House GOP votes to ban abortion, trans care and harm military all at the same time

There are no "moderates" in the GOP. Legacy media must stopping claiming there are.

Faux-moderate Rep. Nancy Mace bullshitting to CNN

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Yesterday, in an extraordinary action, the Republican-controlled House voted to stop members of the military from being able to obtain reproductive care, in a 221-213 vote. They also narrowly voted to defund necessary medical care, including hormone replacement therapy, for transgender service members.

Adding brutal amendments regarding issues on which the vast majority of Americans disagree with the GOP to a must-pass defense authorization bill is also a direct attack on all service members, derailing the bill, preventing members from getting raises, and preventing the military from being funded.

But Republicans don’t care.

Just as Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama doesn’t care that his hold on promotions and raises for hundreds of officers—over the issue of abortion—is damaging military preparedness.

In the House, as described by The New York Times, "G.O.P. leaders acceded to the demands of ultraconservatives" and forced the votes on the amendments, in which all but two Republicans voted for the abortion ban and all but one voted for the ban on trans care. This included just about all of the so-called "moderates" that the Times, the Washington Post, Politico, and other outlets have been telling us for months are growing impatient and are ready to bolt and are, to quote the Washington Post just two weeks ago, "pushing back":

The House’s focus on the far-right’s demands over the past month has irritated Republicans who represent swing districts or are worried that an extreme legislative agenda will push voters away and hand the House majority to Democrats in 2024. So they are learning to flex their procedural muscles, largely behind the scenes, to keep some proposals they see as most damaging off the House floor.

Swing-district Republicans also have been pushing leadership to be strategic about which messaging bills they bring to the floor, arguing it’s not worth forcing vulnerable members to take tough votes on legislation that will die in the Senate.

Really?

There’s been no evidence of that, and on key extremist messaging votes, the so-called moderates were there for them. That included the appalling censure of Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, brought to the floor by MAGA loyalist and Santos-style fabulist Republican Ana Paulina Luna of Florida. It also included the ridiculous vote spearheaded by hate-peddling Rep. Lauren Boebert to send articles of impeachment against President Biden to two committees.

The vast majority of Republicans in swing districts voted for those, including Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro in New York, just as they voted to ban the Pentagon from giving time off to service members to obtain reproductive care, including an abortion, if the state members are stationed in lacks reproductive care because of draconian abortion bans. And they voted to ban necessary treatment for transgender service members, hurting soldiers and officers.

Let’s be clear: The government isn’t paying for service members’ abortions, as the odious Hyde Amendment bans such coverage, no matter how much GOP extremists try to spin it that way. The Pentagon is simply giving people time off and reimbursing travel expenses to go to another state for medical care, which is completely lawful and routine. And on trans care, the Pentagon is giving trans service members the health care that most major medical plans offer to all Americans. This is vital care for transgender service members.

What the GOP is doing is abominable; it’s attempting to prevent people in the military from getting medical care. Women need reproductive health care for other reasons beyond abortion as well, and they often can’t get it in the state they are stationed in because clinics have been shut down.

The GOP is clearly showing its movement toward a federal abortion ban, and the so-called moderates are there for it, no matter what they claim. The leadership hasn’t learned from the debacle of 2022 and how the end of Roe has harmed the party in elections. They’re bowing to the extremists, who are in control, and forcing everyone else to go along with them.

It doesn’t matter what representatives truly believe, whether on abortion or transgender care; how they vote is how they should be defined. So reporters must stop calling members "moderate" when their votes don’t reflect it.

This vote in particular is also a stunning attack on the military, as a must-pass bill to fund the military is being derailed. Democrats are vowing not to vote for it—and their votes will be needed in the closely divided House—because of the vicious attacks on service members’ health care.

So the media should once and for all stop calling the GOP the party that supports the troops and stop pandering to fake moderates. South Carolina’s Representative Nancy Mace is trotted out onto all the TV talk shows as a so-called moderate, where she laments about the GOP’s focus on abortion and urges the party against these votes. But when it comes time to vote, she votes for every one of these measures. including yesterday’s.

Here she was speaking out against the bill just a day before the vote to CNN’s Manu Raju:

We’re going to continue to have amendments and bills that are not going to be compassionate to women. We’re going to lose seats. We’re going to lose races because of this.

But the following day, Mace, just like all the others, voted for this draconian attack on women. Whether they are worried about facing a primary by a MAGA extremist or fearful of losing financial support from leadership, these people are voting in a way they claim not to agree with. But all that matters is the vote itself. If you’re voting with the extremists, you are an extremist.

It’s time for the media to stop telling us there are "moderates" in the GOP who are "pushing back." Because when push comes to shove, there are none to be found.