How did the House spend this morning? Changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, called the bill 'deeply unserious' multiple times throughout the more than hour long debate.
'This majority keeps replacing science with slogans, governance with grievance, and policy making with cheap performance art,' Huffman said. 'The truth is, this bill won't fix a single problem. It does absolutely nothing to help the Gulf Coast. It won't create a single job. It's not going to fix our climate crisis. It's just dumb. The only thing this bill will do is waste time and your taxpayer dollars to stroke the ego of a guy who
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While Greene and Republican
Representative Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, championed
the bill on the House floor, Fox News reported,
Still,
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Greene defended the bill on the House floor as an important step to building up American pride. At one point, she compared renaming the gulf to the pride a parent takes in naming their child.
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'Names matter, and the Democrats know that parents take a lot of time when they think about what to name a child that they're happy to welcome in the world, because they have pride,' she said. 'As we rename the gulf, the Gulf of America, we are also taking pride in those waters.'
Greene, at one point, falsely asserted that the United States owns the gulf. 'This is such an important thing to do for the American people,' she said. 'They deserve pride in the waters that we own.'
In reality, the American, Mexican, and Cuban governments each
Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, started his debate time with an attempt at humor.
'Live from Washington DC, this is Saturday Night Live!' he said, in a riff on the famous opening of the sketch comedy show. 'You can't make this up. ...Republicans think this juvenile legislation is the best use of this house's time. This is the only thing we're doing today, folks. What a sick joke.'
Julian E.J. Sorapuru can be reached at
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