The Floridian caught up with Representative Scott Franklin (R-FL) to discuss how the House of Representatives under Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and with a Republican majority is different from former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) tenure, with Rep. Franklin calling her "a dictator."
We asked Rep. Franklin if he believed a government shutdown was imminent and if House Republicans could act on their agenda before it happened.
Franklin said it was possible for Republicans "because we are allowing the House to operate the way it is supposed to operate," which Speaker Pelosi supposedly did not allow.
"One of the things that e had promised is that we were going to get the House back to operating the way that it should, and with a narrow majority, we have the same majority that Nancy Pelosi had; the difference is that we are allowing the House to operate the way it is supposed to operate. She did not do that. It is pretty easy to run things as a dictator," said Franklin, echoing comments made by former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) in February for Fox News.
He described how Pelosi did not allow bills to go through committees or be amended and voted upon as is, which "exasperated" just as many Democrats as it did Republicans.
This led to our question if Congress is more efficient under Speaker McCarthy than it was under Pelosi. Franklin said if "efficiency" was measured by "what is good for the American people," then the answer would be yes, because "we did a lot of damage in a hurry" through Pelosi's style of governance.
"I think we did a lot of damage in a hurry last time without any bumpers or speed bumps along the way to stop some of those bad policies from happening. I think had we been able to look at a lot of those Pelosi policies and pick them apart, and conference, and allow people to have good, healthy debate, we would have probably ended up with a different product," Franklin answered.
Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) had also told The Floridian that House Republicans handled veterans' issues better than Democrats, saying, "We actually get things done instead of talking about them."
