On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) reacted to the omnibus framework by pointing out that the two leaders on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Vice Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), who agreed to the deal with House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), are leaving the Senate when their terms expire in January, “So, there’s no way that the taxpayer or the constituents can hold them accountable for what they’re about to do.”
McCarthy stated, “[T]he two people who lead in this Appropriations, Sen. Leahy and Sen. Shelby, will no longer be here in 21 days. They did not run for re-election. So, there’s no way that the taxpayer or the constituents can hold them accountable for what they’re about to do. Why wouldn’t you wait 21 more days? What they’re talking about is adding the baseline, meaning where would we start in the next year. They want to increase it somewhere between 90 and $130 billion. Instead of saving money, instead of cutting back in this world of inflation that we have, why would we — if we do nothing in the CR, we’re going to save ourselves almost $100 billion. That’s the hard-earned taxpayer money. And are you going to get a time to read it? They’re trying to jam us right before Christmas. Why would you ever move forward when there’s a change in power in 21 days where Republicans would have a stronger hand? … Are two individuals who are leaving the Senate going to write a bill where they add 100 billion more dollars?”
He added, “The Democrats have been in power. … And they didn’t do this job. So, why would Republicans help them now to put in the things they care about? Why not wait 21 days?”
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