During debate Friday on the Inflation Reduction Act, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) borrowed a line from former president Ronald Reagan that quickly came back and bit him squarely on the ass.
In a speech on the House floor, McCarthy asked, “Is America better off today than they were two years ago?” which referenced a question Reagan asked during a 1980 presidential debate with then-President Jimmy Carter.
McCarthy’s memory, however, must indeed be very short, because as Twitter users quickly reminded him, two years ago the United States (and the entire planet) were in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic which has so far killed over a million Americans.
The impact of the COVID pandemic was magnified in the U.S. in large part because then-president Donald Trump refused for months to acknowledge the seriousness of the disease and told the country it would dissipate as soon as the weather grew warmer in the spring and summer.
Trump also suggested using disinfectant inside the body to destroy the virus and infusions of “light” into people to counter the disease.
While McCarthy’s question was clearly meant to be rhetorical, he was pelted with responses for the complete tone-deafness of what he said.
