When I learned of recent funding cuts and spending prohibitions for key District programs and services preliminarily imposed by House Republicans on the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, the horror movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers immediately came to mind.
Cold and out of touch, the Make America Great Again Republicans and their enablers are comparable to the alien creatures desperately fighting to reestablish themselves by taking over whole communities. The MAGAs may find it a tad difficult to physically impersonate the majority of District residents, unlike in the movie, where the invaders are adept at assuming the physical features of their hosts. Regardless of how many hours they spend in tanning beds or on private beaches — trips which may have been made possible by political donors who are mostly millionaires rather than the billionaires buying Supreme Court justices — that masquerade is beyond their reach.
Still, those facts haven’t prevented House Republicans from voting to approve drastic spending cuts that jeopardize crucial protections in DC and elsewhere. In fact, Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack — likely no relation to now deceased soul singer Bobby Womack, although I am not absolutely certain — seemed to boast during last week’s markup session of the subcommittee’s clout and influence, noting that it has “a wide and encompassing jurisdiction that is critically important to the full functioning of our country … from the Department of the Treasury to over a dozen independent agencies, as well as the federal judiciary and the District of Columbia.”