Despite Authoritarian Warnings, 149 House Democrats Vote to Hand Trump $840 Billion for Military | “If an opposition party votes like this, it’s not in opposition. It may not even be a party.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/democrats-military-spending-bill
34 Comments
At this point the dems are as guilty as the republicans. But don’t worry guys, Chuck Schumer’s gearing up to say the word “fuck” again at some point in the next couple weeks, so you know he’s serious this time.
They trying to lose the midterms?
So like, when we say we need to jettison Democratic leadership, this is why. This is unconscionable. All the people who always scream “Well they don’t have the majority, what could they POSSIBLY DO?!”
I mean, at bare fucking minimum, they can whip their own fucking party not to KEEP VOTING FOR TRUMP ADMIN AGENDA.
This is a fucking embarrassment. They NEED to be demonstrating a contrasting version of America from the fascist fucking nightmare Republicans have saddled us with, and increasingly they’re simply rubber-stamping said fascist fucking nightmare.
These people are truly a disgrace. Craven, cowardly fools. Everyone needs to stop talking and squabbling about this and primary out every single senior member of this party, every stooge who votes in line with the Trump agenda, and overtake the party and stack it with people who actually have ideals they’re willing to defend.
**EDIT**:
For ten years now, I have heard people exactly like those in the comments of this thread assuring me that Democrats have A Plan. Ten years of excusing Democratic incompetence, of spinning it into necessity. Of insisting that this corporate-controlled, useless, craven cohort of coddled stooges is the best hope we have against fascism, even as they shamelessly and immediately capitulate to every single new fascist advance.
I have heard more times than I can count that all their capitulation to Trump is actually in service of a greater agenda. It’s smart politics! They *need* to make THIS concession, because don’t you see, it’s part of the grand plan to get more seats. To win. Later. At some point. Sometime.
When they have power, these are the people that condemn using it in any way, shape or form. When they don’t have power, these same people insist that there’s LITERALLY NOTHING that can be done.
When they have leverage – like, say, the ability to shut down the government in order to force Republicans to meet their demands – these are also the same people that insist Democrats should just give in, immediately, and let Republicans have everything they want.
Don’t worry guys! Sure, Trump got elected a second time, but it won’t get REALLY bad! Chuck Schumer knows what he’s doing, guys. Don’t worry, Democrats will – oh, what’s that?
Trump is forming plans to invade Greenland?
Fascist thugs are executing US citizens in broad daylight on a suburban street?
Well, uh, never fear, DEMOCRATS WILL VOTE IN LARGE NUMBERS FOR TRUMP’S BUDGET!
THIS is the thing that will help them WIN, don’t you see? They NEED to give the military $840 billion dollars, so that they can win seats in the 2026 election!
It’s all part of the plan, you see? Yes, we know shit has gone from bad to absolute fucking catastrophic, all under the leadership and guidance and strategy of these same fucking idiots, but just have patience! 80-year-old Chuck Schumer is going to pull a miracle out of his wrinkled ass.
Right after he gets back from his fucking book tour that he wanted to take just months after Donald Trump won in 2024 and began advancing his fascist agenda. Right after that book tour, ol’ Chuck and his pal Jeffries are gonna start working for YOU.
They have a plan.
No they don’t! No they fucking don’t! No they don’t! They don’t have a plan! They’re not doing things that will help you! They literally never have! They’ve failed and demonstrated profound incompetence over and over and over again for years as they’ve enriched themselves and sat in luxury and privelege and acted with disgraceful cowardice.
For ten years we have slid faster and faster into a total fascist collapse. Because you people – the voters – are repeatedly putting your trust in incompetent stooges who do not deserve power, do not have a plan, and are rotting in their chairs as fascism sweeps the nation.
You are wrong. Democrats should not vote for this bill. They should not vote for any Republican bill. Ever, period. They should not cooperate.
They should be out in the fuckign streets. Every Democrat member of the House and Senate should be in Minnesota, on social media, taking videos of ICE shooting grandmothers in the fucking face with pepper spray.
Every single one of you defending Democrats as if they have any fucking strategy **do not know what the fuck you’re talking about**.
Ten years I have watched profound, rampant Democratic incompetence lose over and over and over and over and over again to a party currently led by an 80 year old man with profound dementia.
STOP FUCKING DEFENDING THEM.
They are ALWAYS wrong. They never win. They are craven, consultant-captured stooges passively allowing the fascist collapse of the country we all live in, for no other reason than because they’re craven and utterly and totally uninterested in you.
How many of these people have to betray you to your fucking faces for you to finally break and vote out the entire rotten DNC leadership. Every single one of them. They have failed you more times than it is possible to express, and they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.
You don’t need a new party, you just need to get pissed, to get together with other people who are pissed, and ENTRENCH yourselves in the DNC to the point where the number of us pissed at these dipshits outnumbers the feckless defenders of the old guard, and we can finally root these people out and get good people in the party.
I want to remind you that Zohran Mamdani was vehemently opposed by all the DNC established politicians and their broader media apparatus.
The DNC preferred rapist and disgraced old-people-killer Andrew fuckign Cuomo to lead NYC. That was who Schumer and Jeffries and all the consultants and establishment wanted for the city. They wanted to put a rapey, disgraced halfwit in charge of the city.
And you know what? They were fucking wrong! They’re always wrong, **because they’re incompetent and uninterested in serving you**.
In the fist *two weeks* Zohran has done a dizzying amount of incredible work for the city. The people chose right. It was a very easy choice, and it was the antithesis of what these dimwits in charge of the party tried to choose for you.
So why the fuck do you still believe they know what they’re doing?
If you’re a charismatic, social-media savvy progressive, run for office. If you’re not, find someone who is, and throw your support behind them. Get involved. These people only own the party because literally almost no one ever shows up.
They are deeply incompetent and far out of their depth, and the sooner you fucking realize that get involved the sooner you’ll have a country to be proud of.
You will literally never have a country worth anything when the party is represented by the likes of Chuck fucking Schumer. Accept it, move past it, and let’s get shit done.
**EDIT 2**:
**I want to be really clear that what I’m saying is everyone needs to get MORE involved in the DNC, not less**.
People who don’t vote are complicit. People who vote for third parties that have no possibility of ever competing in the short term, are complicit.
You need to get pissed and become an inextricable thorn in the DNC engine. You need to do that with as many friends as possible. You need to completely disregard all the established DNC leadership and become a guerilla unit within that funnels as many possible progressives into positions as possible, until you outweight these idiot leaders and can shove them out.
The DNC has become a giant boomer entitlement where ancient fossilized fools who have been there for fifty years believe they’re entitled to positions of power and leadership simply by virtue of having existed. And they’re all like that.
You don’t have to accept that. They do not OWN the party. Voters do – IF they show up. Literally all those fools could be gone in an instant if primaried.
That’s what should be done. Thrust yourself into the party, absorb it, become it, vote out the useless fucks, become numerous, and then use that tool to crush fascism.
The Harlem Globetrotters play a game in which they can perform their entertaining antics, the outcome is obviously that they’ll win, and it is all just part of the show. The opponent is the Washington Generals. Centrist Democrats are the Washington Generals. Just part of the MAGA show.
Seriously why the fuck are we spending this much on our military, we really should close some of the 800 military bases we have around the world and cut this spending. Its not sustainable especially given this is burning good will there is no guarantee that the treasury sales will continue like they have in the past now to fund this.
From the day trump took office every democrat should have voted no on everything, full stop, no matter what, just like republicans do in opposition to great effect. Use every procedural trick and downright disruption to stall and delay everything.
Let the republicans use their majority to run things.
The only exception being the Epstein act.
This is in no way a defense of 180 Democrats. Just a little insight.
Veterans, active duty and military families are ultra-sensitive to issues that impact them along with a good number of people who are normally pro-military. This stems from the Vietnam war and the sight of people spitting on and abusing returning soldiers who either volunteers or were drafted to serve. Since that, the public opinion of the military has changed drastically.
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2007/03/22/iraq-and-vietnam-a-crucial-difference-in-opinion/
Since then, the budget of the DoD has increased from $83 billion in 1970 to today’s $840 billion. When Republicans threw a hissy fit over the deficit, debt and the debt ceiling in 2013. They DEMANDED a reduction in DoD spending to the tune of over $100 billion and then blamed Obama and Democrats and used messaging such as: “President Obama and Hillary Clinton have also overseen deep cuts in our military, which only invite more aggression…from our adversaries,” Trump declared with sweeping rhetoric that described a world in chaos after the foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration. “Our adversaries are chomping at the bit.”
I don’t recall seeing much pushback from Clinton’s campaign about the above sentiment or claims, so this is one way Republicans use DoD funding as a weapon, even when they’re the ones who demanded cuts.
Since the 1970s, Democrats have pretty much given in to whatever demands or bills are put in front of them for the DoD. Lately, Senator Sanders and a few other House dems have been speaking out that the excessive amount of money could be better spent elsewhere. Right before the 2026 midterms, the last thing Dem leadership wants to do is be seen as soft on defense spending.
I personally believe that we should not be spending money we do not have on programs that enrich contractors and their bottom lines while the nation suffers under the boot of the current administration and all of their supporters. Spending more on education, healthcare, social programs and other safety nets are much more beneficial to taxpayers and the economy than to centralize it to corporations.
My problem isn’t with Dems compromising, my problem is that they are the only party who does and now it’s very much to the detriment of our country.
In a perfect democratic republic, parties would have ethical leaders and vote for compromise unilaterally. That doesn’t happen here. It’s moderately happened with previous presidential administrations, but Trump is such a malignant narcissist that it literally can’t happen now. He is too torn up by losing in 2020. His entire psyche is dedicated to seeking praise and punishing dissent.
If one party is unwilling to compromise, the end result is civil war. The Dems are seemingly trying to avoid that while also objectively allowing things to devolve further.
It’s a no-win situation, but IMO compliance with the detrimental agenda of the right is synonymous with being complicit.
Leadership at the highest level, in both parties, in this country has been failing us all for a very long time and it’s coming to a head with a bully administration that has no morals, no empathy, and no actual plans for anything that they’re enacting other than creating an autocratic authoritarian dictatorship that’s main purpose is to grow the already wealthy while keeping an oppressive finger on the other 99.999999%.
The people still have the power. The question is: how do we wield it?
I think we all know the dark answer to that…
Why the FUCK are we paying taxes for real!
What the hell?! We need new House Leadership this is ridiculous. The country is falling apart and they give him more money? What about healthcare?!? The ACA subsidies? This leadership is a complete joke!!
Remember this when they tell you to wait until the midterms and “the Dems will fix it”.
There is no opposition, the entire government apparatus WANTS the pain and misery inflicted on the citizenry. Always keep that in mind, there is no voting our way out of this.
Democrats being useless as ever
This is why we lost to a mindless zombie last election
Such an easy punching bag and target
Those in congress can’t even stand up for what is righteous because they’re only worried about their reelection
Useless, spineless ahs
And where this money is coming from?
The country is broke: they’re unable to raise taxes and unable to reduce expenses. That’s no government, that’s a circus.
Disgusting
You can see who voted which way here:
[H.R. 7148: Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 — GovTrack.us](https://share.google/TKwKkNN8GITUofCas)
So many people saying to “stay home” and not vote dem because of this during the mid terms lol. Bots are out!
Universal Healthcare – “HoW aRe We GoInG tO pAy FoR tHaT”
Funny how that question is NEVER asked when it comes to increasing military spending…
Because they’re it a party with a unified ideology. They are a weak coalition of everyone not a Republican.
This includes everything from moderate conservatives to AOC.
Primary voters in each district are what determine what kind of Democrat they are.
I hate how there’s always infinite spending on the most over funded military in the world, and when is the last time a foreign army has set foot on US soil? The British? We can throw nearly a trillion dollars on military spending for an international dick waving contest, but there’s never money for health care.
Been saying for years that the military build up was going to be used for/on American citizens. And here we are…
That’s a common military budget at, covering $268 bil for personnel salaries, $35 bil for Healthcare costs, housing, installation funding, and much more. That is a fairly typical annual budget.
From my understanding, military appropriations almost always are unanimously approved, as its seen as a win for service members and vets
I understand being an opposition party but you do still need to be functional/flexible in some matters
This is extremely misleading, the 341-88 vote is for the entire minibus spending bill which was negotiated and voted for in several smaller bills.
The part which funded DHS which includes ICE was voted as 220-207, with 7 democrats crossing the aisle.
Like bringing home a loaded gun to give as a birthday gift to your husband who beats you.
Insanity.
Americans, you need to strike the fear of God in your representatives. They shouldn’t feel like they’re in jeopardy of losing their next election. They should fear what happens when over 200M Americans decide they have nothing left to lose.
Schumer And Jeffries are failing the American people.
It’s time to be honest with ourselves. We lost. The GOP holds ALL the positions of power and this is the culmination of 40 years of manipulation of fraud/deceit/cruelty come to fruition. America’s not just floundering or headed in the wrong direction. It’s over. If you’re young, get out by any means possible before the big event we can all see plain as day. If you’re old, just hang on a bit longer and die peacefully if possible
I’m not in the know here, but did they give reasoning? an opposition party that just automatically votes no on things the other party wants is no way to improve society.
id like some clear, easily accessible, public explanations on why exactly this bill was deemed favorable by the democrats, or even better, a website where each voting member explains their stance on every vote, since I’m positive some of the 80 year old zombies just vote yes or no based on who created a bill without knowing the contents. if they can’t produce an answer I find acceptable, THEN i start throwing fire.
earn the paycheck my taxes give you to represent me. show me your work.
Time for massive change in democratic representation
I wrote my local congressman (who voted yes, even though they’re a CA Dem) calling him out as shameful and embarrassing and got back a generic email saying “I’m working to lower your costs, protect our community, and uphold our democracy.”
What a fucking joke.
Abolish ICE. Abolish the Republicans. Abolish the Democrats.
Democratic part is effectively just the other side of the same coin. There’s certainly a few good people in there, but MAGA repubs are hard right, Democrats are barely to the left of it. All in the pockets of corporate donors and outside interest. There is hardly a shred of integrity left in the political system.
At what point do you guys recognize that you are the enemy of the politician class?
It’s genuinely embarrassing that you guys are still going along with this dog and pony show. There are no democrats, there are no republicans, they’re all controlled by the same group of people and you’re being played against each other.
“But how are the democrats supposed to fight if they’re in the minority?!”
If they’d voted this thing down, it would’ve failed because 22 Republicans defected. Absolute clown party…but you will all forget this next week when Trump does something crazy and go back to shitting on leftists who demand better from the Dems. You’re all complicit in this.
P.S. All the Dems that voted for this (including the ones of the Progressive Caucus) are Israel-firsters who rake in hundreds of thousands from AIPAC like Crockett.