House GOP ‘moderates’ increase grumbling about party extremism, still not doing anything about it

The “Biden 18,” those House Republicans representing districts that voted for President Joe Biden in 2020, are getting a lot more vocal about the terrible bills their leadership is forcing them to vote on. That bitching has increased since the Democrats’ big wins in Tuesday’s elections.

It came to a head Thursday when leadership was forced to pull the Financial Services and General Government appropriations bill, which includes funding for Washington, D.C., and included a repeal of the city’s Reproductive Health Nondiscrimination Act, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees who get abortions or use contraception. And the moderates are broadcasting their objections to the media.

“The fact that the FSGG bill includes a repeal of the city of Washington, DC's policy causes a lot of concerns,” Rep. Marc Molinaro of New York told Axios. Rep. John Duarte of California added that the larger group opposing the bill is ”just sick of every appropriations bill being a vehicle for some off the wall abortion policy.”

But it wasn’t until after the House Freedom Caucus and Rep. Matt Gaetz started raising hell about the bill that it got pulled. They were mad in part because some of their dozens of obnoxious amendments were defeated. Let me repeat that: They weren’t opposing the bill because they were denied a chance to offer amendments. They had this tantrum because their amendments were voted on and rejected—and because they hate democracy.