As the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the $1.2 trillion spending bill, U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a Motion to Vacate against House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for allowing it to happen. (It’s the same motion that brought about the historic ouster of Johnson’s predecessor, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.)
House Republicans also today lost Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who announced that he’s resigning from Congress early and will not run for re-election.
The divisions within the GOP — with 101 House Republicans voting with Democrats to pass the spending bill and avoid a partial government shutdown — are apparent. Greene warned that “any Republican who votes for the budget bill” is going to be “absolutely obliterated by their districts.”
Today, I voted emphatically against yet another trillion-dollar spending package.
I would rather die on the field politically than continue to surrender to America’s defeat and demise. Surrendering is precisely what this omnibus does: it surrenders on the border, on the budget,…
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 22, 2024
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who led the ouster of McCarthy last year and voted against the spending bill today, wrote on X: “I would rather die on the field politically than continue to surrender to America’s defeat and demise. Surrendering is precisely what this omnibus does: it surrenders on the border, on the budget, and on the bureaucrats that are choking out the economic freedom of our citizens.”
He added: “I will continue to vote against these packages, speak out against them, debate against them, and do everything I can to encourage my colleagues to join me.”
Gaetz’s MAGA colleague Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) also excoriated the bill, but the Congressman expressed concern about a different kind of dying “on the field politically.” See the video below, where Perry says the bill with its border provisions — “22,000 new Border Patrol Agents and 41,500 new detention facility beds” — will give Democrats strength in the upcoming elections.
Scott Perry says Republicans should vote against this bill because it provides for 23,000 new Border Patrol Agents and 41,500 new detention facility beds, and this will give Democrats something to run on in the upcoming election. pic.twitter.com/YT4WJbyvqT
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) March 22, 2024