On the surface, the House Republicans’ massive reconciliation package — the inaptly named “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — focused on redistributing wealth from the bottom up. Republican policymakers set out to reward the wealthy with tax breaks, while punishing struggling families with cuts to health care and food assistance.
But before last week’s House vote on the legislation, GOP officials tucked all kinds of smaller provisions into the bill, some of which have gone largely overlooked.
For example, as Austin Sarat, a political science professor at Amherst College, explained in a piece for MSNBC, the Republican’s proposal “snuck in a little noticed but very important provision into the megabill that would effectively remove from judges the ability to hold litigants who defy court orders in contempt.” The apparent goal, Sarat added, was to “insulate [Donald Trump] from judicial accountability.”
With this in mind, Republican Rep. Mike Flood held a town hall meeting with constituents in his Nebraska district, and some wanted to know why the congressman would vote to restrict the ability of federal courts to hold the president and his administration in contempt of court. As HuffPost noted, Flood had to admit something deeply embarrassing: He didn’t know that was in the bill.
‘I do not agree with that section that was added to that bill,’ Flood said, prompting a roar of disapproval from the crowd. ‘I do believe that the federal district courts, when issuing an injunction, it should have legal effect.’ Then Flood got unusually candid for a member of Congress. ‘I am not going to hide the truth. This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill, and when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern,’ Flood said.
As part of the same comments, the GOP lawmaker said he intends to tell his Republican colleagues the party “cannot support undermining our court system” — despite the fact they put this provision in the legislation, and despite the fact that Flood already voted for it.
At face value, Flood’s apparent ignorance (I’m assuming he was actually in the dark and didn’t lie to his constituents about his foreknowledge) isn’t too surprising. House Republican leaders wrote and rewrote their not-so-beautiful bill in the middle of the night, and it was changed repeatedly in response to backroom deals. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team then rushed the bill onto the floor for a vote before members could read it.
But at that point, it was incumbent on policymakers such as Flood to use their leverage, slow the process down and tell their party that they wouldn’t vote for a bill this important without knowing what’s in it. The Nebraska Republican didn’t do anything of the kind. He chose instead to link arms with his far-right brethren and pass the wildly regressive legislation — while effectively wearing a blindfold about its contents. No wonder his constituents didn’t seem pleased. Nebraska Republican Rep. Mike Flood’s town hall got ugly when he admitted to constituents that he hadn’t read Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” before voting for it. The same bill the House passed last week which will force millions of Americans off their health care coverage and food aid. As for the road ahead, the reconciliation package is now pending in the Republican-led Senate, where it’s unclear whether the provision in question will remain intact. Watch this space.
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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