As the current Congress got underway, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy assured his members that he’d honor something called the “72-hour rule” — an informal commitment that assured representatives that they’d have a few days to read legislation before it reached the floor for a vote.
With a dangerous debt ceiling deadline looming, and time running out, there was some speculation that House Republican leaders would simply waive the rule and advance the bipartisan “Fiscal Responsibility Act” faster. McCarthy, for good or ill, stuck to the policy.
Apparently, for some, that’s not quite good enough. For example, Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a House Freedom Caucus member, told reporters yesterday that he considers it an “insult” to only have a few days to read the bill.
you have 3 days to read it, bro pic.twitter.com/mnsXh2sKOv
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 30, 2023
The South Carolina Republican — perhaps best known for misspelling “marital law” while pushing the Trump White House to deploy the military to nullify the 2020 election — took the same message to Fox News, arguing, “It’s like the Pelosi days. You gotta pass it before you read it.” Norman added, “[W]e ought to have a lot more time” than 72 hours.
RALPH NORMAN: It's like the Pelosi days. You gotta pass it before you read it.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 30, 2023
FOX: But he's giving you 72 hours to read it.
NORMAN: We ought to have a lot more time.
FOX: It's only 99 pages. pic.twitter.com/Yl7SQBMaw7
First, the fact that Republicans continue to screw up an innocuous 2010 quote from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains disappointing.
Second, let’s not forget that the Fiscal Responsibility Act is only 99 pages. “War and Peace” it is not. What’s more, we’re talking about double-spaced pages, with a large font, generous margins, and a modest number of words per page. Even a slow reader could get through this bill pretty easily in an afternoon. Rep. Ted Lieu had a little fun at his far-right colleague’s expense. “Let’s do some math,” the California Democrat wrote on Twitter. “If GOP Rep Ralph Norman works 8 hours a day, that’s 24 hours over 3 days to read 99 pages. That comes out to reading a little over 4 pages every hour. And these are double spaced text pages. Alternatively, he can have AI summarize the bill for him in 1 [minute].” Evidently, despite his complaints, the South Carolinian has apparently read enough of the bipartisan deal to know he doesn’t like it: Norman condemned the agreement as “insanity” a few hours after it was announced.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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