After a near-death shooting, Scalise is back on the treadmill and fighting for a Republican majority in 2022.

[ad_1]

It’s been more than four years since House Minority Whip Steve Scalise nearly lost his life to a lone gunman who targeted Republicans training at a baseball stadium near Washington, DC.

Scalise was hospitalized for six weeks and had to learn to walk again thanks to a serious bullet wound to his hip.

When the Louisiana Republican returned to the Capitol months after the attack, he moved slowly with the help of a walker and the assistance of a motorized wheelchair.

He’s now back to walking a fast-paced clip through the hallways of the house, and he’s also running on a physical therapy treadmill, which he still has to attend to in order to regain more mobility.

Scalise aims for a full recovery and also has big ambitions for the House Republican Party, which he believes will regain a majority in the 2022 midterm elections when voters reject the left-leaning agenda pushed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden.

House Democrats lead by four narrow seats.

“I think you’re seeing people all over the country revolting against the kind of socialist policy that President Biden and Pelosi are pushing because they didn’t,” Scalise told the Washington Examiner.

Scales is poised to become majority leader if the Republican Party defeats Democrats next year, but has refused to say what leadership role he will seek and has avoided speculation that he will contest the speaker’s hammer by running against the House GOP leader, Kevin McCarthy, 56, of California.

Scales, 55, said, “Kevin and I don’t face each other. He obviously had a lot of interest in the speaker, and he’s going to get there. But I was also clear. I’m not talking about the position I’m running for tomorrow. I’m working the job I have to do.” it today.”

Scalise said the Republican-led House will act immediately to reverse the damage Republicans say Democrats and Biden are doing to the country with plans for staggering levels of new spending, a massive increase in illegal immigration and rising crime rates.

The story continues

“I am confident that we will win the House of Representatives next year, and then be able to get our country back on the right track and deal with out-of-control inflation, deal with out-of-control spending, deal with crime and the border crisis,” Scalise said. “Democrats spend trillions of dollars like paper money.”

Scales said Republicans are fighting to prevent a new round of spending legislation that could exceed $4 trillion. The Senate introduced a $1.2 trillion infrastructure measure with bipartisan support and a vote from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky. Democrats plan to pass a $3.5 trillion spending package on “human infrastructure” programs such as free community college, universal day care and expanded health care subsidies as well as broader Medicare coverage — without any Republican support.

While the Republican minority in the House of Representatives has little power to block legislation, Republicans hope to make it more difficult for Democrats to pass the measure. The Democratic Party’s naked majority means that if more than a small handful of Democrats oppose the spending bill, it will fail.

Republicans target weak Democrats from areas where centrist voters are likely to oppose tax increases on corporations and the wealthy that Democrats plan to impose in order to pay for much of the new spending.

“We put a lot of pressure on Democrats who ran in swing districts saying they were pro-business,” Scales said. Now they are considering voting for some of the most anti-business and anti-middle-class tax increases that would destroy those families. And I think they are now realizing that people in their areas don’t want this crazy extreme spending.”

Scales said the Republican Party plans to show voters “how it can be done better” and will immediately have legislation to address the damage Republicans believe has been caused by the Democratic agenda.

House Republicans in May introduced a $400 billion infrastructure proposal that was paid for with unused COVID help, user fees and private partnerships.

Meanwhile, Scalise said, “We will continue to work to stop the damage from happening.”

The Republican Party deals directly with Pelosi, calling her a “lame duck” speaker and criticizing policies she implemented in the House that divided lawmakers and concentrated power in the offices of top leaders rather than spreading it among the 435 members.

Scales said the Republican Party is “looking at how best” to confront the Pelosi-appointed committee that is now holding hearings on the January 6 riots at the Capitol. Pelosi barred two Republican members appointed by McCarthy, prompting McCarthy to withdraw all of his appointees to the committee.

Republicans have said they will launch their own investigation but have no immediate plans to hold their own hearing. The house is scheduled to begin a seven-week vacation.

Scales said Republicans say they want to know if Pelosi didn’t do enough to protect the Capitol before the riots.

“We’ve already asked a number of questions that House Speaker Pelosi took off the table, some of them related to the role she played in denying National Guard assistance,” Scalise said.

Democrats criticized Republicans for refusing to participate in their investigation and trying to blame Pelosi. Democrats believe former President Donald Trump is responsible for inciting the riot and say some Republicans are also guilty of opposing Biden’s election victory.

Pelosi on Wednesday called McCarthy “such an idiot” for opposing the renewal of the mask’s mandate in the House of Representatives aimed at mitigating the spread of a new variant of COVID-19.

It angered GOP leaders by appointing to the riot committee Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both outspoken Trump critics.

Scales and McCarthy are Trump allies. Scalise will not talk about the punishment, if any, that Republican leaders will impose on Cheney and Kinzinger for accepting Pelosi’s appointment to the riot committee, which the Republican Party believes will be used as a weapon against the party before the crucial 2022 election.

“They have made their positions clear,” Scales said when asked about the fate of Cheney and Kinzinger. “In the meantime, more than 95% of our conference is very, very united in getting to the truth on a number of fronts but also in addressing the real problems facing families today.”

Political analysts favor the Republican Party’s victory in the House of Representatives next year. And FiveThirtyEight, which provides racial statistics and ratings, notes that the ruling party has lost an average of 27 seats in the midterm elections since 1946.

Republicans need to reclaim only a fraction of those seats to take control of the House of Representatives again.

That’s when he’ll start thinking about his future, said Scales, who runs half a mile on the treadmill, and his decision could hinge on what fellow GOP lawmakers demand.

Scalise recalled his rise to chair of the Republican Study Committee in 2013 after members recruited him to run. The Conservative Republican Study Committee is the largest Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, and the role helped raise Scales’ standing in the Republican Party and led to his election to a majority whip in 2014.

“I’ve always had a saying that if you focus on doing your job today and if you’re doing your job well, good things will happen.”

Washington Examiner video

Tags: news, congress, steve scales, congressional republicans, elections 2022, kevin mccarthy, nancy pelosi

Original Author: Susan Vericchio

Original site: It’s Running: After an impending shootout, Scalise is back on the treadmill and fighting for a Republican majority in 2022.

[ad_2]