Rep. Chip Roy accused his fellow party lawmakers of not having “an ounce of self-respect” in a fiery tirade on the House floor Thursday for backing a bill to raise the debt ceiling by trillions as Donald Trump demanded.
The Texas representative was one of 38 Republican lawmakers who ultimately joined Democrats in opposing the Trump-backed bill that would have increased the borrowing limit as part of a funding plan to avoid a shutdown starting Saturday. Roy had said he wouldn’t support raising the nation’s debt without major government spending cuts.
After Trump took Roy to task on social media for failing to fall in line with the bill, which Roy said would have increased the national debt by $5 trillion, the congressman further defied the incoming president by railing against his Republican colleagues on the House floor.
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“I am absolutely sickened by a party that campaigns on fiscal responsibility and has the temerity to go forward to the American people and say you think this is fiscally responsible. It is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
House Republicans had previously negotiated a continuing resolution deal with Democrats that held off on suspending the debt limit.
But after Trump’s megadonor and “first buddy” Elon Musk spent the day trashing the bill on social media—and spreading misinformation about what it contained—Trump demanded that Republican lawmakers pin the debt ceiling issue on outgoing President Joe Biden’s administration.
The result was a pared-back bill that went down in flames thanks to opposition on both sides of the aisle.
“Yes, I think this bill is better than it was yesterday on certain respects, but to take this bill yesterday and congratulate yourself because it’s shorter in pages but increases the debt by $5 trillion is asinine! And that’s precisely what Republicans are doing,” Roy said.
The bill also included $110 billion in unaccounted-for spending, he added.
“You never have any ounce of self-respect,” he told his colleagues. “To go out and campaign, saying you’re going to balance the budget, and then you come in here and pass $110 billion unpaid for!”
Earlier in the day, Trump had singled Roy out on social media and accused him of “getting in the way… of yet another Great Republican Victory.” In a follow-up post, he called for Roy to be primaried.
During his speech, Roy, who has held his seat since 2019, said, “I want to remind people, this is Article 1,” a statement that some took as a thinly veiled reminder that the Constitution give Congress, not the president, the power to set the federal budget.
