Ted Cruz lauded AOC today for being right about a protest she made on Twitter:
Congress is expected to vote on the second largest bill in US history *today* – $2.5 trillion – and as of about 1pm, members don’t even have the legislative text of it yet.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 21, 2020
It’s not good enough to hear about what’s in the bill. Members of Congress need to see & read the bills we are expected to vote on.
I know it’s “controversial” & I get in trouble for sharing things like this, but the people of this country deserve to know. They deserve better.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) December 21, 2020
I’m not sure exactly what bill AOC is talking about, but I suspect it’s the larger government funding bill to avoid a shutdown. I can’t think of anything else it might be with that price tag.
Here’s the response from Ted Cruz:
.@AOC is right.
It’s ABSURD to have a $2.5 trillion spending bill negotiated in secret and then—hours later—demand an up-or-down vote on a bill nobody has had time to read. #CongressIsBroken https://t.co/EQp8BfRBHj
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 21, 2020
This isn’t just a problem within Democratic circles. Congress always does crap like this when they want to pass something huge. They waive the rules they created for show, which dictates how much time members must have to digest a bill before having to vote on it, and then force members to vote on the bill without knowing what’s really in it. Which we all know is Pelosi’s preferred way of passing big bills.
So in this rare case, AOC is exactly right and kudos to her for calling out Congress publicly. But in the long run, I doubt it will make much difference. Leaders in Congress will keep doing this garbage, just like we’ve seen them do it too many times to count.
UPDATE: After further reading, I believe what AOC is referring to is both the COVID relief bill ($900B) AND the omnibus funding bill ($1.4T), which are being paired together. This has caused some confusion, with some suggesting the COVID bill has foreign aid in it. It doesn’t:
NARRATOR: The Covid relief bill did not, in fact, contain $500 million for Israel. Congress passed a suite of bills, including Covid relief *and* the bill funding the Defense Department for 2021, which includes foreign aid. This isn't hard unless you know nothing about Congress. https://t.co/Y558nnKcf2
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) December 21, 2020