'Absolutely sickened': Chip Roy scolds Republicans in fiery House floor speech
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) went after his GOP colleagues in the House while delivering heated remarks on Thursday targeting the now-failed Donald Trump-backed spending bill as the federal government faces a looming government shutdown.
Roy didn’t shy away from admonishing his own party in his floor speech that exposed party rifts weeks before Trump returned to the White House with a Republican trifecta. The MAGA lawmaker was especially fired up by Trump’s demand that lawmakers increase the debt ceiling.
“Congratulations, you added to the debt since you were given the majority again on November 5,” Roy said of Republicans. “It’s embarrassing, it’s shameful.”
The Texas congressman, who overwhelmingly won reelection to his conservative district last month, said he thought the recently failed short-term spending bill was somewhat better than the proposal that tech billionaire Elon Musk helped blow up a day earlier sending the Capitol into chaos.
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“But to take this bill, yesterday, and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine – and that’s precisely what Republicans are doing.”
He added: “I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous.”
The quickly assembled spending bill failed to pass the House with just 167 Republicans voting in favor of it, according to media reports. It received rare bipartisan condemnation.
“The Speaker of the House broke his word,” Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA) told members in his own floor speech.
“We reached an agreement we came to modest achievements, and a tweet changed all of it?" he said. "Can you imagine what the next two years are going to be like if every time the Congress works its will and then there's a tweet from an individual who has no official portfolio who threatens members on the Republican side with a primary? And they succumb?”
Watch the clip below or at this link.