We passed a bipartisan compromise with nearly 70 votes, but GOP threw it in the trash by adding funding cuts to Planned Parenthood & the ACA
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 28, 2016
GOP tries to reverse ban on Confederate flags in federal cemeteries with Zika funding bill https://t.co/WmrEkKNENM pic.twitter.com/8jFkTv1Gyi
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 29, 2016
Not The Onion/Andy Borowitz:
House Republican lawmakers sought to reverse previously passed legislation restricting the display of the Confederate flag in federal cemeteries by slipping a provision stripping the legislation into a larger appropriations bill that included Zika funding. The House bill passed last week on largely partisan lines, but was blocked in the Senate Tuesday by a Democratic filibuster.
The Confederate flag language was just one of a number controversial provisions included in the bill, which also included an amendment cutting Planned Parenthood funding and other swipes at the Obama administration’s public health initiatives.
Republican lawmakers are warning that the American public will now blame Democrats if Zika becomes a full-blown health crisis. But Democratic leaders suggested that filibustering Tuesday’s bill was an easy call — pointing to provisions like the Confederate flag reversal…
Mr. Pierce, “Did Republicans Really Just Bring the Confederate Flag into the Zika Debate?”:
… The Democratic opposition to the bill in the Senate primarily dealt with the whack the bill took at Planned Parenthood, and the president was likely to veto this bill anyway, not least because it contains half of what he asked for to fight the disease, and because it does so by draining money from other urgent priorities. But, honestly now, babies are being born with severe birth defects, and this is seen as an opportunity to get back a fight you’ve already lost?
That’s not governing. That’s a talk show.
As of mid-June, per the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, at least “Three women in the U.S. mainland infected with the Zika virus have delivered infants with birth defects and three others have lost or terminated pregnancies because their fetuses suffered brain damage from the virus”.
States have been scrambling to find funds for Zika prevention efforts, resorting to stealing it from other programs. At least one Republican, Rep. Ted Poe (Texas) complained that his district wasn’t getting enough Zika funding from the CDC — even as he personally voted to cut the agency’s funding.
And the women most likely to be affected are, of course, those least likely to be able to protect themselves.
Not for the first time, I find myself wishing that the GOP Talibangelicals and their enablers would actually be judged under the religious standards they profess, because it wouldn’t be the biblical Heaven to which the Jesus described in their holy book sent them.
GOP Congress: We Luv Babies, But Not As Much As We Love Our Treason FlagPost + Comments (83)