Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) claimed in a video she posted on her personal Twitter account that she didn’t participate in the recent House vote on a bill to raise the debt limit as some sort of protest. There is actually video available online that clearly seems to show her desperately trying to get to the chamber on time, meaning it was actually just that she missed it.
If she voted, it’s clear Boebert would have been against the deal, which also included adjustments to government spending and related federal policies. For instance, there were adjustments to work requirements for benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. The age range in which individuals must generally abide by work requirements (if they don’t meet the standards for a series of exceptions) was expanded. Boebert and Republicans in her rhetorical corner were upset the bill didn’t go farther in certain areas, like in the amount of funding for the IRS that was effectively undone. Some Republicans have tried to characterize further funding for that federal tax agency as setting up some kind of potentially even armed targeting of everyday Americans.
In her video message claiming she’d not participated in the vote as some kind of protest, she complained about the truncated legislative process before the vote, though it’s her own party’s fault that the votes were happening so close to the apparent deadline for raising the debt limit to avoid a default, which added some major urgency. In footage shared by CNN’s Morgan Rimmer, Boebert can be seen literally running up the Capitol steps on the night of the vote and reacting with incredulity after Rimmer told her those in charge had closed the vote. It’s extremely obvious she was in a hurry to get there. Others who also opposed the deal included familiar Republican names from Matt Gaetz to George Santos. Check out the video below:
Here is a clip from that night outside the Capitol, showing Rep. Boebert running up the stairs as though she was trying to make the vote, and me telling her that it had closed already.
*running up steps*
Me: They closed it.
Boebert: They closed it?
*keeps running* https://t.co/Zwr6Jp3JnH pic.twitter.com/HG76kWv7NJ— Morgan Rimmer (@morgan_rimmer) June 4, 2023
