Colorado’s congressional delegation voted along unusual bipartisan lines for the Defense bill that passed this week authorizing $895 billion in spending priorities for the new year including a significant 14.5% pay raise for enlisted members.
The bill numbers thousands of pages, yet Politico reports some Democrats got into a snit over language that took up months of negotiations because it does not cover gender treatments “that could result in sterilization” for military children under 18.
Because that’s more important to some Democrats than military protection from the world’s evil-doers.
The partisan holdouts voting against the bill included Colorado Democrat US. Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse and Brittany Pettersen.
Voting in support of the Defense measure were Democrat U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper U.S. Reps. Jason Crow and Yadira Caraveo.
Republican Reps. Doug Lamborn, Lauren Boebert and Greg Lopez also voted for the bill.
Hickenlooper was able to gloss over the whole sterilizing children who suffered from gender dysphoria issue. Probably because he’s entering reelection season for his seat.
Colorado is central to our national security and the annual defense bill shows it. This bill invests in our military, including a 14.5 percent pay raise for our junior troops, so our service members in Colorado and across the globe can continue keeping us safe. https://t.co/YWdDLSOPCU
— Senator John Hickenlooper (@SenatorHick) December 18, 2024
But DeGette and Pettersen were steadfast in their determination that the Defense bill include the controversial surgeries.
DeGette ranted that the bill was hijacked to advance an extreme social agenda and a toxic policy against children by not paying for surgeries that would sterilize them.
Technically it was hijacked, by Democrats like her.
“Our military families sacrifice so much for us, and we should do everything we can to support them,” Pettersen said in a statement.
That so many Democrats are more worried about taxpayers footing the bill for such controversial surgeries for the children of military members rather than ensuring our defense systems are property funded, is exactly why Democrats lost the White House, Senate, and House in the last election.