Advertisement

Opinion: Lady Gaga inspires new Republican Party attack on deficit spending

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.


Lady Gaga (real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) is a singer, a former stripper who sometimes wears lingerie on stage and has admitted to being bisexual. Nothing wrong with any of that, of course, but hardly fodder for the traditional-values-loving Republican Party.

So it came as something of a surprise Tuesday when Republican Rep. Dave Reichert of Washington state played a video for his colleagues at their weekly conference -- a parody of the pop performer’s song ‘Just Dance.’

Advertisement

Called ‘Just Tax,’ the video was the brainchild of Peter Cowman, a 23-year-old who just graduated from the University of Washington. In a song that rails against the debt foisted on his generation by President Obama and Congress (and includes a striking impression of Uncle Sam’s voice, or what Uncle Sam’s voice would sound like if we’d heard it back in the day), the chorus intones, ‘The government’s broke, but they’re spending our money.’

Noting that his district is home to a lot of tech companies, Reichert told colleagues that the Republican Party needs to encourage young people like Cowman who can use new media to sway other young people to the cause.

Asked by CNN about the video, House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence laughed and admitted that very few Republicans in Congress are familiar with the original Lady Gaga song.

-- Johanna Neuman

Click here for Twitter alerts on each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot

Advertisement