Double crossed by the Republicans

Senate Republicans were shocked, shocked! that Minchin would change his vote to allow the Democrats’ spending and tax hike to go through.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appears to have been caught flat-footed by a deal between Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a reconciliation bill dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

The bill, a scaled-back alternative to Build Back Better, a sweeping social spending and green energy bill that Manchin killed last year when he objected to its price tag and raised his concerns over inflation, was announced just hours after the Senate passed a bipartisan CHIPS Act on Wednesday, which McConnell previously threatened to tank if Democrats pursued a reconciliation bill.

And check out this window dressing:

Some Republicans, however, accused Schumer of duping McConnell by waiting until the CHIPS Act passed the Senate with bipartisan support before unveiling the revived reconciliation legislation. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said the Democrats were “deceitful."

In response, House GOP leadership reversed course and whipped against the CHIPS legislation set for a vote in House Thursday to provide $52 billion to invest in domestic semiconductor chip production. House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) cited the new Manchin-Schumer deal in his notice to Republicans to oppose the legislation.

Of course, the Republicans are outnumbered in the House, so they couldn’t stop it — this was just a public relations job —but even then, 24 of the rats joined in today’s vote to approve the bill. How bad is the CHIPS ACT? Just last week I heard a number of Republicans defending it because it would provide $57 billion in desperately needed fund to some of the largest corporations in America and protect their secrets from the Chinese. A week later, and the $57 billion had soared to $300 billion and the anti-Chinese protection provisions had been stripped from the bill at the behest of those same corporations (with bankers and car manufacturers joining in). So the Republicans played along with the Democrats, and we now have $750 billion fresh funny money to add to the inflation burners.