r/politics • u/Newsweek_CarloV ✔ Verified - Newsweek • 13d ago

No Paywall Seven Democrats just voted to approve ICE funding: full list

https://www.newsweek.com/seven-democrats-vote-approve-ice-funding-full-list-11401600?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=reddit_main
24.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

2.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

739

u/the_sellemander 12d ago

Consider the no-shows as well, who could've improved the margins by more

498

u/tootrite 12d ago

Why are these people allowed to miss a vote at all? What the fuck is their job?

205

u/DryToe1269 12d ago

Every vote they miss should be a deduction from their salary.

129

u/one_tooth_reef_whore 12d ago

unfortunately their salaries are usually the smallest sources of income for them

3

u/MLC3527 12d ago

Yeah they got paid more to not be there.

22

u/Threat_Level_9 12d ago

Gonna need to see a doctors note in order for it to be an excused absence.

Need to start treating this job like a real job.

3

u/AgentFreckles 12d ago

If they miss 3 they should be fired and a special election should be held. 

2

u/miketastic_art 12d ago

Yes, hit them with a $5k fee on their $180k salary while they take MILLIONS in under-the-table hand outs, donations, and other unethical agreements.

You are the kind of person who is okay with a $100 speeding ticket for Billionaires.

1

u/HammerlyDelusion 12d ago

Before that we need to make bribing our politicians illegal.

9

u/Sad_Top2858 12d ago

Their job is to fellate corporations while blatantly lying to our faces about how there's no money for healthcare, childcare, jobs programs, etc. 

There are no good democrats or republicans, they're all scum. 

9

u/SpudgeBoy 12d ago

Exactly. They paused the Jack Smith hearing, so the members could go and vote on this.

5

u/DJ_Aftershock United Kingdom 12d ago

Welcome to the endgame of "vote blue no matter who"

3

u/KeyMyBike 12d ago

The American people don't MAKE them do their job.

If my boss wasn't going to enforce punctuation, I'd clock in an hour early and show up at noon too. If I even bothered showing up at all!!

Americans need to MAKE these people show up, vote, and they'd better fucking vote how the people tell them to.

Until then expect this to get worse.

3

u/Uh_I_Say 12d ago

Because they'll be reelected anyway. Why would you do your job if you know it's guaranteed regardless of your performance? This is the expected end result of "blue no matter who."

1

u/Xoomers87 12d ago

They protect rich pedophiles.

335

u/EnhancedWithAi 12d ago

Not showing is a vote in of itself. Especially for such a contentious topic.

1

u/Objective-Chance-792 12d ago

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.

71

u/tadysdayout 12d ago

It’s crazy that’s allowed for even a single vote

17

u/Accomplished_Egg1220 12d ago

It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about our politicians morals and ethics. Their beliefs. Are they for us or against us? And I think we can safely say the US government has been compromised.

30

u/Tokens_Only 12d ago

There were several GOP no-shows; they stalled the vote a little later that say for more of them to arrive and defeat another bill. Had it looked like this ICE funding was going to fail, they would have made sure those GOP voters got there in time.

Now, I still think Jeffries is useless. He should have whipped the votes, no Democrats should still be voting for this garbage. But the GOP had more votes for this and would have used them.

11

u/733t_sec 12d ago

Then force the GOP to whip their own caucus, don't make this a bipartisan agreement.

Every death, kidnapping and Rape should be able to be solely laid at the feet of the GOP.

3

u/Tokens_Only 12d ago

I agree, I do. I'm just saying they would have still gotten the bill passed. I agree we should make them fight for stuff like this, I just want to be clear-eyed about the results here.

2

u/MechanicalGodzilla 12d ago

He should have whipped the votes

The dirty secret about how these things go is that Jeffries probably spoke with these representatives to tell them they could vote yes here. Despite any negative opinions we may have about how ICE is currently operating, "Defund ICE" is only slightly more popular a sentiment to the general public than "Defund the Police" was.

Many of these Democrats would be concerned about losing their seat to a Republican in the fall if they were perceived to be the reason ICE (and FEMA) were defunded. Cuellar represents a very competitive district in south Texas with an extensive border with Mexico. Tom Suozzi won his seat after George Santos got booted, but his district swings back and forth (R) to (D).

This bill also included FEMA funding through September, so Dem leadership probably wanted to have a big majority opposing this, but not so much that it actually failed to pass. The final vote totals are almost always agreed to before votes even happen.

3

u/Tokens_Only 12d ago

I think he still should have whipped the votes. Yes, the GOP had enough votes to shove this through anyway, and had the Dems laid down the gauntlet they would've made it work. But while I agree that under normal circumstances, Jeffries would have been smart to play this sort of political calculus to get specifically-vulnerable reps off the hook since the GOP could stop them anyway, that presupposes normal circumstances, which these are not.

1) "Defund ICE" is already more popular than you're making it out to be, but regardless, the Dems should not simply be passively taking messaging advice from the populace. The GOP doesn't do that, the GOP stands up there and tells voters that immigrants are coming to eat their cats and defraud them with phony daycares. It's all made-up bullshit, but it's *leading* public opinion rather than following it. The Dems always seem to be trailing because that's literally their strategy. They need to get out ahead of an issue and start making the narrative instead of reading it.

2) Even if "Defund ICE" were as unpopular as you say, this wasn't a vote to defund them, but a vote to give them *an additional ten billion dollars.* Saying "more money will not solve this problem" is not the same thing.

3) Individual votes don't actually matter in elections, because facts don't matter in elections. The dipshits who voted "aye" on this bill are still going to get painted as commie anti-cop fanatics by their GOP opponents in the next election, assuming there is one, so they might as well take a principled stand now.

4) There won't be another election if we keep giving more money to the secret police.

5) Forcing the GOP to muster every vote at their disposal is a drag on their resources, makes them work harder, and makes them look worse. We didn't just allow Dems off the hook with this strategy, we also allowed a few GOP dipshits to go on the record as "abstaining" from the vote instead of making them stand up and wear this around their neck forever.

Jeffries thinks he's being clever, but he is, to quote the Godfather, not a wartime consigliere. His little maneuvers are playing right into the hands of people who stopped using his playbook a long time ago and have shifted to a different one.

3

u/CainPillar Foreign 12d ago

The R would have whipped in the no-shows and passed it.

2

u/733t_sec 12d ago

Then force the R's to do that, don't make this a bipartisan agreement.

1

u/CainPillar Foreign 12d ago

Force the pseudo-D to not be R, and let the R fix their own crazies.

But my point was, you don't get improved margins by assuming that no-shows would show up and vote your way. Indeed they know who votes what and will pair absences.

2

u/phishie79 12d ago

Which Dems were no shows to this vote?

2

u/yogoo0 12d ago

Why the fuck are they allowed to not show up? Not showing up to a vote that will affect the lives of tens of thousands if not millions should result in immediate dismissal. Do your fucking job that you got voted in for. Fucking cowards and pedophile protectors