Mike Johnson is playing a 'silly mind game' with spending bill: former GOP chair
Former RNC chairman Michael Steele railed against House Speaker Mike Johnson, saying the speaker is playing a “silly mind game” with his defense of “the big, beautiful bill.”
The comment came Friday afternoon after anchor Chris Jansing played a sound of Johnson replying to criticism from Elon Musk.
“I sent my good friend Elon a long text message last night,” the House speaker said on Fox News Thursday, “explaining that it can be both big and beautiful. Okay?”
He added, “So I wanted to make sure that he understands that the projection that he's referring to ... is from the CBO, the congressional budget office, they are historically totally unreliable.”
Jansing said, “NBC News reports that Musk's comments have served to embolden conservative critics of that multitrillion-dollar package as it gets taken up in the Senate.”
The anchor went on to ask, “Do you think that really has any influence? I mean, when you consider the influence Donald Trump has?”
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“What is the speaker talking about? The CBO is totally historically unreliable,” Steele rhetorically asked. “Why do you have them? Defund the operation. You want to save some money, get rid of an institution that doesn't provide you with good information. What are you talking about?”
The former RNC chair then got animated, “I mean, this is all part of the silly mind game that's being played here. Look, the Senate will eventually capitulate and give Donald Trump probably most of, if not all, of what he wants.”
“The cuts are going to be made, and then they're going to have to go out to the country and explain to our poor and those who are in dire need of health care.” Steele added the GOP will also need to answer, “Why those services that they rely on, like food and SNAP programs, health care programs, have been cut. That's the Republicans' reality right now.”
“You can talk about a big, beautiful bill all day, but at the end of the day, ... the weight of that bill is going to land on the back of the very constituents that you clearly don't care about.”
Steele later said the House is “wholly feckless in stopping any of this.” He then criticized, “Musk, who's got the chainsaw, and doing his thing. And Trump, who's sitting back, letting those two pieces go without any of the dirt falling on him.”
“That's the drama in front of us as I see it,” Steele said.
Watch Steele's full commentary below or click the link.
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