An aide for “a Republican member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, granted anonymity to describe internal party dynamics,” tells Politico they’ve “reached out to Majority Leader Scalise to let him know we’d like to see the Ratepayer Protection Act on the floor as soon as the House comes back from August recess. Our constituents are demanding substantive action on data centers.”

The quote about the bill ought to be more or less self-explanatory but there is one further detail key to why they’re having to nag Scalise to bring it to the floor when it already unanimously passed the committee last month: The bill‘s topline is “to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes,” meaning that the federal government will tell states what to do to ensure consistent policy on how to hike rates on data centers and thus bring relief to regular folks getting fucked over on their electric bills.

Eventually. The dispositive description of the source for the Wednesday story and the actual quote expressing responsiveness to a real problem and the tension with Scalise’s “principled” opposition to the measure as proposed, that data centers are a “local issue” and he’s opposed to imposing regulations on states. Naturally Politico doesn’t so much as nod at Scalise taking the opposite approach when it comes to national bills on voting. To him that issue is as local as the Olive Garden’s menu and its requirements to produce a photo ID to use a Never-Ending Pasta Pass.

Now maybe deep down under Scalise’s authoritarianism, kayfabe over the SAVE Act which he knows full well – far more than fellow far-right extremist Hill Republican Mike Lee does – is never going to get signed into law, corruption via subservience to the tech companies reliant on data center expansion, and just general indifference to the privations of middle class voters, there still could be “principle” here. It’s possible Scalise is simply acting upon conservative doctrine opposed to federal regulations that are harder to undo once signed, an economic self-interest that poorer states like his should be able to chart their own course on making their citizens’ lives more miserable if it makes industrial concerns happier, and so on with all the shit that gets sold as “freedom.”

“Making data centers pay more for electricity is just one step away from a Maoist Cultural Revolution except with a lot of transgender surgeries and workplace diversity training seminars,” Scalise and team will say and maybe they actually sort of believe it. Or at least tell themselves and each other they do even after all their goddamned hyperbole and propaganda and insufferable bullshit.

Thus this rift between Scalise and the more endangered members of his caucus. With only 15 working days left before November, the pressure is on for swing district Republicans to be able to tell voters that relief on utility bills is coming. Tell them then hope no voters or media asks what happened to convicted felon President Trump’s 2024 campaign trail pledge to have lowered all home energy costs by half within the first 12 to 18 months of his lie-fueled, ill-gotten return to power.

Thank you, President @RealDonaldTrump, for your leadership on the Ratepayer Protection Act. Tennessee has shown we can lead the nation in innovation while protecting hardworking families from higher utility bills, & we’re grateful for your leadership to advance policies that…

— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) July 24, 2026

Which of course raises a third take (or fourth if you want to count acting as if the bill’s already been passed and signed into law like Confederate cosplayer/crossdresser Tennessee Gov Billy Lee did more than a month ago), words from another anonymous House GOP aide to Politico, the golden quote pasted into the headline here: “There’s not really a point in passing this bill after the election.”

Yeah. That’s pretty good, right?

Now it’s entirely possible that was meant as simple fatalism or resignation, said in the same dark jest of warning a death row inmate that his last meal’s going to give him a heart attack. After all, if this staffer’s boss loses they have to go find a new job. Maybe even a real one if November’s that bad for the MAGA GOP and all the lobbying shop positions get filled with more experienced and better-connected ex-staffers. That’s gotta be just tortuous for him/her, knowing it’s more likely than not they’ll be gone, maybe even outside of the Beltway by this time next year. Maybe even in law school, every day spent sitting next to 23 year-olds uninterested in sexual relations with him/her.

That’s the most charitable read, that this staffer was morose over the age gap with their future law school classmates being an impediment to copulating with them, hence the myopia and tone-deafness that prompted him/her to tell a reporter there was no point in passing the bill after the midterms, when its retail political value to the current incumbents would be null.

This is what happens when you declare war on U.S. domestic energy production. pic.twitter.com/QQ1DSc9Tid

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) June 2, 2022

Yet even after imputing that “This person was having a bad day, they’re going to check out of their job – maybe even just stop showing up – if/when their boss loses” onto the anonymous source we’re still kind of left with the raw text of this party’s true “principle” when it comes to the challenges regular people face: That there is no point in pretending to give a fuck if it doesn’t help them obtain or maintain power. It’s not like Trump ever mentioned the half-off thing again after he won (minus the exception of his deranged pitch in the November 2025 New Jersey and Virginia elections).

There’s no point in passing the bill after November 3rd because serving the public isn’t the point. What else do you expect when their 2022 meme on gas prices looks like it was ripped off from Cialis, when one of their own propaganda guys later that summer actually wrote “Like it or not, Biden’s strategy for reducing gas prices is working. The national average price of a gallon of gas has dropped for 70 consecutive days, the second-longest such streak since 2005,” when in October 2024 the Orange Emir complained OPEC wasn’t hiking prices enough to help him get elected again.

Who should be surprised that, irrespective of this anonymous House GOP source’s personal professional situation, they just said how the MAGA Reich actually feels when it comes to delivering for voters. That lowering electric bills and sticking it to these AI leviathans cannot just be a win unto itself, it’s only worth the time and effort if it can help mitigate the coming damage.

Still kind of shocking in its own way though, right? That in this long, long spiral into hell you’ve seen all sorts of new lows in hypocrisy and malevolence but this kind of twisted mutation of anodyne electoral expediency into outright dereliction is a new innovation in American politics. It’s like someone really put some thought into “How can I invert all those sappy tropes about the virtues of public service and solving problems for people even more than simply taking bribes, placing insider bets on Kalshi, and debasing myself to appeal to the fucking freaks who think Soros is using 5G to control their minds?” and the expected non-passage of this bill is the end result.

.@POTUS: "We're here today to continue the incredible progress we’re making in communities nationwide to ensure that as new data centers go up… electricity bills for American families will actually come down… With the Trump Administration's Ratepayer Protection Plan, American… pic.twitter.com/ePXPI6NIY2

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 23, 2026

Oh and a couple of tweets acting like the problem’s already been solved.