Democrats say legislation, which is all but assured to fail in the US Senate, is ‘an ode to bigotry and ignorance’.

Republicans in the United States House of Representatives have passed an annual defence funding bill that highlights the party’s conservative priorities – and sticking points – in advance of the 2024 election season.

Democrats have decried the bill approved on Friday, which included anti-LGBTQ, anti-diversity and anti-abortion rights provisions. It passed by a 219 to 210 largely party-line vote in the majority Republican chamber. Four Democrats voted in support of the bill.

  • A1kmmAEnglish
    15·
    1 year ago

    “With the narrowest of majorities – five seats – in the House, Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy needed near-unanimous support for the more than 1,200-page bill. That forced him to appease ultra-conservative members of the party, who pledged not back down in negotiations.”

    Is working with moderates of a different brand of party really worse than kowtowing to the demands of extremists in the same brand of party as you? Because it seems that would be the obvious way to get moderate bills passed if you were moderate and that is what you really wanted.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.mlEnglish
      54·
      1 year ago

      It’s worse because McCarthy is also an extremist, he’s just more politically savvy and knows how unpopular the extreme agenda actually is. He knows that he needs to sneak this stuff in under the radar and through unelected processes so the people don’t get a say in the outcome.

      Instead he’s forced to advance the extreme agenda faster than he wants, but he still wants everything in this bill.