The GOP: "The Gang That Couldn't Vote Straight"

[Alan Grayson]

On Saturday, Congressman Alan Grayson returned to MSNBC for a wide-ranging discussion of the week's events in Washington, DC: the failure of House Republicans to pass a farm bill, progress on immigration reform, and threats to John Boehner's position as Speaker of the House. Here's how it went down:

Steve Kornacki: I want to bring in Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, who's joining us from Orlando. Congressman, you voted "no" on this [the Farm Bill] on Thursday, and we've been talking about the last-minute amendments. We've been talking about the negotiations really for the last few months. What was the breaking point for you, when you said, "No way, I'm not supporting this bill"?

Congressman Alan Grayson: [The breaking point was] the $20 billion they took away from hungry people, from hungry children, from the unemployed, from the working poor. Why are we doing that? And what kind of bill would it take for the Republicans to support feeding the hungry? Would we have to limit farm aid to loaves and fishes? Is that what it would take? It's a travesty. We've known for 3,000 years that a just society is one that shelters the homeless, that feeds the hungry, that heals the sick. Why are they always against that?

Steve: There were, first of all, we should say, there were twenty-four Democrats who did end up voting for this. And Collin Peterson [did], again as I said, the Democrat who was kind of managing it to get those forty votes, well [he said] he could get forty [Democratic] votes. What do you make of the fact that there were a couple dozen people in your own party who were willing to sign-off on $20 billion in food stamp cuts?

Alan: It's meaningless. It was a GOP bill. The GOP struck down a GOP bill. That's what it comes down to. They're the gang that couldn't vote straight. They can't even get their own stuff right.

Josh Barrow: Congressman, I want to ask you about one of the other amendments that was voted on in the bill this week. I'm Josh Barrow with Business Insider. Sugar is one of the most heavily regulated commodities in the U.S., and there's a program where we put tariffs on foreign sugar in order to drive up the price, which raises consumer prices, and also encourages people to use corn syrup instead of sugar in consumer foods. It's basically a sop-the-floor to sugar farmers, who are also harming the Everglades by growing sugar in a place that's not really suitable, climate-wise. Why did you vote to maintain that program when one of the things at issue was whether we would deregulate the sugar market and lower food prices?

Alan:  Well, I didn't. You're misinformed. We didn't vote on the tariffs at all. That's something that comes out of the Ways and Means Committee, not out of the Agriculture Committee.

Josh: There was a vote on the reform of the sugar subsidy program, though, in the bill.

Alan: Well, no. The bill itself reforms the sugar subsidy program, and eliminates the subsidy and replaces it with a minimum price. You're really off-base here.

Steve:  The other thing I wanted to get in there, though, is what will happen next now? Okay, we do not have a new farm bill that's been agreed on. Right now, we're kind-of existing on this temporary reauthorization that went through last year. Is that the next step here, is there going to be another temporary, you know, patch-up job? Is there still hope in your mind for a real, a long-term reauthorization of the Farm Bill? What is actually going to happen now?

Alan: I think that what will happen is that we'll end up taking up the Senate bill. The [Senate] Democrats passed a bipartisan bill with overwhelming support. They know how to get the job done. It's the only way forward now. And that bill only cuts food stamps a little bit—something I'm still sad to see, but something that many Democrats will be willing to live with, given the alternative, which is to end the program entirely.

Maya Wiley: Representative Grayson, this is Maya Wiley from the Center for Social Inclusion. I wanted to ask whether you thought there was any possibility of just doing what happened in December, which was an extension. For many groups, just having this extension was problematic because so many of the programs that were not included hurt so many low-income people, particularly farmers and in communities. Is that something you see possibly happening again?

Alan: It may, but at this point it's not what the industry wants, either. The industry wants to shift away from direct subsidies to floor prices, and that's what this bill would have accomplished. If we keep extending the status quo, that's not what the special interests want, so I think you'll see movement toward the Senate bill.

Steve:  And there's been a lot of talk, Congressman, about what this could mean for the other big legislative item on the agenda in Washington, and that's immigration reform. And you know, we were talking about it here a second ago, this idea that the Senate bill on immigration, if one does get through (and it's looking more likely one will), that the best hope for enactment would be for that bill to be taken up by the House, with, you know, Conservatives screaming that Boehner is violating the so-called "Hastert Rule" [requiring majority support among House Republicans before bringing any bill to a vote]. Is there a lesson for immigration reform that you see coming out of what happened with the farm bill this week?

Alan: I very much want to see immigration reform pass. We have about 80,000 [of the] undocumented in my district alone, and it's just a shame to see how these people have to live. When there's a crime committed against them they can't go to the police; they're afraid to. When they don't get paid their wages, they can't sue or even tell the government about it; they're afraid to. They live in horrendous conditions. So I very much want to see this happen. But the fact is that the Republicans don't want to see it happen, because they're concerned that they'll create, at least fourteen years down the road [when the undocumented would become citizens], more Democratic voters. That's what they're concerned about. To them it's all about politics, not about 11 million people living in the shadows. And frankly, there's a certain undercurrent of racism on the other side as well. They don't want to let these people become citizens because they're Hispanic, and they speak Spanish. I ran against someone in the last election who insisted that English has to be the official language of the United States. There is that strong undercurrent on the other side. They don't want to do anything that would help brown people.

Steve: Well, okay, but the question then is, how do you get something through the House? What we just saw this week – nobody saw this coming, nobody saw this Farm Bill failing, and it failed. And so if something gets through the Senate on immigration, how do you get it through the House under these circumstances?

Alan: I don't know. I'm skeptical that it's even possible, as unfortunate as that may be. I think that Hispanic voters are going to remember that it was the Republican majority in the House that ended up torpedoing a fair immigration bill that actually strengthened borders, and delivered fairness to people who are living under horrendous conditions [and] don't even get the minimum wage in some cases. People are going to remember that. I don't take any pleasure in saying that, but I think that the Republicans in the House may be unable to pass this bill. And Boehner doesn't care one way or the other. The only thing that Boehner cares about is keeping his job. And that's why he's so incredibly ineffective as Speaker, because all he cares about is being Speaker. He doesn't want to do anything; he just wants to be something. That's the worst kind of person to have in a position of power.

Steve: Like I said, I can't figure out why he wants the job anyway. My thanks to Congressman –

Alan: Well I'll tell you this: when the time comes, and he is stabbed by all the other members of his party, it's not going to be, "Et tu, Brutus?" It's going to be, "Et tu, Everyone?" They're all going to be against him.

Steve: All right, my thanks to Congressman Alan Grayson.

[Lasher]

1. Hello, Congressman Grayson.

I wish you'd run for President in 2016.

[Bill USA]

2. Great to see you're back, Congressman!

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