Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Tuesday railed against the Senate version of the GOP’s tax and spending bill, calling it a “travesty” and saying he expects to see significant changes in the House before it lands on the president’s desk.
In an interview on Fox News’s “The Faulkner Focus,” conducted just ahead of the final vote in the upper chamber, Roy condemned the last-minute deals made to change parts of the legislation to get moderate members, like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), on board.
“I believe that they are massively watering down what we did to deliver for the president on the Green New Scam. This is the Senate doing swamp things. This is the Senate listening to K Street,” Roy said. “This is the Senate wanting to try to save some for their home states — like Sen. Murkowski for Alaska, trying to get giveaways to perpetuate the Medicaid money laundering scam in Alaska.”
“I think this is a travesty that the Senate is going to risk the ability of us to deliver for the American people,” he added.
Murkowski emerged as a crucial 50th vote for Republicans and was at the center of negotiations throughout Monday night into Tuesday morning. GOP leaders worked to rewrite sections of the legislation important to Murkowski — including carve-outs for Alaska in Medicaid and SNAP funding cuts — to pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian and ultimately agreed to double the rural hospital fund to $50 billion.
Murkowski handed Republicans the crucial vote, allowing Vice President Vance to break the tie to pass the agenda-setting bill.
Roy, who was a reluctant “yes” vote in the House in late May, expressed concern about the spending in the Senate version of the reconciliation package.
“The question here is whether the Senate is going to deliver on the spending restraint that is necessary to deal with the inflation tax that is crippling the average American,” Roy said, in the minutes before the bill passed.
“We talk about the tax increases that would occur if we don’t deliver,” he said. “That is correct — we must deliver. But if we do not deliver on spending restraint, bond markets are going to crater, inflation will continue, interest rates will go up, houses will be less affordable.”
Roy said he’s worried the Senate bill will “undermine the good things we did in the House to deliver on the president’s agenda.”
“The president wants the tax cuts. He wanted the Green New Scam terminated. We need it all,” Roy continued. “And I think we’re going to have some more work to do after this week to get this done.”
