Nov 10, 2023
Government Shutdown Bill Falls Apart Over BIRTH CONTROL
Conservative lawmakers got hung up on whether they can discriminate against employees who use birth control, sending another proposed federal government spending bill into the trash just days before the deadline.
- 5 minutes
Did you know that the government
could shut down again?
Didn't they just deal with that?
Well, they should be dealing with it
because we've got about a week, and House
Republicans still have not come up with
a viable plan to pass a funding bill.
And there's a number of different things
that have been stymieing efforts
[00:00:17]
to fund the government.
Some of them, perhaps not surprising,
others certainly stand out to me.
So let's see.
We've got a tug of war
over how deeply to cut spending.
Okay.
They're always going to fight
about stuff like that and whether to wade
into controversial debates,
like a person's right to use birth control
[00:00:35]
without losing their job.
That's the thing.
This is not like the Wyoming state
legislature that's arguing about this.
House Republicans are potentially going
to shut down the government
because they think you should be able
to be fired if you take birth control.
[00:00:51]
If you're wondering if Republicans have
learned much from the last few elections
in terms of their views
on reproductive rights, no.
Anyway, over the past two days,
the House has attempted to vote on one
of 12 different annual funding bills.
We had the Financial Services bill,
and that bill funds the Judiciary Branch,
[00:01:07]
the Treasury Department and the IRS.
So that didn't work.
I'm sure big cuts will be coming
to most of those, but that's considered
among the least controversial
of the ones that they are looking into.
So as I alluded to, they had this one
about whether you should be
[00:01:23]
able to be fired for using birth control.
So the one of the ones that's coming up,
language would block a District of
Columbia law that prevents employers from
discriminating against workers who seek
contraception of family planning services.
Now, the good news is that there
are Republicans who don't think that
[00:01:39]
that should be overturned.
So New York Republican Representative Mark
Molinaro said he would oppose the bill
if it continues to block that protective
policy and estimate estimates that
about eight GOP lawmakers side with him,
saying, I think there's an understanding
that we feel strongly about it.
[00:01:54]
So it is good that there are at least
some Republicans on that side.
But nine there are hundreds
of Republicans in the House, and only nine
apparently think that you should not be
able to be fired for taking the pill.
[00:02:12]
I mean, I thought perhaps we dodged
a really crazy Republican House
when Jim Jordan didn't get in charge.
But no, the crazies are still there.
I want to start with you.
What do you what do you think about
the current dysfunction in the house?
I mean, listen, I don't understand
how we don't think this is normal now.
[00:02:28]
I mean, this is the.
This is the nature of Republicans.
Find the least popular.
Find the least popular issue
and die on it.
Like, just stay with it and keep losing.
Elections don't matter
because you can gerrymander entire states
into one Republican district.
That's what we're that's what I think.
That's their plan.
[00:02:43]
It has to be their plan,
because there's no way in hell
you can keep going after contraception
and women's right to choose and keep
losing in the manner you're losing.
I mean, we see Democrats winning
in spaces we shouldn't be winning.
We just saw a conservative sheriff
talking about contraceptives in Georgia
[00:02:59]
lose in a district that Trump won by plus
30. So I don't I don't know what their
plan is other than to, you know, cheat
gerrymandered districts in Mississippi.
They ran out of ballots.
They keep the ballots low.
I think they join anything
except for convince voters
that they got any damn common sense.
[00:03:15]
Yeah, absolutely.
And it's so funny to see this happening,
like just days after they lost
massively in elections on Tuesday
because of their stances on abortion.
We covered a story a couple months ago
about how now Republicans and senators
[00:03:32]
in closed door meetings were talking
about how they need to use the messaging
that they support the same protections
that were granted under ROE
and somehow try to spin that as pro-life.
But here they are.
They and I'll just end with this.
It's amazing to see this Republican Party
that for most of my life was
[00:03:51]
very cohesive, you know, to our detriment
as the American people, but very cohesive.
They voted in lockstep.
There was, you know,
some ideological difference
between, you know, members of the party.
But when it came to voting,
they had their ducks in a row.
[00:04:07]
They were all on the same page.
And now in just a few years, we've seen
this party descend into utter chaos.
And they are just I think Lindsey
Graham described it well,
the speaker fiasco is happening,
that they've shot themselves in the foot.
[00:04:23]
And I mean, of course, Donald Trump played
no small part in allowing this to happen,
and I'm here for it.
I love it.
Yeah. Just.
Like, I've often thought there's there's
nothing that they love more than power.
And that might be true, but it's possible
that they hate people who can get pregnant
[00:04:42]
more than they love power.
Like it might be, that they're willing.
Like, you know, if you follow all of
the independent right wing commentators,
they were all coming out
of those elections this week saying,
no, we need to double down.
We need to do even more.
And it's a great strategy.
I mean, they failed for like 60 years
to convince people of their position.
[00:04:59]
Why shouldn't they try for another 60?
Anyway, we'll see if the government
ends up getting funding.
That will be probably the most
important early test of the new speaker.
Will there actually be
a functioning government?
We at least had that
under the previous one.
[00:05:14]
- We'll have to see.
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