Who?
Rep. John Larson (D-CT)
LISTEN: Laslo & Larson
Ask a Pol asks:
How would you rate this Republican-led 118th Congress?
Key Larson:
“I don't think they've accomplished an awful lot,” Rep. John Larson exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “A lot of hearings and not much — not much by way of getting things done.”
ICYMI — Interview first included in Matt Laslo’s Raw Story feature, “Dysfunction on display: Republicans complain Speaker Johnson is no Pelosi”
Caught our ear:
“You can see that within the context of their own caucus. And I think that's what's happened. They're struggling to pull things together,” Larson tells us. “You can go all the way back to [former Speaker] John Boehner and the Tea Party and when this all started to happen, now even become more solidified under [GOP presidential candidate] Trump because he places a whole other set of parameters around what they can do, and, you know, threatens people with consequences.”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. John Larson (D-CT), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Rep. John Larson
SCENE: Former high school history teacher and current Congressman John Larson is making his way to the US Capitol via an underground tunnel when Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo runs into him and asks him to grade the 118th Congress.
John Larson: “How are you doing?”
Matt Laslo: “How would you rate this Congress?”
Rep. Larson laughs.
JL: “I don’t.”
ML: “Right?”
JL: “You know, they don't — I don't think they've accomplished an awful lot, so it's — you know, a lot of — a lot of hearings and not much — not much by way of getting things done. Especially on the Ways and Means Committee, especially, I think, [Ways and Means Ranking Dem Richard] Neil goes into a whole list of things.”
ML: “How — like, how do they make a pitch to the American public that ‘We can govern, send us back,’ when they can't even fund the government?”
JL: “I don't think they're — I don't think they're overly concerned about governance. They don't see that as — they think — they try to wrap it in around the notion that, you know, that government that governs least governs best. Right?”
ML: “Yeah?”
JL: “They have taken out meaning of it.”
ML: “Right?”
JL: “So you can see that within the context of their own caucus. And I think that's what's happened. They're struggling to pull things together. You can go all the way back to [former Speaker] John Boehner and the Tea Party and when this all started to happen, now even become more solidified under [GOP presidential candidate] Trump because he places a whole other set of parameters around what they can do, and, you know, threatens people with consequences, and apparently, not knowing their caucus that well, but there's enough of them in their caucus to make a difference or at least — and you can tell that it's rattling a number of their own members. So, hopefully, I mean, the Congress also goes through these changes, you know, over time. So, but…”
ML: “It feels like this...”
JL: “It's hard to see on this [House Ways and Means] committee, for example, the oldest continuous, one of the largest, how little was done.”
ML: “It almost feels like that's given rise to conspiracies cause that’s what they can agree on.”
JL: “Well, so it's why, you know, everyone both on the committee and off says, ‘I never miss an opportunity to say yes.’ And so why aren't we voting on Social Security?”
ML: “Yeah?”
JL: “Why aren't we — I mean, it's only been 53 years since Congress has done anything.”
ML: “Yeah?”
JL: “I mean, it's an embarrassment.”
ML: “Good talking to you. Have a good one, sir.”
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