Andy “Handgun” Harris is Shooting Blanks by J.E. Dean

What was our congressman doing in Washington last week? Was he working to make America fiscally responsible again? No, he wasn’t. Congressman Harris was voting to increase the national debt by at least $3.3 trillion over the next ten years.

If you voted for Harris in 2024 to reduce the federal debt, you should get your vote back, Harris is part of the problem, not the solution. 

Handgun Harris represented Donald J. Trump last week, not fiscal conservatives or anyone else in his congressional district.

Last time I checked, the First District of Maryland was largely rural in character. Will our hospitals lose federal assistance? I don’t recall Harris expressing any concern about that. How about First District families who need SNAP benefits? Nope. Have a child in college or planning to go soon? The cost of college is about to go up because of student loan “reforms” that Trump and his boy wonder Stephen Miller championed.

The Baltimore Banner reports, “An estimated 24,000 people in Harris’ district are expected to lose access to Medicaid because of the bill. In Dorchester County, Harris’ home base, more than 23 percent of residents rely on Medicaid and 41% of the county’s children are on a federal-state health insurance program, according to 2023 census estimates.”

And the list could go on. The new law is 870 pages long. The Committee Report accompanying it, which includes details on what the President just signed, is 2,507 pages long—so long that it is a two-volume set.

Do you wonder whether Handgun Harris read them? I doubt it, but maybe he has. If that is the case, his voting for this legislation is even more troubling.

When Trump’s “Mega Bill” was first considered by the House, Harris voted present. That vote was crucial in allowing the bill to move forward. On Wednesday. Harris voted “aye.” What changed, Mr. Handgun?

Here’s one theory. The final bill includes a pleasant surprise for hard-core “gun enthusiasts,” not just law-abiding people, but others involved in organized crime. CNN reports, “The bill eliminates a $200 fee that gun owners are charged when purchasing silencers and short-barrel rifles, as well as registration and ownership requirements. It removes those provisions from the scope of the 1934 National Firearms Act, a Prohibition-era law intended to crack down on gangland crime.” 

Did this provision prompt Harris to set aside his worry of $3.3 trillion increase in the national debt and vote for the bill? How many First District hunters use a short-barrel rifle or a handgun with a silencer on it to hunt deer? 

To our knowledge, Handgun Harris to date has offered only one cryptic explanation for voting for the bill’s final passage, “We came to significant agreements with the administration overnight on executive actions, both inside and outside, of the bill that will make America great again.” 

What did Trump give Harris and his fellow Freedom Caucus extremists to secure their votes? First District voters have a right to know. Congressman Harris, why don’t you hold a town hall meeting, open it to the public, and explain your vote?

When Harris first ran for Congress, he presented himself as a reformer. He voluntarily pledged to serve no more than six terms in Congress. In 2022, when those terms were over, Harris changed his mind. He likes the halls of Congress more than those of a hospital. 

Harris was also once a champion of Ukraine. Until yesterday, when President Trump announced he was resuming some weapons shipments to Ukraine, Trump was curtailing urgently needed weapons shipments needed by Ukraine to fight Putin. Why wasn’t Harris raising hell? Why wasn’t he speaking out? The obvious answer is that he, like virtually all his Republican House and Senate colleagues, have drank the Trump Kool-Aid. They follow their leader, blindly.

Andy represents MAGA, not Maryland. If you embrace the old-fashioned idea that a congressional representative should pursue the needs of their constituents, you must conclude Handgun Harris is shooting blanks.

The 2026 mid-term elections are about 18 months away. Will somebody, please, run against Harris? I would prefer a Democrat. But even a moderate Republican would be an improvement. A moderate Republican who keeps promises. Someone who, if they run on “principles,” will not violate them. Someone who is not Andy “Handgun” Harris.

J.E. Dean writes on politics and government but, too frequently, on President Trump. A former counsel on Capitol Hill and public affairs consultant, Dean also writes for Dean’s Issues & Insights on Substack.

Dean will be on vacation until July 30, when he hopes to write on something positive that President Trump or Handgun Harris might have done.