House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday mocked House Democrats on Friday for their negotiations to pass President Joe Biden’s sweeping social spending package.
House Democrats on Friday struggled to hold planned votes on the reconciliation package and a bipartisan infrastructure bill touted as companion legislation.
At a press conference at the Capitol on Friday, McCarthy said that as Pelosi whips votes for Biden’s agenda, a House motion to adjourn became the longest vote in the history of Congress, but the vote is believed to be the longest in House history, as the Senate has outdone it.
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McCarthy said the bill was “advanced in the dead of night” and sarcastically called the bill “finalized,” noting the continuing negotiations surrounding it.
“What’s happening is, throughout the night, Speaker Pelosi is trying to buy off three or four votes,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy called out one centrist Democrat in particular: Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.
“Poor Josh,” McCarthy said, drawing laughs from the assembled press. “That guy’s been promised so much. I mean, I feel sorry for the guy.”
Gottheimer, who has been an advocate of the infrastructure bill, has said that legislation is “being held hostage” by liberal demands on the spending package, and he has said he wants to see Congressional Budget Office cost estimates on the spending package before he votes in favor.
“Every time she pulls that football out from under him,” McCarthy said, adding, “I don’t know how many bottles of champagne we’ve sent him.”
Gottheimer, who is co-chairman of the Problem Solvers Caucus, told CNN Thursday that the lesson his party should take from Tuesday’s elections is that “people expect us to act. They expect action.”
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“We could vote this week on the bipartisan infrastructure package that was passed out of the Senate over there in August,” Gottheimer said. “It’s been sitting here waiting for action. That’d be a great place we can start acting.”
Also during his Friday press conference, McCarthy dismissed the idea that Republican members would support the infrastructure bill, which earned bipartisan support in the Senate because Democrats have characterized the bill as a companion to the spending package.
