With this week's diary we shift away from individual stupidity and take a closer look at the collective stupidity of the GOP majority in the House. With so much carazy from the likes of Boehner, Cantor, Bachmann, Gohmert, Issa, West and others on a regular basis, it should be no surprise that as a group, the GOP representatives are doing their best to make things miserable for everyone in sight (except the 1%, of course).
Women and children last: In their laser-like focus on jobs (err, pardon me, abortion), the GOP reps have managed once again to make things WORSE for women around the world. Apparently, attacking the reproductive health of American women is not enough - it's important to think big! The House Appropriations Committee voted to cut off all funding for the United Nations Population Fund and reinstate the "Mexico City Policy" (aka the 'Global gag Rule'), which prohibits any U.S. support to international or overseas non-governmental organizations that discuss or provide abortion information or services. This, of course, greatly restricts the amount of planning family services that most such agencies can provide. The irony (which apparently is lost on Republicans who actually oppose abortion on moral grounds) is that this means less contraception and family planning services - which means more unwanted pregnancies - which means (surprise!) more abortions!
And so a vote that is meant to show how much those GOP reps care about the unborn, and want to 'protect' them, leads to more abortions - and endangers the lives of more women and already-born children, by denying vital health care services. But the GOP apparently does not give a damn, because symbolic statements are more apparent than real-world consequences.
Oh what a tangled web we weave - when control of the uterus we fail to achieve: As part of its continuing all-anti-abortion-all-the-time legislative agenda, the GOP set up an anti-abortion bill - the pre-Natal Non-Discrimination Act, which purports to outlaw the non-existent problem of Americans having abortions for sex selection - to deliberately fail when it came to a vote. Huh? Well, yes. There was no reason the bill couldn't have passed the House, but the GOP leadership introduced it under special rules that require a two-thirds majority to pass.
Why? Presumably so they can talk about how vital this bill is and then blame Democrats for its not being passed. Yes, even the sacred GOP principle of favoring any restriction on abortion that one can think of is secondary to political gamesmanship against the Democrats. It makes one wonder if they have any genuine principles at all (other than always doing whatever favors the 1% and the biggest corporations, that is).
I love the smell of ozone in the morning: The GOP reps may hate women's health, but they sure do love air pollution - this time in the form of low-level ozone. The House Energy and Commerce Committee decided that ozone levels should not be regulated on the basis of the best available health science, but instead let costs to pulluters determine what level of reduction is required.
Did we mention how much the representatives voting for this got from the oil and gas industry? No? Well, it's at the link. Sad, really, how cheaply some of our elected officials can be bought.
The best legislature that money can buy: Ah, the Tea Partiers - those paragons of resistance to the corrupting and controlling influence of big money and corporate power. They spoke out against bank bailouts and Too Big to Fail. The, when it came to actually voting to rein in the big banks? Not so much.
Did we mention who's been making bubig political donations to the GOP Tea partiers? No? Enjoy the link. There's nothing like a stack of greenbacks to change one's perpective.
Misspoken apologies: One individual act of crazy is worthy of special mention, however. When last we met Rep. Coffman, he was telling us that President Obama was not American. Well, maybe not in a birther sense, he hastened to clarify - it's just that he doesn't share white conservative values, which Coffman apparently believes are the definition of real America. But he was quickly forced to announce that he misspoke, and he apologizes. Really. And when repeatedly pressed by a reporter on the issue, this hilarious exchange is what ensued. Coffman's Democratic opponent in the next election should run a campaign ad just featuring this exchange on an endless loop.