A fiery House of Representatives debate on the massive social spending bill raged into the early morning Friday, as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy delivered a lengthy speech amid heckles from Democrats.
McCarthy (R-Calif.) bashed the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, calling it “the single most irresponsible and reckless” spending bill in US history during a 5-hour speech that forced Democrats to push the vote back to 8 a.m. Friday.
“Let me be clear: Never in American history has so much been spent at one time — at one time,” the California representative said. “Never in American history will so many taxes be raised and so much borrowing to be needed to pay for all this reckless spending.”
His scathing commentary was met with displeasure from Democrats, leading to multiple calls to order. McCarthy got loud after he was told to address the speaker, saying he was allowed to look anywhere he wanted.
“I cannot believe the amount of control one-party rule wants — they now want to dictate to a member of the floor of where I can look?” McCarthy said.
The GOP leader also drew Democratic pushback when he said President Biden was given “every single ingredient for unprecedented success” on the day of his inauguration.
After another call to order, he seemed to reference the House’s censure of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) over a weird anime-style video that showed him slashing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking Biden. Gosar was booted from committee positions for the video on Twitter, which has since been deleted.
“I’m not sure but I know Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi likes to remove people from committee if they don’t reach the higher standards I would be worried with the much interruptions that something would happen to somebody,” McCarthy said.
AOC posted a video of her and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) outside the chambers while McCarthy spoke.
“This man clearly will not stop talking but has nothing to say,” AOC said in the video.