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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Condemns Democrats for Not Denouncing Socialism. Here’s Why That’s Hilarious

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In yet another display of political theater, House Republicans are criticizing Democratic lawmakers for refusing to denounce the evils of socialism. Since the GOP doesn’t have enough power in Congress to actually do something for the American people, it appears their objective is to put on small performances like these to make it appear as if they are working hard on our behalf.

On Thursday, almost 100 Democratic lawmakers refused to support a resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism.” The rest of the party voted with Republicans to pass the measure, with progressive members of the party voting “no.”

The Washington Examiner reported:

Dozens of House Democrats opposed a resolution “denouncing the horrors of socialism” that passed on Thursday, though all of party leadership voted for it.

The 86 “no” votes mostly hail from the progressive wing of the party and included “Squad” members Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), as well as Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

Despite calling the resolution a waste of time earlier Thursday, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined with 108 other Democrats and all present Republicans to support it. Additionally, 14 Democrats voted “present.”

Jeffries castigated Republicans for “bringing to the floor of the House of Representatives today a resolution on socialism to condemn some dictators that we all already condemn” and argued that “the goal of this phony, fake, and fraudulent resolution is just to somehow provide cover for extreme MAGA Republicans to try to undermine an agenda that is designed to lift up the health, safety, and well-being of the American people.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy excoriated Democrats who refused to support the resolution. He tweeted a video in which he discussed the matter. “100 Democrats just refused to denounce socialism,” he wrote. “That’s scary—and it explains a lot about why Congress has been spending so much these last four years.”

In the video, McCarthy said:

A couple interesting things happen on the floor right now. You had almost, if you combine the number of Democrats who voted no and voted present, there’s a hundred Democrats that won’t stand up against socialism. That’s a real concern to me in America today. It’s not just that wasn’t a college vote on a college campus. That was a vote in the U.S. Congress that 100 Democrats couldn’t say socialism was wrong. That’s a scary point of view. But you also understand why we’re in a spending problem that they are when they were in the majority. That’s why you understand the challenges that we have here.

Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) called the vote “unbelievable,” while Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) pointed out that this recorded vote would come up whenever Democrats try to accuse the GOP of “fearmongering” about socialism.

This chest-thumping might sound good to those who haven’t been paying much attention over the years. But a closer look shows that the GOP is nowhere close to being innocent when it comes to expanding the state and blowing out spending. Former member of Congress David Jolly posted a chart detailing spending since the George W. Bush administration:

Right off the bat, the numbers in 2020, under former President Donald Trump, stand out. One might say he had an excuse due to the COVID-19 pandemic (he doesn’t). But if you look back, you can see that spending under the GOP is not much less than that of Democrats. It reminds me of a saying popularized by commentator Michael Malice, who often points out that “conservatism is progressivism driving the speed limit.”

Moreover, it was Republicans, with the help of Democrats, who passed the Patriot Act, which granted the federal government sweeping powers to surveil and investigate American citizens, even those not guilty of committing a crime, as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed in 2013.

When it comes to the expansion of the state, the GOP is still not much better. Under Trump, the federal government grew by a whopping two million employees.

The Republican Party’s record on the size of government is nothing to brag about, nor does it give them any room to call out Democrats who don’t even pretend to want to limit the state. As I have asked many times before, when was the last time Republicans have actually shrunk the federal government in a meaningful way?

I’m still waiting for an answer to that question. But unfortunately, there are not many good ones. Unfortunately, expanding the size of government has been a bipartisan effort for decades, and these people in Washington are showing no signs of slowing down.

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