Lauren Boebert saw her microphone cut as she pressed on with a speech attacking the Inflation Reduction Act in the House on Friday.
The Colorado Republican, who blasted supporters of the bill as “insane”, was told her time had expired five times before she stopped speaking.
The Inflation Reduction Act creates a 15 percent minimum corporation tax for companies over a certain size, allows the price of some prescription drugs to be negotiated by Medicare and provides $369 billion in investment towards clean energy programs.
Republican Boebert gave a fiery speech attacking the legislation, stating: “Insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result.
“That makes the supporters of this legislation, by definition, insane. Reckless spending in this town is what causes inflation.
“You are sacrificing American families at the altar of climate change.”
Her address was interrupted by the chair, who said: “The gentlewoman’s time has expired.”
Boebert ploughed on with her speech, saying the legislation “does the exact opposite of what Americans need right now” and is “is just another con game by the Democrats“.
The chair repeated that Boebert’s had run out of time, saying “the gentlewoman’s time has expired” a total of five times, at one point banging his gavel.
When the Republican failed to stop her microphone was cut, after which she continued by shouting her speech.
Much of what she said during this time was inaudible, but she argued the bill amounts to “armed robbery against Americans.”
A GOP colleague intervened to yield Boebert another 30 seconds of the Republicans‘ time, after which she was again told her time was over.
She finally stepped back from the lectern after the chair said, “The gentlewoman’s time has expired. The gentlewoman is no longer recognized.”
After Boebert speech the act was passed by 220 votes to 207, with representatives voting along party lines.
It had already passed the Senate, and is expected to be signed into law by President Joe Biden shortly.
After the bill was approved by the Senate, Biden said: “Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests, voting to lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and everyday energy costs and reduce the deficit, while making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share. I ran for President promising to make government work for working families again, and that is what this bill does, period.”
The Inflation Reduction Act was essentially a slimmed down version of the Build Back Better Act, which was torpedoed when centrist Democratic Senator Joe Manchin refused to give his support.
Amongst other measures it will provide another $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the next ten years.
Newsweek has contacted Boebert for comment.
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