Matt Gaetz: “In the last round of debate, House Republicans were criticized for providing a pay-for for our plan to support Israel…”

“In the last round of debate, House Republicans were criticized for providing a pay-for for our plan to support Israel out of the IRS. The theory is that it is just totally unrelated, but a pay-for for the things we are doing, that is always related. It is only in Washington, certainly not in many of our State capitals, where you can have an ambition to go fund something and then not identify the offset that would naturally allow you to engage in that. The only real substantive debate I have heard in favor of this bill is that it does good pay increases for our servicemembers. Undeniably, that has universal agreement within this body. I think about the 8,600 servicemembers who were forced to separate from our military because of an ill-conceived, now withdrawn, vaccine requirement. We were told over and over again that there would be backpay, reparations, and restoration of rank for those people who were improperly told that they could not express their patriotism through military service because they didn't want to take an experimental vaccine. That is totally absent in this legislation. In communities like mine that are military heavy, the 5 percent pay increase will be very welcome. Every one of our military families knows someone who now is not able to have their job and who has seen impacts on their spouses, their marriages, and their children because of this mandate. We ought to have really taken care of those great folks. We did not in this bill.…”