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Ingraham challenges Chip Roy about meltdown on House floor blasting fellow Republicans

December 20, 2024 | | Print Article

The burgeoning spending war between Rep. Chip Roy and the Trump wing of the Republican Party drastically intensified Thursday.

Under President-elect Donald Trump’s guidance, House Speaker Mike Johnson pieced together a last-minute, barebones continuing resolution  (CR) that would fund the government for three months, suspend the debt limit until January 2027 (by which point another $5 trillion will have been spent), and provide $110 billion in disaster aid.

Roy, a hardcore fiscal conservative, cried foul, prompting Trump to blast him on Truth Social for “getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory”:

Roy subsequently doubled down in a heated speech directed at his colleagues that he delivered on the House floor this Thursday.

“What we’re doing right now is to continue to double down on the things that are destroying the republic,” he began. “We are going to increase the debt ceiling not just four trillion, that’s false. We have spent $4.7 trillion in additional debt in the last nineteen months. We’re gonna increase the debt by $5 trillion. That’s what’s gonna happen.”

“Right here, by Republicans, increasing the debt by $5 trillion, and what are you doing in the same bill? $110 billion unpaid for! Because you never have any ounce of self-respect to go out and campaign, saying you’re going to balance the budget, and then you come in here and pass $110 billion unpaid for!”

“The fact of the matter is $330 billion, congratulations, you’ve added to the debt since you were given the majority again on November 5th. It’s embarrassing! It’s shameful! … I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous,” he concluded.

Listen:

(Video Credit: C-SPAN)

Roy later tripled down during an appearance Thursday evening on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” hours after he stunningly voted with Democrats against the last-minute CR.

The discussion on Fox News began with Ingraham demanding that Roy explain his decision to vote with Democrats against the 116-page CR.

“Now, Congressman, you voted against the bill,” she said. “Of course, Trump comes out for it. [Elon] Musk, [JD] Vance, [Vivek] Ramaswamy, many others. But you thought it was a dereliction, ultimately, of congressional duty. Explain that.”

“You can do a lot of the damage in 116 pages, and this 116 pages still continues to spend $110 billion, unpaid for,” Roy replied. “It adds that much more to the debt. Importantly, increases the debt ceiling for two years, something on the order of $5 trillion with no structural reforms to reduce spending. We need to have structural reforms if we are going to increase the debt ceiling. I agree with the president. We need to get the debt ceiling …”

Ingraham then cut him off for a fact-check.

“But Congressman, I get you, but again, if the House can’t pass anything, then Schumer has all the leverage here,” she said. “I’m always about the art of possible, what’s really possible. You’re right about this. This is a scam. The fact that it keeps happening is a complete fraud upon the American people. However, you don’t have the votes!”

She added that previous shutdown battles have led to no substantive changes, raising the question of what exactly Roy thinks he can achieve this time around by holding Republicans hostage to his demands.

“Has the budget deficit gone down?” Ingraham asked rhetorically. “Has the debt declined? No, and no. So right now, by defeating this, aren’t you all giving Schumer the leverage here and then perhaps even, perhaps, hurting the incoming president, who will have his hands tied if this debt ceiling, which I hate, too, is not lifted for a period of time?”

Listen to the whole discussion below:

(Video Credit: Fox News)

“Well, look, I certainly think we ought to be able to reach an agreement,” Roy responded. “I spent all last night into the night and this morning meeting with my colleagues. We put together some solutions we thought would work. We believe we can move a debt ceiling increase on a reconciliation package.”

Meanwhile, Roy’s growing army of critics has been firing back by outlining ways in which he’s habitually bucked the GOP’s agenda.

Did you know, for example, that he’d lobbied for disgraced former Rep. Liz Cheney to retain her House GOP leadership position in 2021?

Roy had also lobbied for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to resign after Democrats and their media allies came at the AG over what’s since been proven to have been a fake scandal.

Vivek Saxena
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