Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is one of the last of his kind in Congress. Elected in 2012 amid the Tea Party movement, Massie has been a consistent critic of an overreaching federal government, of budget deficits and foreign interventionism. His principled stances have drawn the ire of both parties and increasingly President Donald Trump.
In recent months, Massie has been an outspoken voice on the need for fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., a quaint concept given the tendency of his colleagues to spend wildly when their party is in charge. This put him at odds with President Trump over his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a budget-busting spending package
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill, now law, will add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, and a bit more when you consider the escalating interest on the national debt.
As explained by Jack Salmon of the Mercatus Center, “Higher public debt levels are associated with slower economic growth, particularly when debt ratios exceed a critical range. While the precise threshold varies across studies and contexts, the bulk of the evidence places it between 75 and 80% of GDP for advanced economies—a level that the United States has materially exceeded since 2020. This matters, not because debt is inherently destructive, but because its long-run accumulation imposes tangible costs: reduced private investment, upward pressure on interest rates, and heightened inflation and credit risk premia.”
Rep. Massie understands this well, which is why, like any true conservative, he made sure to call out the problems with the president’s spending agenda.
“The Big Beautiful Bill is a debt bomb ticking,” he wrote on X. “It’s also the biggest missed opportunity conservatives have ever had to put our country back on a track of fiscal sanity. If we defeat this bill, a better one can be offered that won’t bankrupt our country.”
Alas, only one fellow Republican in the House, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, joined him in opposing the bill. The rest of his Republican colleagues gleefully approved the bill and have pretended ever since that their vote was the right thing to do.
Now, President Donald Trump is backing a challenger to Massie, military veteran Ed Gallrein, who has vowed to “stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump.” Which, in other words, means he will be utterly subservient to whatever the president wants.
With independent-minded, liberty-defending congressmen few and far between, we hope Rep. Massie can fend off this challenge. After all, it’s not like any of California’s Republican representatives can be bothered to check the executive branch or stand up for the Constitution.
