Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Friday that the new Republican majority in the House is throwing away a chance at bipartisanship and vowed to oppose Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) if he governs to the right.
Schumer accused McCarthy, who won the gavel with concessions to the conservative wing of his party, of acquiescing to “extreme” policy proposals and “wealthy special interests.”
“Unfortunately, what we’ve seen this week from House Republicans is more chaos and ultra MAGA proposals,” Schumer wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter. “I want to work with Speaker McCarthy to get things done, but so far, House Republicans have been focused on delivering for wealthy special interests and the extreme wing of their party.”
Schumer vowed to fight the House Republicans’ promise to cut spending to fiscal 2022 levels, setting up what will likely be a dramatic spending fight later this year. He said Senate appropriators have already started working on the budget for fiscal 2024 in anticipation of the deadlock that has Washington fearing a government shutdown.
“If Republicans follow the extreme wing of their party off a cliff and continue caving to election deniers and those who threaten our democracy and help the wealthy at the expense of the working class, Democrats must make clear to the American people that we will fight tooth and nail against these attacks,” Schumer said.
One of the House’s first acts in the 118th Congress was repealing funding allocated to the IRS for the hiring of more agents. Though Republicans say this is to prevent an increase in audits on taxpayers making less than $200,000 a year, Schumer said it would allow the wealthy to get away with paying less in taxes.
While Republicans have a slim majority in the House, their legislation still has to get through the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Joe Biden’s veto in order to become law.
In their first week, McCarthy also ushered through the House two abortion-related measures and bipartisan legislation that bans the sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China. In addition, the lower chamber voted to form two new committees to investigate China and the “weaponization” of the federal government.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Schumer called the weaponization panel, which will be a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee and investigate political motives in agencies such as the FBI and Department of Justice, a “conspiracy committee to undermine and threaten law enforcement.”
During the historic speaker election that took McCarthy 15 ballots over a week days to lock down, the GOP leader agreed to most demands of his 20 holdouts, including the spending cuts. The GOP has signaled it doesn’t want the cuts to come out of the defense budget, meaning it would have to come entirely from social programs — a nonstarter for Democrats.
