House Dems Chant "Shame" at GOP Over LGBT Bill Vote
Dems seethe after House GOP switches votes to block a LGBT amendment https://t.co/D5DQnhLriF via @rachaelmbade and @BresPolitico
— POLITICO (@politico) May 20, 2016
CNN — House Democrats and Republicans on Thursday angrily confronted each other after a Democratic proposal to ban taxpayer money for federal contractors who discriminate against LGBT workers was defeated minutes after it appeared to have the votes to pass.
The chaotic scene — accompanied by loud chants of “shame, shame, shame” — included one Democrat facing off with the second-highest-ranking House Republican, accusations of foul play and a series of insults being traded openly on the House floor.
Tough to come back from a shame chant. Just really tough. It’s like being caught cheating once in golf or being caught downloading pirate porn — that’s just who you are now. Forever. Can’t be trusted on the course. Can’t ever not be a pirate porn guy.
And once people chant “shame!” and point and yell at you you’re just a shameful person. You’ve been shamed. You walk for eternity with your chin down and just feel generally embarrassed all the time. May not be fair, but it’s true. Tough to come back from a shame chant. In fact next time I get into a debate at the bar and the other guy starts to make some good points I might just start chanting shame and pointing at him. See what happens.
The gist of what happened is simple: the House was voting on a yearly spending bill to fund military construction projects and the Veterans Administration. All good things. Our military is awesome and our veterans are even more awesome. In 2014, Barry signed an executive order that prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against workers based on sexual orientation or gender identity; so, New York Democratic Rep. Patrick Maloney attached to the bill a one-sentence proposal to uphold that executive order.
Republicans did not like that. They felt this attachment would jeopardize the bill’s chances of passing in the Senate. So they juked and jived, pulled some strings, extended the vote, and persuaded a few folks who had voted for the bill to switch and vote against it.
Democrats did not like that. So they chanted shame and yelled at people. Things got tense. Reportedly, a dozen or so Republicans even crossed the aisle to tell Dems they felt what the GOP did was crap.
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How do I feel about it? I literally don’t care who or what you are. If you’re a good worker, pick up the shovel next to me and let’s work. And Barry, in these federal instances, protected that sentiment. If these were purely private businesses we were talking about, that’s a different story — private businesses doing private jobs should be able to hire and fire whoever the hell they want for whatever reason they want. But in the context of a federal contract, after it’s been signed as an executive order, put the damn sentence into the bill, protect the LGBTs, and send this puppy to the Senate.
Shame!