As freshmen House members go, Rep. Ted Yoho’s (R-Fla.) congressional career is off to quite an interesting start.
Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) said Thursday he doesn’t think furloughed government workers should receive back pay — even though he voted less than a week ago to give it to them.
A caller to a telephone town hall meeting told Yoho that he believed federal employees who continued working during the shutdown deserved pay. “But the people that are home watching Netflix and whatever, I’m not sure that we should be sending them checks,” the caller said.
Hmm. Yoho voted for legislation to provide back pay to the federal workers who were forced from their jobs because of the government shutdown Yoho supported. The congressman then said he opposes back pay to the same federal workers. “If they’re not working they shouldn’t get paid,” he said.
So why did he support the legislation? Because Yoho didn’t understand the bill he voted for — he thought providing back pay meant bringing those furloughed workers back to their jobs. Apparently, Yoho wasn’t entirely clear on what “furlough” means.
This, of course, is the same Florida Republican who argued this week that a debt-ceiling crisis “would bring stability to the world markets.” In other words, the congressman confused by “furlough” believes he understands the nuances of sovereign debt and global finance well enough to push the United States into default — because he’s confident nothing bad would happen.
This inspires confidence in the competence of the House GOP caucus, right?
This is, by the way, the same federal lawmaker who believes the Affordable Care Act is “racist” against white people.
His hometown paper certainly seems impressed (thanks to Rachel for the tip).
Dear U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho: It has been nearly a year since you were elected to your first term in Congress. Given your Alachua County ties and two University of Florida degrees, we were cautiously optimistic that you would have a better appreciation of our community’s values and priorities than your predecessor.
We’ve been proven wrong so far.
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is retiring at the end of this Congress, but rest assured, a new generation of silly lawmakers stands ready for her to pass the torch.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."