“Those Who Are Not Against Us, Are With Us”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-including a crackdown on food stamps and Medicaid. https://t.co/8iBUbtngwi

— Raw Story (@RawStory) December 28, 2024

Chip Roy brings the same old-same old:

If we were to go through and just put in restraints on the use of food stamps to feed our people sugar, for example…we can save hundreds of billions of dollars,” Roy, a conservative member of the House Freedom Caucus, told the host. He added other examples such as repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and a “return to non-defense to pre-Covid era explosion in spending” to also help reduce spending.  

“We can do a lot of savings right out of the gate to reverse the Biden damage, get the economy going, reduce regulations – but not touch benefits that our seniors rely on – yes, we need to address Medicare and Social Security in the long haul, no question, but right now we should reverse Biden damage, get spending restraint on Medicaid, reforms that need to be put in place [and] tax policy that matches all of that.” 

The MAGA lawmaker added that members of Congress also have to “do our job to constrain the bureaucracy cutting non-defense discretionary." 

"That would only be a 13 percent cut, you and I can find 13 percent of waste, and I think the DOGE guys too and that would be fiscally responsible and the American people would cheer President Trump and Republicans if we do that.”

Cutting spending on people (“Defense contractors are people, too, my friend!”) is fine as long as those people are NOK. And the American people who don’t cheer are not “real” Americans, so they don’t count.

Roy could cut funding for ice cream studies and claim: A) that was a real thing, and B) it was 13% of the budget, and who would be the wiser? After all, Reagan was the greatest president ever (!), and he didn’t cut the budget one whit, despite putting David Stockman in charge of the OMB. Bill Clinton balanced the budget and lowered the national debt, but nobody holds that to his credit. The budget and the national debt are just talking points. That’s all they are good for. And the basic premise is always that people are too damned expensive. Which cruelty is always the point. And as American as cherry pie.

Chip Roy is not exactly breaking ground, here. Note the tone of Puritanism, too: “If we were to go through and just put in restraints on the use of food stamps to feed our people sugar, for example…” Because poor people don’t deserve any pleasure in life. If they’re poor, it means God has rejected them. Or at least that they don’t deserve any pleasures. Poor people are just undeserving, donchaknow? It’s all their fault they’re poor, after all. And I’m sure the cost of sugar on SNAP (it hasn’t been “food stamps” since Reagan’s administration) will turn out to be 13% of the budget.

So he’s not on the side of the rebel Jesus, either. I doubt that keeps him up nights.

But it should.