House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tried to stop passage of the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday by using a rhetorical question made famous by former President Ronald Reagan.
In the process, he forgot the lawyer’s No. 1 rule: Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to.
In a speech on the House floor, McCarthy asked, “Is America better off today than they were two years ago?” which referenced a question Reagan asked during a 1980 presidential debate with then-President Jimmy Carter.
Although McCarthy’s question was strictly a rhetorical device that he probably assumed would agitate Democrats, he probably wouldn’t like the answers Twitter users gave to his inquiry.
That’s because, though inflation remains an issue, things have drastically improved since 2020, when the country was being devastated by COVID-19 before vaccines were developed.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
