Politics & Power Quote by Chaka Fattah

It lands like a shrugged punchline, but the knife is in the syntax. “Now, so” buys Chaka Fattah a beat of conversational inevitability, as if the conclusion is simply waiting at the end of the sentence. Then comes the conditional: “if you want to blame someone.” He’s not begging the audience to care about wasteful spending; he’s acknowledging the ritual of outrage as a given. In Washington, blame isn’t a search for truth, it’s a currency. Fattah is offering to make change.

The real work happens in the last clause: “the Republicans are in the majority.” It’s a clean inversion of a familiar GOP brand promise. Republicans often claim the mantle of fiscal discipline, positioning Democrats as the party of big government and loose wallets. Fattah flips that frame by tethering “wasteful spending” to the only fact that matters in legislative reality: who holds the gavel. Majorities set agendas, move bills, protect pork, and decide what counts as “waste” versus “investment.” He’s using institutional mechanics as moral argument.

Context matters: this is the language of mid-cycle positioning, when both parties try to pre-load responsibility for budgets voters barely follow but viscerally resent. Fattah’s intent is less policy critique than accountability theater: if you’re going to be angry, aim it at the people with power right now. The subtext is a warning, too: governing means owning outcomes, even the unsexy ones buried in appropriations.