The House Freedom Caucus isn't afraid to tell us how they really feel about that new COVID relief bill that just passed both chambers of Congress.
"This bill is an irresponsible swamp bill," Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) told the "Fox & Friends" anchors on Wednesday morning, including guest anchor Townhall editor Katie Pavlich.
"It is the merger of an omnibus bill that is bloated with typical wasteful spending, on top of a relief bill that has a whole lot of things in it that aren't focused on relief," he continued.
My @freedomcaucus colleagues and I knew what was coming in this monstrosity of a spending bill.
— Rep. Chip Roy (@RepChipRoy) December 23, 2020
That's why we recommended a veto LAST WEEK.
This is an irresponsible swamp bill. Congress needs to go back to the drawing board and FIX IT. pic.twitter.com/11lCzYyvwR
Roy and 13 of his colleagues sent a letter to President Trump last week asking him to veto the bill they knew was going to be bloated. And on Tuesday evening, Trump indicated that he was going to do just that. In his video message for Congress, the president said they need to do better. For starters, he instructed lawmakers to bump up the "ridiculously low" $600 direct payments to Americans to $2,000.
"Congress found plenty of money for foreign countries, lobbyists, and special interests, while sending the bare minimum to the American people who need it," Trump explained. "It wasn't their fault. It was China's fault."
Rep. Roy agreed that is the heart of the issue.
"This is what the American people are sick of," he said.
Roy mused that Americans are telling themselves, "'Wait a minute, I'm getting a $600 check, out of 2.3 trillion of spending, while we've got $28 trillion of debt and we're sending $25 million to Pakistan for gender studies, or hundreds of millions dollars to places like Sudan.'"
"The president is right to call BS on this ridiculous bill," Roy said. "Both parties are at fault."
But it sounded like he put the Democrats were slightly more at fault, because they were following typical party "procedure."
"It's classic Democratic procedure, to throw another 2,000 on top it...instead of going back and fixing the bill."