Congressional Cowards is a weekly sequence highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—irrespective of how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
Republican lawmakers talked an enormous sport about their opposition to President Donald Trump’s “One Huge, Lovely Invoice Act,” which is able to strip well being care and meals stamps from hundreds of thousands whereas exploding the deficit with tax giveaways to the wealthy.
So-called “moderate” Republicans claimed to be in opposition to the large Medicaid cuts that can trigger hundreds of thousands of low-income Individuals to lose their medical health insurance. And the hard-right “fiscal hawks” crowed about the greater than $3 trillion the invoice will add to the nationwide deficit—a lot that it’s going to spike rates of interest and make it dearer for Individuals to borrow cash for residence or automobile purchases.

However in the long run, all of them caved, passing this dumpster fireplace invoice to present Pricey Chief a victory—pyrrhic because it seems to be.
Maybe the largest coward is GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who voted for the laws after getting a “polar payoff” to make sure that her state gained’t be hit as laborious as others by the large Medicaid cuts.
After voting for the invoice, Murkowski stated that she did not truly just like the laws and wished the Home to amend it—realizing full nicely that it was unlikely to occur. Laborious to discover a extra cowardly transfer than that.
“I do know that in lots of elements of the nation, there are Individuals that aren’t going to be advantaged by this invoice,” she stated.
However Murkowski’s colleague Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri gave her a run for her cash on the coward scale. Hawley had been declaring for months that he would not vote for any invoice that may slash Medicaid.
“I’m not going to vote for Medicaid benefit cuts,” Hawley instructed reporters earlier this 12 months.
But Hawley did simply that—and with out even needing a kickback like Murkowski’s in change for his vote.
In the meantime, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin folded and voted for the invoice after spending weeks declaring that its deficit busting was immoral and harmful. Like Hawley, it took nothing for Johnson to show that his dedication to decreasing the deficit was all a ruse.
In the long run, slicing taxes for the wealthy whereas screwing the poor is extra essential than something for the GOP. And the caves have been simply as obscene over within the Home.
There are far too many to record, however for the sake of brevity, listed here are the worst of the cowards within the Home.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska—who isn’t even operating for reelection and thus doesn’t must cave to Trump—voted for the invoice after beforehand saying that the invoice’s huge Medicaid cuts have been a purple line that he wouldn’t cross.

“No invoice goes to be excellent,” Bacon instructed reporters to justify his abhorrent cave.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who just some weeks in the past stated that the Senate’s deep cuts to Medicaid have been a “nonstarter,” additionally voted for the invoice, saying that he hopes the cuts to the life-saving well being care program will probably be delayed down the highway. Actually.
In the meantime, Rep. Keith Self of Oklahoma, who on Wednesday referred to as the invoice “morally and fiscally bankrupt,” circled lower than a day later and, you guessed it, voted for the laws.
Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio—one among two Republicans to vote in opposition to the invoice within the Home the primary time as a result of it added an excessive amount of to the deficit—voted for the Senate model of the invoice that exploded the deficit much more, as a result of he stated that Trump made a synthetic deadline and time had merely run out for him to battle for extra modifications.
Davidson instructed reporters that he put up “as strong of a fight” as he might and that he “hates to reward the Swamp” however couldn’t battle anymore. The true definition of a coward.
And Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who declared that he couldn’t vote for the invoice and that there was nothing anybody might say to get him to vote for it, circled lower than a day later and voted for it.
Whereas that’s actually a cowardly act, at the least he admitted why he caved so simply.
“Well, we met with President Trump, and he did a masterful job laying out how we could improve it, how he could use his chief executive office—use things to make the bill better,” Norman stated.
There’s no larger proof than that to show that the GOP is nothing greater than a cult devoted to Trump.