Rep. Thomas Massie is unwilling to vote to increase the deficit, and his stance on the matter will likely be the thorn in the side of Republican leadership for the foreseeable future.
House Republicans narrowly advance plan for Trump’s agenda
The House passed a GOP-backed budget plan for Donald Trump’s agenda, with three Republicans making a last-minute change to support the bill.
House Republicans passed their budget resolution this week, with all but one Republican supporting the bill in a massive win for Speaker Mike Johnson. The sole no vote, to little surprise, was Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Massie and I see eye to eye on relatively little, even though he and I would call ourselves conservative. I disagree, for example, with his foreign policy stances and America’s relationship with Israel. However, I tend to agree with him far more often on the issue of government funding concerning the deficit.
He and I would probably cut funding from different sources, but we can agree that the worryingly large budget deficit is a pressing issue and that Republicans are going along with the scheme to spend now and pay later, or never.
Massie has made it clear he is unwilling to vote to increase the deficit, and his stance on the matter will likely be the thorn in the side of Republican leadership for the foreseeable future. I’m glad somebody is concerned with it in Congress, even if Republicans have the votes to more or less ignore him.
Massie is the only Republican consistent on the deficit
This isn’t the first time Massie has opposed reckless spending. He voted against the $2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill in 2020 and against the government funding bill in December to avoid a shutdown.
“We have no plan whatsoever to balance the budget other than growth, but what they’re proposing is to make the deficit worse,” Massie said of Tuesday’s budget passage.
Massie is right, the Republican budget adds $3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, all because they insist on upholding the Trump tax cuts while bypassing the traditional budget process. Tax cuts without the proper spending cuts to balance them is downright irresponsible, and it’s maddening that only one GOP House member was willing to oppose it.
Massie doesn’t oppose only out-of-control spending but also the process through which Congress has arrived at that end point.
Even before Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s removal as House speaker in 2023, Massie warned legislators of the risk that massive omnibus packages pose, and it’s a big part of why he’s been willing to dispose of Johnson as speaker.
Sadly, Republicans can afford for Massie to continue his defections, so long as the rest of the GOP holds the line.
Up until this point, Massie’s no votes haven’t derailed the Trump agenda, and it’s unlikely that he’ll have a true impact on these votes.
Massie remains one of the few lone wolves in Congress
While most of the GOP has become beholden to President Donald Trump, even on issues that go against conservative principles, Massie has been going against Trump for years, impressively surviving primary attempts despite Trump calling for him to be thrown out of the party at one point.
Massie is as close to being a libertarian as there is in Congress, and he has earned the infamous nickname of “Mr. No.”
Whether his no votes are sincere or part of his media strategy is for the voters to decide, but I choose to believe that his approach to conflict with the top of the GOP is out of a genuine desire to balance the budget. It seems that his constituency agrees, given that his deeply Trump-supporting district has continued to reelect him despite his antics.
Regardless of what I think of his politics, it’s hard to find anyone else in Congress, particularly someone nowhere near retirement, who acts with as little regard for the wrath of Trump than Massie does, and he deserves to be commended.
I’m glad that at least one member of Congress genuinely cares about the deficit, even if it means he’ll be met with criticism from the most powerful man in the Republican Party. I hope that Mr. No can persuade some of his colleagues to say no themselves.
Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.