House Republican Breaks Ranks and Shreds Trump’s “Debt Bomb” Tax Bill

While Republicans managed to pass their budget bill through the House Thursday morning, one GOP representative was not happy, calling it a “debt bomb ticking.”

Representative Thomas Massie warned his colleagues still debating in the middle of the night that he couldn’t vote for a bill that would cut taxes and increase spending.

“I’d love to stand here and tell the American people, we can cut your taxes and we can increase spending and everything’s going to be just fine. But I can’t do that because I’m here to deliver a dose of reality,” Massie said. “This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term, but promises our government will be fiscally responsible five years from now.”

“Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking,” added the Kentucky congressmen, known for his libertarian views. Massie was one of two Republican “no” votes on the bill, along with Representative Warren Davidson of Ohio. One Republican, Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, voted “present.” Every Democrat voted against the bill.

Massie hammered the bill, warning that “very soon, the government will be paying $16,000 of interest, interest alone, per U.S. family,” and that the national debt would skyrocket up to $30 trillion over the next ten years.

“Congress can do funny math, fantasy math, if it wants,” Massie added. “But bond investors don’t.”

“We’re not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. We’re putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg,” he added, to applause from other members in the room.

In one final message, Massie laid into his colleagues and his party, saying, “If something is beautiful, you don’t do it after midnight.”

Throughout the budget reconciliation process, Massie has warned that he wouldn’t support the bill, even taking attacks from Donald Trump, who threatened to have him “voted him out of office” on Tuesday. While the GOP passed the bill without him, Trump is known for holding grudges, and could turn most of the Republican Party against Massie in the near future.