On Friday, the House of Representatives passed the $3 trillion, 1,815-page so-called coronavirus relief legislation, called the HEROES Act by House Democrats, with 208 votes in favor of the bill and 199 votes against it.
During an interview that aired Friday on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL), the chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, acknowledged the measure was a “messaging bill” for Democrats, meaning it has no chance of passage in the Senate and becoming law but offers a statement of values for Democrats in an election year.
However, he said the measure pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) served as a messaging bill for Republicans, too, given it offers a glimpse of how the federal government would under Democrat control.
“First of all, it is a messaging bill — and it is a messaging bill for us, as well,” Palmer said. “This is an example of what the country would look like if they had the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. What I think going on right now in the context of history is something like we’ve never seen before. We’ve got a speaker that will not convene Congress, and she’s doing all the legislating.”
Also, House Democrats under Pelosi’s leadership passed the extraordinary rule change of allowing proxy voting, which Palmer described as a consolidation of power for the House Speaker.
“She has consolidated all the power,” he continued. “Not only is she going to pass the $3 trillion Democrat dream bill … she’s also changing the rules so she can consolidate power even more. She is changing the way we vote so that people can vote and give her their proxy. They won’t even have to come to Washington. I don’t know what you learned in school about our history in the form of government, but it was my understanding that we had a representative form of government, and that this was the people’s house, not the Pelosi’s house.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor