Following the release of the draft agreement to raise the debt ceiling, House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) went on Fox News to complain he didn't have any time to read it before the vote — even though, by any reasonable measure, he did.
"It's like the Pelosi days. You gotta pass it before you read it," complained Norman, referencing a quote former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) made about the Affordable Care Act in 2009 that has frequently been taken out of context. "We ought to have a lot more time."
"But he's giving you three days to consider it," pushed back Fox anchor John Roberts, adding, "It's only 99 pages."
Following this exchange, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) took to Twitter to mock his colleague's complaint that reading a 99-page bill in three days is just too burdensome a task for him.
"Let’s do some math," wrote Lieu. "If GOP Rep Ralph Norman works 8 hours a day, that’s 24 hours over 3 days to read 99 pages. That comes out to reading a little over 4 pages every hour. And these are double spaced text pages."
"Alternatively, he can have AI summarize the bill for him in 1 min," Lieu added.
Norman, who faced national controversy after leaked text messages revealed he begged the Trump administration to declare "Marshall [sic] law" to prevent President Joe Biden from taking office after the 2020 election, appears to have already made up his mind against the bill he says he doesn't have time to read, proclaiming, "The two factions that are supporting this bill [are] China, because they're just buying more debt to control America, and the Biden administration, which, as the hearings are showing, is corrupt and compromised to China. Somewhere, somebody has got to stop it."
