The GOP in the House of Representatives are proving through their actions that the tea party wing could give a fig about government waste.
Their current time and resource wasting budget negotiations have nothing to do with the budget and everything to do with enforcing their pet ideologies on the country while holding government services hostage.
House Republicans have reportedly added language to a new government spending bill that limits contraceptive care for employers and insurers who find the care objectionable based on certain grounds.
The provision was added to a new continuing resolution proposal introduced earlier on Saturday. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and a House leadership aide confirmed the added language to CNN.
The provision allows insurers and employers to opt out of providing preventative care for when if they have moral or religious objections to that contraceptive care.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
And what is the explanation for adding this to a spending bill?
“This is a big deal for the congressman,” Huelskamp’s spokesman, Paul Nelson, told CNN. “He has been pushing for (the conscience clause) since he entered Congress."
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/...
Democrats point out that the added language is unnecessary and has nothing to do with the Congressional task of keeping government services running smoothly and paying the nation's bills.
Democrats say the measure is unnecessary because the administration has granted exemptions to contraceptive coverage to religious nonprofit institutions. But advocates, such as Huelskamp, insist that all institutions should be able to opt out of any preventative coverage for women that they find objectionable.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/...
The House is expected to pass its version of a CR on Saturday night, but it faces almost certain failure in the Senate, which has objected to Republicans' attempt to use the government funding bill to delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
"Once again House Republicans have found a way to mount an ideological attack on women's health as the clock ticks down on a crisis they created," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement Saturday night. "This is part of the right-wing playbook that's going nowhere in the Senate. The truly unconscionable thing is that Republicans would try to rob women of access to health care while holding our economy hostage."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
I personally am sick to death of the Republican party right now.
With their actions, they are basically saying that the outcome of all Democratic elections are non-binding and that all legislation can be undermined, overturned or indefinitely delayed until the ideological obsessions of a few representatives can be imposed on the entire country.
The party that made a very big deal of reading the entire U.S. Constitution, manages to routinely ignore the letter and spirit of the Constitution--particularly the parts that require them to take their mandated responsibilities seriously and govern.
For those of you who are equally sick of the high stakes game-playing and the really crappy theater (e.g. Ted Cruz) that is being paid for with our money, here is a dose of government-funded actors that are an antidote to the clowns in the House.
Happy 44th Anniversary Sesame Street!
