1y ago

House Votes to Block U.S. Funding to Rebuild Gaza

The House voted on Wednesday to block the U.S. from funding the reconstruction of Gaza, whose destruction was financed by the U.S. to a large degree.

Other Republicans filed amendments combating the movement to boycott, divest, or sanction Israel for its illegal occupation of Palestine.

The provision was introduced by Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla.; Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y.; and Eli Crane, R-Ariz., as an amendment to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense budget. While Democrats opposed the amendment, which passed by a simple voice vote, they did not request a recorded vote.

Among the amendments with Democratic sponsors are ones expressing support for joint military ventures between the U.S. and Israel.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., for his part, filed an amendment to require an assessment of the accuracy of the Gaza Ministry of Health’s death toll accounting. Over the last eight months, supporters of Israel have pointed to the fact that Hamas — as Gaza’s governing entity — controls the health ministry as a way to undermine its death count. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Health’s figures have in the past been corroborated by the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, and even the Israeli government itself.

73 comments

If you don’t like how Congress represents you, vote in congressional elections. Democratic congressional election turnout is consistently less than 50%.
Make note of your state election dates and vote for change.
https://ballotpedia.org/Elections_by_state_and_year
- If you don’t like how Congress represents you, stop voting Democrat or Republican.
  
  So stop doing the most influential thing citizens can do to affect the government?
  What’s step two? Accept the Republican takeover or fail to violently overthrow the government resulting in massive losses?
  You and givesomegucks should stop encouraging voter disengagement.
  We’re only here from repeated failure to vote and fruitless attempts to elect third-party candidates.
  
  Okay, I'll bite:
  How does not voting either Democrat or Republican help us right now?
  
  Third parties rarely run for Congress. This is actually how you can tell that the US has no serious third parties. None of them make Congress even a remote priority. If they somehow won the presidency, they wouldn't be able to do anything because they have no Congressional support.
  You've inadvertently highlighted why your only options are to vote Democrat or Republican. No other party is serious about trying to win. If they were, they'd be building up a local presence in all 50 states and winning local elections. Then they'd look at state legislatures and governors. Then Congress for the House and Senate, and then the presidency.
  That's a lot of work though, so they'd rather run presidential candidates and grift for donations. The argument typically goes that they're trying to bring awareness to their party through the presidential election -- but how exactly is that going for them? It's readily apparent that strategy doesn't work, and they'd be better off putting in the hard work to become actual political contenders.
  If you don't like how Congress represents you, support your desired representatives and senators in primaries, and then vote for the person you dislike least in the general election. Or, encourage a third party candidate to run who has statewide recognition and plenty of political experience.
  Democrats and Republicans are the only options because all the other choices are batshit insane or just want to steal your donations.
  
  Unless you're capable of reasoning in which case you'd see that there are only 3 possible outcomes:
  vote democrat to reduce the amount of harm done
  vote third party and convince literally millions of other people to do so also (very very very unlikely to the point of basically impossibility)
  take literally any other action which at worst fully enables Trump and at best remains complicit in him amping up support for slaughtering Palestinians.
  Options two and three are the same option in reality. But I know that Extra-Militant-Joffrey is in denial of these facts.
  
  It was a republican amendment
  
  Until and unless we get ranked voting, we're stuck using the shit two-party system if we want to actually have a chance for our votes matter.
  
  The Data presented does not support the conclusion. This suggests dishonesty on your part.
  
  This was a Republican bill that Democrats opposed. Fuck your "both sides" bullshit
  
  I'm 13 and I think you're right. What are primaries btw?
  
  A true big brain (rot) take. Keep trying genius
  
  bOtH sIdEs, amirite? Clown
  
  That's not realistic in America with our duopoly and FPTP voting system. Voting for progressive candidates locally is our best bet and being represented, and supporting Ranked Voting systems in place of FPTP.
Obviously this is cruel and the republicans can go fuck themselves. But also it would be quite hilariously stupid for the US to pay to destroy Gaza and pay to rebuild it.
I would say help rebuild it, but perhaps they should have reconsidered the destroying part. But hey what do I know. Something something important ally in the region, just a little smidge of genocide and apartheid. All good nothing to see here
- We did exactly that in Iraq and Afghanistan. To add insult to injury, VP Dick Cheney’s company, Haliburton Oil, got the rebuilding contracts.
Oh how Haliburton has fallen, they should have a $20 bil bid to rebuild their schools and infrastructure...
While Democrats opposed the amendment, which passed by a simple voice vote, they did not request a recorded vote.
Before you blame this on republicans, Dems didn't even challenge it for a vote so they had to put their names on it.
They just fucking stood there.
Wonder why Hakeem Jefferies didn't even try...
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/hakeem-jeffries/summary?cid=N00033640
If you wonder why pro Israel Dems keep getting to the general where Dem voters have no option but voting for them:
That has made AIPAC the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year, according to a POLITICO analysis of campaign finance data — and drawn outrage from the left over what it sees as GOP meddling in Democratic contests.
Nearly half of AIPAC donors to Democratic candidates this year have some recent history of giving to Republican campaigns or committees.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/09/aipac-republican-donors-democratic-primaries-00162404
Anyone want to guess what US politician has taken more money than anyone else from pro-Israel lobbyists?
And yes, I'm aware AIPAC isn't required to register as an agent of a foreign government, they get an exception.
The only reason it exists is because the prior group did have to register as a foreign agent in 1962. So they rebranded and donated to the people in charge of deciding who goes on that list, so AIPAC has never had to go on that list.
This has been an issue for over 60 years and there's no rational excuse to keep ignoring it.
Edit:
I should have presented the way for Dems to stop this:
In the United States House of Representatives, the filibuster (the right to unlimited debate) was used until 1842, when a permanent rule limiting the duration of debate was created.[70] The disappearing quorum was a tactic used by the minority until Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed eliminated it in 1890.[71] As the membership of the House grew much larger than the Senate, the House had acted earlier to control floor debate and the delay and blocking of floor votes. The magic minute allows party leaders to speak for as long as they wish, which Kevin McCarthy used in 2021 to set a record for the longest speech on the House floor (8 hours and 33 minutes) in opposition to the Build Back Better Act.[72][73]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster
Republicans did it for 8.5 hours just a few years ago...
Jefferies agrees with Republicans on this though.
Which is one of the big complaints about current Dem leadership. They only fight if they're 100% sure they'll win. Voters want politicians willing to fight even if it's hard and losing is possible.
We can't fight facism like this, because they fight every battle even if they don't have a chance of winning.
- I'm sorry, "before you blame this on republicans"? Republicans vote for Horrible Policy, pass it, but we should blame it on democrats for not ...calling for a recorded vote? Yeesh.
  Democrats didn't have the votes. You don't like this result, vote out republicans.
  
  givesomefucks covertly attacks Democrats in every comment. It’s often a baseless argument, beginning with some truth. They start making a good point, then twist it into a veiled criticism of Biden or Democrats, even when it’s the fault of Republicans or entirely apolitical.
  In this case you’re correct. The Republican majority in the House makes a vote pointless.
  Ironically, the same message givesomefucks is spreading will disengage people who may otherwise increase Democratic representation in government, leading to actual positive change.
  They may just want to ensure they have something to complain about next year.
  
  Democrats didn’t have the votes.
  Why is it Dems need a super majority to do anything then?
  The fillibuster, right?
  Like, you know the reason you call for a vote is so a fillibuster can happen, right?
  If there's no vote, there's no chance to filibuster.
  So the reason no one had a chance to fillinuster, is Hakeem Jefferies let it happen without a vote.
- Wow, not a word about the Republicans that introduced the measure to block funding and who hold a majority in the House.
  It’s clear which party and which presidential candidate is a better choice for people who care about Gaza and want to resist right-wing regimes (such as Netanyahu) worldwide. The Democratic one.
  
  The Democrats gladly participated. If their actions are the same what does the wording matter?
- BoTh SiDeS.. bla, bla bla... There must be some mistake here, Trump causes all the bad stuff, we just have to keep Trump out of office so then everything will be great! Trump is a literal fascist! He's going to do awful things, Biden and his dems are doing so good, basically the human form of the word "perfection"!
  
  I'm sorry, I can't really follow what you're saying here.
  But it might help if you read my reply to the other person about why without a vote there couldn't be a filibuster allowing this to happen with a Republican majority rather than a supermajority
  Now, enough Dems might have voted with Republicans on this, but I want to know their fucking names at least
  Not for them to hide behind republicans skirt and count on people blaming them.

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