Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy told Breitbart News it is “absurd” that “lazy” Democrats and Republicans are going to use the “bullshit” proxy voting rule to vote on the “garbage” Inflation Reduction Act — which does not help inflation — instead of following the Constitution and showing up to vote in person.
The congressman explained to Breitbart News on Thursday afternoon lawmakers voting by proxy on both sides of the aisle are the “perfect gold example” of what is wrong with allowing members to vote by proxy.
“It’s straight up bullshit is what it is,” Roy stated while mentioning he was traveling back to Washington, DC, to vote on a “garbage” Inflation Reduction Act, which he said does the opposite of helping inflation like destroying the energy industry and driving up the price of goods and services.
Roy, noting proxy voting, in his opinion, is “unconstitutional” and is “destroying the institution” they were elected to serve, stated, “There’s no price to pay” when Republicans and Democrats do not come back to D.C. to do their jobs.
The congressman is referring to the House castings votes on Friday for the Inflation Reduction Act — which passed the Senate on a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Members are allowed to proxy vote, which means that one member of the House can cast a vote on behalf of an absent member, which started in 2020. But, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has extended it multiple times, citing the “public health emergency” due to the coronavirus.
Currently, according to the Clerk of the House, 190 members submitted proxy letters by Friday morning, meaning more than one-third of members may vote remotely on Friday. However, because a member has an active proxy letter does not mean they will not vote in person, but, as members are on their vacations, the bulk of the letter was filed with the Clerk in the past couple of weeks.
Some of the Democrat and Republican members who submitted proxying voting letters include Reps. Josh Harder (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Cindy Axne (D-IA), Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), Michael Guest (R-MS) and more.
When submitting the letters to the Clerk, members sign the documents stating they are “unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency.” The congressman alleged that besides a select few, every member who signed their name stating they are unable to vote in person because of the public health emergency is “lying.”
“At least a third of the body it looks like are going to vote by proxy, if not more, and that is absurd,” he added. “So we are now going to pass a massive policy bill with massive dollars attached to it, with tax increases, with energy caps, with huge empowerment of IRS agents go after Americans. And we’re going to do that on a bear stand vice president debated majority of the Senate and now a House that won’t even have a third of its members present.”
The Congressional Budget Office found the Inflation Reduction Act to cut deficits years from now after it raises them in four out of the next five years.
Breitbart News’s John Carney wrote last week:
The Inflation Reduction Act, which nonpartisan analysts say would not reduce inflation, would shrink budget deficits by $101.5 billion between this year and 2031, the Congressional Budget Office said in an estimate on Wednesday.
Between this year and 2027, however, the budget deficit would grow by $24.6 billion. The nonpartisan budget analysis agency sees the deficit falling next year as new tax provisions kick in and then being higher in each year until 2028.
The shift is due to expectations in the timing of when changes in drug pricing would take effect. The 10-year cost is also reduced by the sunsetting of some of the spending provisions, something that has been attacked by Republican lawmakersas a gimmick that conceals the true cost of the bill.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, also released a fact sheet saying the bill would add more fuel to the “inflation fire” by using budget gimmicks that sunset to hide the true cost of Manchin’s alleged deficit reduction bill.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.