Republicans Head Home For 'Find Out' Phase With Their Constituents

Guess what they are finding out!

We wrote the other day about Rick McCormick, a dipshit of a GOP congressman from Georgia, and the rude reception he got last week when he tried to hold a town hall with constituents very, very pissed off at all the Republicans rolling over for Donald Trump and Elon Musk as they rampage through the federal government like a herd of hippos on a crystal binge.

The good people of GA-07, like a lot of Americans, have noticed how capricious and destructive the firings and cuts from the federal workforce have been, and how the careers and lives of ordinary people who do stuff like get paid $20 an hour to build new trails in national parks have been upended. And they do not seem happy about it.

Well, there is good news for McCormick: Erick Erickson says that those people at the town hall were not from McCormick’s district, but were mostly a bunch of Democrat plants. Which is what Republicans always think when they don’t want to believe what they are seeing with their eyes:

The Seventh Congressional District is actually, according to the Cook Political Index, an R+11 district that Donald Trump won with 60% of the vote. McCormick, himself, outperformed Trump with 63% of the vote. The rage at the town hall is not reflective of Congressman McCormick’s district, but of the anger of a minority of the voters and the national press corps willingness to amplify that anger to scare Republicans.

Yeah, and January 6 was an inside job by FBI sleeper agents. How’d that one work out for the wingnuts? Anyway, we’d note that even Democrats in McCormick’s district are still his fucking constituents, and thus their concerns should be heard by their elected representatives. Plus, we doubt he wants 40 percent of his voters this pissed at him. Such anger, unchecked, tends to grow and consume political careers.

We mention this because McCormick’s was not the only town hall where angry constituents have been screaming at their Republican representatives over the last few days. And we don’t imagine everyone at every event is a pissed-off Democrat.

Talking Points Memo has a handy list of town halls where Republican reps got chewed out by their constituents. Let’s look at a couple of them at random and laugh.

Here is Jay Obernolte from CA-23, which is the least red of the districts listed here at R+8. (Which is still solidly Republican.) CA-23 contains several military installations, so it has a huge population of military personnel. Obernolte, one would think, would know this. So when a constituent asked him why the hell he would vote to cut SNAP benefits, which are used by many military families because soldiers are often underpaid, you’d think he’d have a better response ready.

“I’m sorry, what did I vote to take away? … Sir, you just said I voted to take away SNAP benefits. What did I vote for to take away SNAP benefits?”

Obernolte is on the Congressional Budget Committee and voted “yes” on a Feb. 12 budget resolution that calls for at least $238 billion in cuts over nine years to programs through the House Committee on Agriculture, which would include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Votes on those budget resolutions are going to trip up quite a few of these idiots, especially when their constituents have a better idea of what they voted for than they do.

Then everyone yelled at him about Elon Musk while Obernolte complimented Apartheid Andy’s ability to find waste and fraud. When someone suggested taxing Musk’s billions, he came back with the old standby that the US has a spending problem, not a taxing problem.

Anyway, perhaps nothing sums it up better than the last line of that story, after Obernolte had tried to convince his constituents he wasn’t bullshitting them:

With that, he left, circled by his staff and sheriff’s deputies.

Then there was Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a pudgier and more disheveled Gateway Pundit. Also like the Gateway Pundit, Grothman does not have the brains that God gave a turnip:

One woman asked Grothman if he would oppose the House’s upcoming government funding bill if it includes cuts to Social Security and Medicaid.

“Certainly, if Social Security is cut,” he answered. “And Medicaid, we’ll have to see.”

In response to a different question, Grothman said cutting Medicaid funding “would be a mistake.”

So, you will cut Medicaid? You won’t cut Medicaid? You’re out of breath and need to sit down? Which is it?

Please enjoy this video of Grothman’s constituents booing him for, among other things, getting rid of birthright citizenship, because people in Wisconsin have read the 14^th Amendment:

One congressman who has not yet made TPM’s list is Mark Alford, who represents MO-04, near Kansas City. Alford was on the receiving end of what one reporter called “one of the most hostile town hall crowds” he had ever seen:

Alford understands that Elon Musk has conflicts with the federal government, but also he likes that Musk is weeding out waste and fraud and abuse, and he sneers that some of the people who don’t want that appear to be in the audience in front of him. Way to defuse things, Congressman!

Alford also at one point told people upset about all the job cuts that a government gig is not a lifetime appointment, but “God has a plan and purpose for your life.” Great, everyone’s landlord will accept that in lieu of rent for March, right?

What all of these congressional reps have in common is that they keep congratulating Elon Musk on getting rid of all the waste and fraud, which we guess is the GOP talking point they are leaning on to carry them through. They just keep repeating it over and over, taking their cues from Musk and Trump: You wouldn’t believe all the waste DOGE is finding and clearing out! It’s incredible! Government is going to work so much better when we trim all this fat! No, we can’t give you an example, but trust us, we’re finding it!

But none of them seems to have any idea how to tell a constituent why her job was considered wasteful. None of them seems to have any idea how to explain why air traffic controllers should be considered an extravagant expenditure, or the park rangers who rescue lost hikers, or scientists researching cures for cancer. They seem incapable of pointing to even a single example of what could objectively be called wasteful spending.

All they can do, like Mark Alford does, is sneer at the crowds that if they don’t like the cuts that are happening, they can vote for someone different in the next election. Don’t tempt us, buddy! We’ll move to Kansas and run against you just so we can look you in the eye when we call you a moron.

OPEN THREAD.

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