Republican Senator Mike Lee took to the Senate floor late Tuesday night and unloaded on the current 4,155 page, $1.7 trillion omnibus bill as "extortion" and "legislative barbarism."
"Opposing this legislation isn't radical. Running our government this way, is, and it's indefensible," Lee said. "This act, this bill before us, is an act of legislative barbarism. This is an act of extortion being leveraged on the United States Senate right before Christmas. Make no mistake why this happened. This bill in all 4,155 pages of its glory, or infamy, was negotiated in secret by four or five members of Congress, excluding all others, which means that nearly 330 million Americans were disenfranchised in the production of this legislative bohemoth. They wrote it utterly in secret with the design of creating an artificial emergency. Threatening a shut down right before Christmas."
“This bill before us is an act of legislative barbarism …” https://t.co/Y3z7DUMXQ0
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) December 21, 2022
Republican Senator Rand Paul, who predicted the Senate would be in this position weeks ago, is also weighing in.
Q: Are YOU going to hold up this spending bill?
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 20, 2022
A: Leadership knows the deadlines. It is all on them. THEY fail every year to meet the deadline. Then they blame conservatives for not rubber stamping a $1.7 trillion, 4,000+ page spending bill. pic.twitter.com/I94ITyrAnt
Meanwhile, conservative House members are blasting fellow Republicans for going along with the spending.
THREAD: 21 Senators voted to proceed to the $1.7 trillion omnibus - & to spend billions we do not have, empower Biden bureaucrats with no fixes, & block us from securing the border for at least 9 mos. Some are friends, one my former boss.. but unless… (1/13) #StandUpForAmerica pic.twitter.com/31qkrlWG6d
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 21, 2022