• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

GOP sinks Zika response funding with anti-abortion and pro-Confederate flag riders

Status
Not open for further replies.

Jeels

Member
Lol this is one of those no brainier boring come into work and do your job bills and they had to make it political and partisan as well.
 
House Republicans, however, attached provisions to the bill that imposed restrictions on abortion, overturned clean water regulations, defunded parts of the president’s healthcare law, and sought to undo a ban on flying the Confederate flag at federal cemeteries.

Fuck clean water and those who need it, I guess. Captain Planet villains confirmed.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
overturned clean water regulations

tumblr_nye94f0ixo1upfu3oo1_400.gif
 

sonicmj1

Member
Here's what I'm confused about with this bill.

The Senate, where Mitch McConnell is majority leader, passed a Zika funding bill, straight up, no riders. Then the House voted on a version of the bill, and House Republicans attached a bunch of poison pill riders to it. That bill went back to the Senate, with all those amendments attached.

Republican leaders, however, said the House-passed bill could not be amended, since it was passed under a procedure known as a conference report.

“I’d love it if the Senate just passed bills and they became law, but it doesn’t work that way,” the Texas senator John Cornyn, the Senate Republican whip, told the Guardian. “The House gets a vote too.”

How did the bill come out of conference with all those crappy riders on it?
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
Is it though? Because cmon, Republicans added a provision against clean water regulations. The only way it could be so blatantly set up to fail is if it added a provision that GOP Senators get to punch Democratic Senators in the stomach once a day.


I was joking. Of course they were sending this bill to die.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
This is extraordinarily clumsy. I'm about to state the obvious, but that's the point. It should have been obvious.

The plan:

Attach riders to the Zika bill to force Dems to "BLOCK THE ZIKA BILL!" - the media will then have to report DEMS BLOCK ZIKA FUNDING! - Ostensibly hurting the dems, right?


Flaw in cunning plan - Every single outlet will report the REASON and it will just look like the Republicans attach nasty bullshit to bills. The only remote chance of that information being omitted from reporting, is in echo chamber outlets like Fox and Breitbart - so the message they want to amplify doesn't go anywhere.

They are getting really clumsy at messaging and strategy these days. Possibly a sign of the very deep divisions and frankly, addition of very unsophisticated politicians post Tea Party.

The only people who think Confederate flags and abortion bans are good issues, are racists and the religious right who are already aboard the clowntrain.

GG Republicans, you just planned a slightly corrosive hit on your already tattered governance reputation.

And bad timing too- first Zika fatality in the US just happened and Brazil paranoia is about to spin up again. First time a microcephalic baby shows up, Dems will just point to the the republicans and say "They played politics with this baby's head"
 

gdt

Member
Just comically evil.

Where was Rubio fighting this horseshit? Florida is first in line to get fucked.
 

Paganmoon

Member
This is extraordinarily clumsy. I'm about to state the obvious, but that's the point. It should have been obvious.

The plan:

Attach riders to the Zika bill to force Dems to "BLOCK THE ZIKA BILL!" - the media will then have to report DEMS BLOCK ZIKA FUNDING! - Ostensibly hurting the dems, right?


Flaw in cunning plan - Every single outlet will report the REASON and it will just look like the Republicans attach nasty bullshit to bills. The only remote chance of that information being omitted from reporting, is in echo chamber outlets like Fox and Breitbart - so the message they want to amplify doesn't go anywhere.

They are getting really clumsy at messaging and strategy these days. Possibly a sign of the very deep divisions and frankly, addition of very unsophisticated politicians post Tea Party.

The only people who think Confederate flags and abortion bans are good issues, are racists and the religious right who are already aboard the clowntrain.

GG Republicans, you just planned a slightly corrosive hit on your already tattered governance reputation.

And bad timing too- first Zika fatality in the US just happened and Brazil paranoia is about to spin up again. First time a microcephalic baby shows up, Dems will just point to the the republicans and say "They played politics with this baby's head"

Nah, that's not how it works.

Headlines will read along the lines of "Democrats block Zika bill" and most people only ever read the headlines and not the stories:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...9/americans-read-headlines-and-not-much-else/

That's self-reported, so I'm pretty sure the real numbers are much higher. Read something about 8 out of 10 only read the headlines in a British study.

Republicans might be evil, but they're not stupid. So let's dispel this fiction that the Republicans don't know what they're doing, they know exactly what they're doing.
 

teiresias

Member
Here's what I'm confused about with this bill.

The Senate, where Mitch McConnell is majority leader, passed a Zika funding bill, straight up, no riders. Then the House voted on a version of the bill, and House Republicans attached a bunch of poison pill riders to it. That bill went back to the Senate, with all those amendments attached.



How did the bill come out of conference with all those crappy riders on it?

Because the GOP controls the house and the committees and has an even larger percentage of the GOP's loony right wing caucus than the Senate.
 

MCN

Banned
How in the blue FUCK are riders even a thing?

What the fuck is wrong with your politcal system, America? It's like you looked at democracy and decided to break it in as many ways as possible while still allowing the public to think they have some sort of control.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
Republicans might be evil, but they're not stupid. So let's dispel this fiction that the Republicans don't know what they're doing, they know exactly what they're doing.

Putting political gain over health consciousness is immensely stupid. They are not immune to the effects of Zika. Will they feel very smart if they fuck up their own grandchild just to win a meaningless battle in a larger war on opinion (that they are losing overall in the first place)?
 

Blader

Member
I can't for the life of me understand how completely unrelated riders like these are still permissible. Kaine is exactly right - bullshit like this is exactly why people hate Congress. Washington would be immensely more productive if this practice was outlawed.
 

The Adder

Banned
How in the blue FUCK are riders even a thing?

What the fuck is wrong with your politcal system, America? It's like you looked at democracy and decided to break it in as many ways as possible while still allowing the public to think they have some sort of control.

The option to attach and detach riders is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.

The problem arose as soon as people realized they didn't have to use them for meaningful tweaks to the bills and could, instead, use them to tank something they didn't want passed, slip something in under the radar, or make backend deals.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
The option to attach and detach riders is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.

The problem arose as soon as people realized they didn't have to use them for meaningful tweaks to the bills and could, instead, use them to tank something they didn't want passed, slip something in under the radar, or make backend deals.

This could be rationally solved with the ability to do a line-item veto.
 

roytheone

Member
Wait, so :

-Democrats propose a bill
-Republicans add nonsense to it that has nothing to do with the bill, hopefully piggybacking on it.
-Democrats stop the bill
-Republicans blame Democrats for the bills failure.

I... What??
 

The Adder

Banned
This could be rationally solved with the ability to do a line-item veto.

I was merely commenting on why they're allowed.

There is a major problem with line-item vetoes as well. If, for example, a liberal compromise on a conservative bill is reached that gets it through a majority Republican congress to a Republican President and that President vetoes the liberal safeguards out of the bill. Libs don't have enough votes to get it passed and the naked conservative bill passes.
 
Wait, so :

-Democrats propose a bill
-Republicans add nonsense to it that has nothing to do with the bill, hopefully piggybacking on it.
-Democrats stop the bill
-Republicans blame Democrats for the bills failure.

I... What??

Welcome to congressional politics
 

Blader

Member
Wait, so :

-Democrats propose a bill
-Republicans add nonsense to it that has nothing to do with the bill, hopefully piggybacking on it.
-Democrats stop the bill
-Republicans blame Democrats for the bills failure.

I... What??
It's the Democrats' fault for not giving Republicans everything they've always wanted.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I was merely commenting on why they're allowed.

There is a major problem with line-item vetoes as well. If, for example, a liberal compromise on a conservative bill is reached that gets it through a majority Republican congress to a Republican President and that President vetoes the liberal safeguards out of the bill. Libs don't have enough votes to get it passed and the naked conservative bill passes.

That's why the president specifically shouldn't have a line-item veto power.
 

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Wait, so :

-Democrats propose a bill
-Republicans add nonsense to it that has nothing to do with the bill, hopefully piggybacking on it.
-Democrats stop the bill
-Republicans blame Democrats for the bills failure.

I... What??

Republican party is full of dangerous, lying, sociopathic evil people. This is nothing new.
 

foxuzamaki

Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Is there some kind of way we can re place the current congress without relying on mid terms?
 

Breads

Banned
Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blasted Democrats for blocking the Senate bill.

“It’s time for our friends to start worrying less about pleasing outside political groups and start worrying more about actually helping the Americans who are counting on us,” he said.

Attaching these dumbass/egregious riders to a public health crisis bill that in no way "helps Americans who are counting on us".... fuck off with that noise.
 

kess

Member
This is extraordinarily clumsy. I'm about to state the obvious, but that's the point. It should have been obvious.

The plan:

Attach riders to the Zika bill to force Dems to "BLOCK THE ZIKA BILL!" - the media will then have to report DEMS BLOCK ZIKA FUNDING! - Ostensibly hurting the dems, right?

And bad timing too- first Zika fatality in the US just happened and Brazil paranoia is about to spin up again. First time a microcephalic baby shows up, Dems will just point to the the republicans and say "They played politics with this baby's head"

Too logical, it will get spun as "Democrat party thinks stopping confederate flags is more important than your baby's health." And people will eat that shit up.
 
Remember: abortions are morally reprehensible, but crippling birth defects as a result of an illness that Republicans choose not to fight that will forever make the child less able to support itself are great.

#GOPLogic

Edit: Just so mad. So so mad. Thanks for using my tax dollars responsibly, Republicans! You sure have soured me on the way politics are done in this country! Good job!
 
D

Deleted member 80556

Unconfirmed Member
Can we really say 'yuck' to both parties, considering that the Republicans wanted to allow possible contamination of drinking water, take away reproduction rights from women and take health care from Americans all in one law? Nevermind the Confederate flag thing, which seemed like them adding salt to the injury.
 
Once the Democrats have definitive control the Republicans will probably be condemned to being nothing more than a niche opposition party. But that is still a decade or too away and I think they are trying to cause as much pain as possible before that happens.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Once the Democrats have definitive control the Republicans will probably be condemned to being nothing more than a niche opposition party. But that is still a decade or too away and I think they are trying to cause as much pain as possible before that happens.

First real shot is 2018, gotta get people out to vote in what so many considering a "boring" and "pointless" midterm election.
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
How on earth is trying to put confederate shit into a bill on the floor of the United States Senate not treasonous?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom