You won't believe this Republican's bigoted excuse for government shutdown.
by Alix Breeden/Daily Kos
Congress is barreling toward a government shutdown, with Democrats fighting to protect health care for millions of Americans and Republicans determined to stay the destructive course.
And predictably, GOP lawmakers are relying on hyperbolic lies to justify their stance.
"Their plan is to spend an additional trillion dollars to restore all the things that we rescinded like Guatemalan sex changes," Rep. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said on Fox News Monday.
The Republican went on to claim that Democrats want Medicaid funding to pay for the healthcare of "illegal immigrants" as he tossed around other hot button terms like "DEI."
At best, Schmitt’s claims echo ongoing rhetoric that painted Congress-approved programs as “woke.”
Earlier this year, when multibillionaire Elon Musk still had his hands in the White House, DOGE bros began cutting domestic and foreign aid programs that helped others in need.
One of the cuts made in February sparked the inaccurate and absurd idea that the U.S. government was footing the bill for sex change operations in Guatemala.
While Republicans, like Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, began yelling about the so-called incredulous funding, a closer look showed that the money went toward “gender affirming care.”
On the surface, gender-affirming care has been used as a bogeyman term by the right, pointing toward surgeries and puberty blockers.
But the program in question encapsulated things like hormone treatment for women experiencing a drop in testosterone due to menopause, according to Snopes. And in the case of puberty blockers, some children are administered the blockers when they begin experiencing puberty too soon.
Then again, taking a complicated issue and turning it into a black-and-white, anti-woke cause was and is a big part of the GOP’s crusade.
Around the same time, DOGE cut a program sending funds to a nonprofit organization working in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan.
As previously reported, Musk and Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer bragged about ending the program that put “America last.”
However, the nonprofit organization was specifically fighting things like child labor and forced labor in the dictator-run country.
And, as explained to Daily Kos by the nonprofit, keeping child labor from making production costs cheap around the world would ensures that pay around the globe won’t be cut to compete with dangerously low wages.
Similarly, DOGE bragged about cutting funding to a program that they said brought food justice education to transgender people.
But a quick look past the headlines showed the Northern California-based group they ripped money from was really built to help cultivate a new generation of farmers while providing access to underrepresented groups like the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
While these are just a few examples of the GOP taking weaponized terms to justify spending cuts, the Trump administration has clawed back plenty of money in the name of anti-woke.
And though some groups and agencies are seeing restorative justice, others are still in limbo.
But as politicians like Schmitt continue to push bogus issues in a cynical ploy to make headlines, a look behind the sensationalized curtain shows just how much thought went into these pre-approved programs to begin with.
Congress is barreling toward a government shutdown, with Democrats fighting to protect health care for millions of Americans and Republicans determined to stay the destructive course.
And predictably, GOP lawmakers are relying on hyperbolic lies to justify their stance.
"Their plan is to spend an additional trillion dollars to restore all the things that we rescinded like Guatemalan sex changes," Rep. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said on Fox News Monday.
The Republican went on to claim that Democrats want Medicaid funding to pay for the healthcare of "illegal immigrants" as he tossed around other hot button terms like "DEI."
At best, Schmitt’s claims echo ongoing rhetoric that painted Congress-approved programs as “woke.”
Earlier this year, when multibillionaire Elon Musk still had his hands in the White House, DOGE bros began cutting domestic and foreign aid programs that helped others in need.
One of the cuts made in February sparked the inaccurate and absurd idea that the U.S. government was footing the bill for sex change operations in Guatemala.
While Republicans, like Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, began yelling about the so-called incredulous funding, a closer look showed that the money went toward “gender affirming care.”
On the surface, gender-affirming care has been used as a bogeyman term by the right, pointing toward surgeries and puberty blockers.
But the program in question encapsulated things like hormone treatment for women experiencing a drop in testosterone due to menopause, according to Snopes. And in the case of puberty blockers, some children are administered the blockers when they begin experiencing puberty too soon.
Then again, taking a complicated issue and turning it into a black-and-white, anti-woke cause was and is a big part of the GOP’s crusade.
Around the same time, DOGE cut a program sending funds to a nonprofit organization working in the cotton fields of Uzbekistan.
As previously reported, Musk and Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez DeRemer bragged about ending the program that put “America last.”
However, the nonprofit organization was specifically fighting things like child labor and forced labor in the dictator-run country.
And, as explained to Daily Kos by the nonprofit, keeping child labor from making production costs cheap around the world would ensures that pay around the globe won’t be cut to compete with dangerously low wages.
Similarly, DOGE bragged about cutting funding to a program that they said brought food justice education to transgender people.
But a quick look past the headlines showed the Northern California-based group they ripped money from was really built to help cultivate a new generation of farmers while providing access to underrepresented groups like the LGBTQ+ community and people of color.
While these are just a few examples of the GOP taking weaponized terms to justify spending cuts, the Trump administration has clawed back plenty of money in the name of anti-woke.
And though some groups and agencies are seeing restorative justice, others are still in limbo.
But as politicians like Schmitt continue to push bogus issues in a cynical ploy to make headlines, a look behind the sensationalized curtain shows just how much thought went into these pre-approved programs to begin with.
