Sen. Lisa Murkowski speaks on Election Day on Nov. 8, 2022 at a press conference held at her campaign headquarters in Anchorage. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon)
Since January, I have called U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski’s office regularly to express my concerns about the GOP agenda, because I thought she was a moderate Republican open to input. I held out hope she might leave her party and stand up for all Alaskans and Americans. However, her deciding vote on H.R.-1, the “Big Ugly Bill” made me realize my calls to her office were pointless.
First and foremost, Sen. Murkowski is not a moderate Republican. She, like her Alaskan colleagues in Congress, are millionaires voting for their own interests. It seems there are no moderate Republicans left in Congress. The overtime and tip tax breaks that could help millions of everyday Americans are extremely restricted and sunset in 2028. Meanwhile, the tax breaks for millionaires are permanent.
Second, I do not believe Sen. Murkowski agonized over the vote. Murkowski has been adept at finding a nuanced political position over the years, one that allows her to appear independent while never actually derailing the GOP agenda. Murkowski had the opportunity to truly be an independent voice for all of America, like John McCain’s famous thumbs down vote against repealing Obamacare. Instead, she made a big political show, maintained her facade of the contrarian, and voted in line with Trump because she is afraid of retaliation.
Finally, there is a cognitive dissonance in her vote that cannot be explained away by a few Alaska specific add-ons. Murkowski has made comments critical of Trump’s immigration policies such as when fellow U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, D-California was forcibly removed from a press conference, tackled to the ground, and detained. Yet she voted to increase the ICE operating budget by hundreds of million dollars. Murkowski has consistently said she “strongly supports women’s reproductive freedoms” in opposition to many of her GOP colleagues, yet her vote on this bill stripped funding from Planned Parenthood. She said she was considering leaving the GOP to become an Independent, but she voted in line with the GOP. Her actions do not support her statements. The only logical conclusion therefore is that Sen. Murkowski is lying to Alaska. If she actually believes these claims then she is lying to herself, and that is the true hallmark of a MAGA Republican.
