AOC slams Republicans for nearly shutting down the government to deny trans people health care

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) ripped into Republican lawmakers for spending time trying to get attacks on LGBTQ+ people and women into large spending bills before agreeing to a clean bill keeping the government funded for the next 45 days.

After spending weeks trying to pass 12 large funding bills in a form that could be passed by the Senate, on Friday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) tried to pass a bill with only Republican support to keep the government open. His bill included extreme border measures and cut 30% to most government agencies. The measure failed because 21 far-right House Republicans voted against it.

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On Saturday, McCarthy switched tactics and passed a bill to extend government funding until November 17 with no policy changes, a bill that got the support of Democrats and most Republicans, passing the House by a 335-91 margin (90 Republicans and one Democrat voted against it) and later by the Senate with an 88-9 margin just hours before the midnight deadline.

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On Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez was talking about how all of this started with House Republicans trying to muscle anti-LGBTQ+ and other extreme measures into the 12 funding bills, which include funding for the military and the Federal Aviation Administration, using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage for their policy agenda. One of those provisions bans the military’s health care program for servicemembers and their families, TRICARE, from paying for gender-affirming care.

“I think the Republican party right now is completely out of step with the American people,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s State of the Union.

“And what we saw today, what we saw this week leading up to this final hour compromise – not even a compromise but a capitulation by the Republican party – we saw them go through every single possible iteration of cutting benefits,” she continued. “They tried to cut, across the board, 30 percent of the budgets of critical agencies like the Social Security Administration.”

“Some of the most moderate members – quote-unquote moderate members – of the Republican party casted votes for things like 80 percent cuts under the Department of Education to low-income schools. This is not a moderate party, period. There are not moderates in the Republican party, there are just different degrees of fealty to Donald Trump. But it starts with a lot of fealty and then it grows to extreme fealty.”

“So we saw them go through every single iteration, walk into every single wall, run around the house like a Roomba until they found a door that House Democrats opened.  They finally realized that we should not shut down the government in order to deny trans service members the ability to get healthcare, in order to deny female service members the ability to get an abortion, and they filed an extension for 45 days until we’re back in here.”

The House will meet again today and begin negotiations for longer-term funding, including compromises on issues like border security and military aid to Ukraine. If they aren’t able to pass funding bills by Thanksgiving, the government could be shut down.