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If Republicans manage to pass Donald Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” millions of Americans will lose access to health care, food assistance, and other critical public support programs. One would hope that Democrats — despite being the minority in both chambers — would put up the strongest fight they can against the disastrous piece of legislation.
Sen. John Fetterman’s mind is on the beach.
“I just want to go home. I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach, my family’s going to be back before we’re [done],” the Pennsylvania Democrat told reporters on Monday. “Again I’m going to vote no. There’s no drama with the way the votes are … But all the Democrats, we all know how that’s going to do and I don’t think it’s really helpful to put people here till some ungodly hour.”
While it’s a shame that the GOP’s war against the health of low income Americans is interfering with lawmakers’ summer plans, it’s reasonable to expect that an elected lawmaker would swallow their frustrations in service of the millions of people who stand to lose a lot more than a few vacation days.
“Does Fetterman think his job is beach like Ken from Barbie?! He’s a United States Senator! You’re expected to work long hours and take hard votes,” one Democratic aide told HuffPost. Joe Calvello, a former Fetterman aide, also sounded off. “This bill is the biggest transfer of wealth from the working class to the 1% and Fetterman’s message to voter is that he just wants to go home,” he wrote.
After the video of his comments gained traction on social media, Fetterman wrote on X that “not one single Democrat will vote for the ‘big beautiful bill.’ I’m here to vote on these amendments and keep the ball rolling. I’m a HARD NO on the final bill won’t support cutting Medicaid, SNAP or adding up to $5T to our national debt.”
Fetterman’s recent pivot towards soft Republicanism has been a source of increased frustration among Democrats. Just last week, the Pennsylvania senator sided with the GOP to block the advancement of a bill that would limit Trump’s ability to conduct unilateral military strikes without the approval of Congress.
In May, the Pennsylvania chapter on Indivisible, a progressive organizing group that supported Fetterman in his 2022 run for the Senate, called for him to step down from his seat.
“In contrast to your behavior before you became a Senator, you have demonstrated a disdainful attitude towards many of your constituents, particularly those most engaged in the civic process in the media and in communications from your office,” they wrote. “You have failed to fulfill the most basic duties of the office by avoiding contact with your constituents who can’t even leave voicemails after business hours, refusing to hold town halls, yelling at visitors in your office and inexcusably missing more votes than any other member of the current Senate.”
The group cited Fetterman’s confirmation votes in favor of several of Trump’s Cabinet members, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as failure to challenge GOP efforts to cut programs benefiting low income Pennsylvanians.
“We’re looking to the leaders who will fight for us, because even today there are folks among the Democratic Party who think we should roll over and play dead,” Indivisible Co-Founder Leah Greenberg said during Philadelphia’s “No Kings” rally earlier this month. “Anyone seen John Fetterman here?” she rhetorically asked the crowd.
Over the weekend, Democrats used several tactics in an effort to delay a final vote on the Big Beautiful Bill, and secure as much debate time as they could to publicly critique its most problematic provisions. Fetterman expressed frustration with his party after Democrats refused to waive Senate procedures requiring bills to be read when introduced for debate, resulting in a 16-hour marathon read-out of the almost 1000 page long legislation, which was followed by 20 theoretical hours of debate — split evenly between the parties — of which Democrats are expected to squeeze out every second they possibly can.
“It’s not like it’s pathetic to force the clerk to read it or anything,” Fetterman complained to reporters of the grueling weekend procedural activities.
While his colleagues are working overtime crafting floor speeches, negotiating critical amendments, and stirring up as much public outcry against the legislation as they can, it’s obvious that though Fetterman is physically present in the Senate, he’d rather be anywhere else — probably the beach.
