The Will of the People
Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who is set to become the chair of the House Study Committee (replacing Rep. Jim Jordan), has an interview up at the Financial Times declaring he'd rather fly off the fiscal cliff than cut a deal. Or, as he put it, “A bad deal would be worse than no deal at all." Scalise goes on to claim a mandate from the people:
He argues that Republicans were given a mandate by voters when they held on to their majority in the House in November’s election, and that a majority of people support budget proposals to cut government spending sharply and reform popular government programmes such as Medicare.
“[The election] has proven to us one thing: we are it. In the House we are the last line of defence and we need to act like it. We need to hold the line. And there is no cavalry . . . we have to fight for it everyday,” he said.
But, of course, Republicans didn't win a "majority" of voters. Gerrymandering is fine by me, but House Democrats received over a million more votes than Republicans in last month's election. And for the love of all that is good, please don't play chicken with America's economy.
See more of our coverage in your search results.
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
Register below to read this article for free or subscribe
to unlock unlimited access to The Daily Beast.
Monthly
$1
First month then $5.99/month
Annual
$35
First year then $59.99/year
Premium
$79
First year then $119.99/year
*Substack access provided by the next business day, using your subscription email. Choosing the Premium plan constitutes your permission to share your subscription email with Substack and your agreement to Substack’s Privacy Policy.
Already have an account? Sign In
Looks like you already have a subscription!
You're all set!
Thanks for subscribing.