In a recent post on Twitter, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, who has maintained somewhat of a national profile while in his state role, fact-checked commentary from Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott about the dependency seen from various states on the federal government.
Abbott was responding to the substance of a proposal from a Congressional Republican to ban federal bailouts of jurisdictions that implement what are known as reparations, which generally mean in this context payments for certain communities meant to respond to past slavery. Such a plan of action has been under consideration in various forms in California, preceding predictable frustration from Republican observers.
“Here’s a better idea: A law that bans federal bailouts of ANY state. Period. Texas has the largest budget surplus of any government in America. Every state must live within its means. Americans shouldn’t be forced to bailout states that can’t do that,” a post on Twitter from Abbott’s personal account recently said. Newsom replied with a graphic that illustrated that Republican-led states are already generally recipients of higher levels of support from the federal government to keep them functioning. “Well, this is awkward…”, Newsom’s post said alongside the graph. The often somewhat staged Republican commitment to ostensible self-sufficiency is remarkably hollow in many respects.
In Congress, where that Republican member wanted to restrict federal financial support to jurisdictions pursuing reparations, some of the other recent moves launched by the Republican majority in the House haven’t really been more solid. For instance, the House recently passed a measure to undo recent federal action that was meant to make the residential financing market, specifically involving mortgages involving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, more accessible to Americans. The chamber did so under false pretenses, with deceptive claims like that prospective borrowers with higher credit scores would be paying more to cover ostensible benefits for lower scored borrowers.
Well, this is awkward… https://t.co/Xu4xZ8jRzx pic.twitter.com/PwkRqtALWB
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 28, 2023
