarious twists. It was like, ‘I will not vote for the rule but I will vote for final passage, which made no sense whatsoever,” said Stein. “And then of course she wound up voting for the rule. These people are spineless obviously, and they don’t have any principals other than ‘we need to get something in for Trump.”

Stein and Miller weren’t the only one’s keeping count of Republican reversals. MSNBC’s ‘The Weekend’ delivered footage of a litany of GOP holdouts who quickly scurried to President Donald Trump’s side without getting any of their concerns over the bill addressed.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.): “We are stealing from our children and grandchildren $37 trillion in debt. And we're going to add to it. As republicans, that is unacceptable,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who voted for the bill.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo): “This is real Medicaid benefit cuts. I can't support that. No republican should support that.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas): “I think this is a travesty that the senate is going to risk the ability of us to deliver for the American people.”

Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas): “We are going to get the tax cuts done, in some fashion, but we cannot saddle our children and our grandchildren with an exploding national debt.”

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.): “What the senate did is unconscionable. What they did to our bill was unconscionable. … I'll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor.”

Eugene Craig, former chair of Black Republicans for Harris, told ‘The Weekend’ Host Eugene Daniels that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) appeared to look “dumbfounded” when confronted by a reporter on her own decision to approve the bill, even though she could have provided a pivotal vote to killed it.

“You look to people like (Sen.) Susan Collins (R-Maine) or Lisa Murkowski … and you hope they do the right thing, but every single time they end up folding,” said Craif. “ … Alaska is a very rural state. One of the most rural states we have in our union, so cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP are going to hurt Alaska more so than 49 other states.”

Hear the full Bulwark Podcast at this link.

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