WASHINGTON – Rep. George Santos (R-NY) — the ultimate congressional clown, according to many of his constituents — is mad as hell that Congress is acting like a “clown show.”
That’s right. The antics of the Freedom Caucus and other far right provocateurs are bringing a rebuke from the shape-shifting freshman congressman who was indicted on 13 counts, including lying to Congress, earlier this year.
“It's irresponsible. Nobody's doing their job,” Santos complained to Raw Story. “When are people gonna start doing their job? What's the point of us doing our job and getting paid if it's a clown show?”
Santos has also been accused of not doing his job, which he denies, along with all the charges he continues to battle in court. To him, this is just a wasted week.
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After killing attempts by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert a government shutdown on Sunday through passage of a continuing resolution (or CR), the House has been slogging this week through “regular order” on four of its 12 regular spending (or appropriations) bills. They include funding for agriculture, defense, homeland security and state-foreign operations.
The defense funding measure alone has already been torpedoed twice by McCarthy’s right flank. Even though he caved and stripped out $300 million in Ukraine-related aide, it’s still unclear whether McCarthy can get it, or any other measure, through the Freedom Caucus blockade.
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“This is great theater, we have great seats, but you know what? The American people get f****d at the end of the day,” Santos said. “This is theater, and it's the theater of who f***s Americans harder, and I don't like that and it's not what I came here to do. And quite frankly, it needs to stop. It needs to change.”
While a bipartisan deal to avert a shutdown is moving through the Senate, Santos isn’t impressed.
Rather, Santos, wearing an anti-shutdown button, argued that this bipartisan measure crossed a red line.
“I just don't like this notion of the Senate sending something down our throats. I mean, first of all, botching our FAA reauthorization and then bastardizing the whole thing,” Santos said. “So it's pretty frustrating. As much as I don't want the shutdown, if the Senate really comes in and tries to big foot us, then I'll throw this pin to hell.”
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Santos, known for making grandiose, false and misleading claims, is vowing to forgo his congressional pay if this Congress flips the government’s lights off.
“If we have a shutdown, I won't collect my salary until the shutdown is over, because if Americans have to budget to put food on the table, I’ll budget to put food on the table,” Santos said. “I urge all my colleagues to do the same. If we go into a shutdown, we should all send a letter to the clerk's office and say we're not collecting a salary until the shutdown is over,” Santos said. “That's it. Plain and simple.”
Even with all the performative late nights on the House side of the Capitol this week, it’s been largely business as usual at the Capitol.
“I feel so removed from this entire process. Because why did we go on recess in August?” Santos told Raw Story, before bemoaning business as usual at the Capitol this week. “Do you know why? Because they’re so used to the status quo of f***s the American people. That's why.”
