McCarthy Speaks for 8 Hours, Forces Delay on Build Back Better Reconciliation Bill

On Thursday night, it appeared the House was just hours away from voting on Biden’s Build Back Better inflationary spending bill loaded with pet projects and tax cuts for wealthy urban elites in New York and California. However, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy took the floor, and spoke for some 8 hours straight, forcing the House to reconvene Friday morning for a vote on the bill.

With “moderate” Democrats about to cave and put their rubber stamp on trillions in inflationary spending, Rep. McCarthy was the only one willing to bring the process to a halt and speak at length about the contents of this bill and what it truly means of the country beyond the White House talking points:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had wanted to vote on the bill Thursday night after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released its full cost estimate earlier in the day.

Democrats had been waiting on the release to appease moderates who were wary of the multi-trillion dollar price tag.

But the vote was held up by a fiery hours-long speech on the House floor by McCarthy that lasted into Friday. The chamber’s top Republican used his time to criticize the bill’s cost, saying the measure would negatively affect business and hurt the economy.

Here are about 8 minutes of McCarthy’s speech, which went on all night until around 5 am ET, beating Nancy Pelosi’s previous record from 2018 when she spoke for 8 hours on immigration reform:

McCarthy’s tactic to delay the vote, especially into the daytime hours, will force Democrats to come out of the shadows and do their work during a time when more Americans are paying attention. Late-night votes are never a good sign that the people’s work is getting done for the people, it’s usually getting done for the special interest groups when no one’s watching.

Ultimately, Republican efforts to delay the bill’s passage in the House will likely be in vain unless their delay causes some moderate Democrats to get cold feet. It’s not entirely clear how some of those votes will turn out in the end, but Pelosi must assume she has the numbers to move forward:

Moderate Dem Rep. Kurt Schrader tells me he is “still trying to figure out” how he is going to vote on Build Back Better.

Schrader was one of the five moderate Democrats who said he needed to see scoring from CBO before being able to vote on BBB.

— Annie Grayer (@AnnieGrayerCNN) November 19, 2021

It’s hard to imagine Pelosi won’t be able to twist enough arms to get it passed, even if she’s merely able to hit the 218 vote threshold needed, and not a vote more.

Democrats are on a kamikaze mission now. The political landscape in 2022 is already looking like a minefield due to Biden’s unpopularity and their terrible policies. Democrats are likely going to lose the House and the Senate whether they pass this socialist agenda or not. That is the argument being made, in some cases, to these so-called moderates in the party taking their time to review the CBO score. The bill will drive inflation upward and increase the deficit far more than the White House is claiming. Everyone knows that’s the case, so there is no principled way to vote for this legislation and truly believe it’s going to be “anti-inflationary” or whatever garbage some Democrats are now trying to peddle.

The end result will be enough cajoling to push it across the finish line in the House, then start hammering Joe Manchin in the Senate to relent and give his unprincipled rubberstamp as well.

At least the lies from the White House concerning the bill paying for itself have been exposed in the sunlight, and the moderate wing of House Democrats will also be exposed as phony frauds when they vote in favor of this garbage.

Stay tuned for the vote coming soon.