DC delegate slams GOP lawmaker calling for Washington recession

Washington, D.C.’s, representative in Congress appeared astonished Wednesday by a House Republican who suggested the city “needs a recession.”

Freshman Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) created a Twitter firestorm Tuesday night after he posted a photo of cranes looming over construction in southwest D.C. and said the city deserved an economic recession.

“Washington DC is booming. Tower cranes everywhere. Being built on the backs of US taxpayers. DC needs a recession,” Blum tweeted.

{mosads}“That’s a member of Congress who said that?” Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s nonvoting delegate, said when asked on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” about Blum’s tweet.

Norton countered that the construction Blum observed was not subsidized by federal taxpayer dollars.

“Federal taxpayers have nothing to do with the boom in Washington. We are having a boom in Washington. You know why, representative? Because people are moving into Washington,” Norton said.

“It’s our own taxpayers. It’s because we pay taxes and don’t have representation in the House and Senate that we are treated as second-class citizens,” she added.

Blum, who serves the district previously represented by former Rep. Bruce Braley (D), is a top Democratic target this election cycle. He is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and co-chairs a caucus for lawmakers who support term limits. 

This week wasn’t the first time Blum had made public comments about wishing for a recession in Washington. Blum posted a similar tweet in October, writing, “EIGHT tower cranes in 6 block radius. We need to cause a recession … in Washington DC.”