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Roy Blunt thought this was a good time to fight over contraception. He was wrong.
When Republicans began pushing the Blunt Amendment a few weeks ago, GOP officials were working from a deliberate strategy: they thought they could go on the offensive over contraception access, pushing Democrats into a corner.
Three weeks later, it's Republicans who appear to be stuck.
Far from being on the defensive, Democrats seem eager to fight over the proposal, which if passed, would allow all private-sector employers to deny any health services that businesses might find morally objectionable. Republicans, meanwhile, are looking for an escape hatch that doesn't exist.
Blunt introduced the legislation at the height of the contretemps over the Obama administration's contraception rule, and Republicans pushed hard to secure a vote for it as an amendment to an unrelated transportation bill. But according to a top Democratic aide briefed on negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaders, something changed in recent days — and in the end Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took it upon himself to force the issue.
"They were pushing for it, but once they realized what a disaster it was turning into they started trying to walk it back," the aide said. "They started making rumblings that they wanted to change and moderate it, which is why Reid went ahead and filed it as is."
Late Wednesday, on the Senate floor, Reid hinted at the GOP's dilemma. "Yesterday I had to bring up a Republican amendment that they didn't even bother to file, they just wanted to talk about it and hold press conferences on this issue."
Maybe picking an election-year fight over contraception wasn't such a smart idea after all.
Consider this tidbit: a newly-released Kaiser Family Foundation survey found 63% of the public agrees with President Obama's policy on access to birth control, and when asked which party is more trustworthy on the issue, Democrats led Republicans by 17 points.
What's more, while the Romney campaign is struggling with the issue, the Obama campaign has begun pushing its opposition to the Blunt proposal with more enthusiasm, even putting together a mock "permission slip" American women might need if the Republican measure became law.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also weighed in yesterday, urging the Senate to "reject this cynical attempt to roll back decades of progress in women's health."
You can tell a lot about the salience of a political fight by which side is most eager to talk about it.
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An Amended Blunt is the only way I can effectively cope with this insanity.
Once again the GOP is for something, that they are now against!!
I want to know who are the 37% that think the President's stand on contraception is WRONG??? And if they think the Blunt Amendment is just about BIRTH CONTROL they are absolute fools.
Mego, they are part of the 20 to 25 percent of the U.S. population that is basically brain-dead. Yes, they are utter fools, as evidenced by how easily they are led by people who don't even have THEIR best interests in mind.
The Dems better kill this or they might have a problen in November.
Baaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahaha!!!! Yeah, dems are the ones in trouble......
Steve, glad for some good news. I almost blew a gasket when I read your post on the federal judge.
I think you may have two links switched in this post - the permission slip & the obama campaign opposition.
This was never a problem before. Why is it such a big issue now? I know, because the Reps. are pretending to feel like freedom of religion is under attack. They don't care about religion they just want the high drama to get at the President. This is the worst soap opera in history. It's a farce and the Reps. are over acting their part. It's time they started taking their jobs seriously and cut out the play acting.
Actually they are attacking freedom of religion by imposing their beliefs on us all.
They have to make stuff up, like they usually do. The economy is improving, Obama's foreign policies are returning the U.S. to a strong world position, so they have to find something to attack.
As Rachel said on last night's show, conservatives have a long term strategy of moving this country their direction. Overturning Roe v Wade is one of their goals, but by making contraception an issue, they are more likely to get middle of the road voters to agree with them. It's kind of like when you ask $10,000 for your used car, but you know you'll take less. They are over-reaching and then they will "settle" for what they really want (illegal abortion).
The real question comes down to whose religious freedom is protected by the Constitution? The church, the employer, or the individual?
The correctness of your comment is chilling.
What I want to know is how forcing me to follow the dictates of the Catholic Church is part of my right to religious freedom.
The Republicant Party has become a clear and present danger to our democracy.
The Republicans should be careful about what they wish for!
The Vagina Wars ! Spearheaded by Republicans in this year's Presidential campaign, let's be Blunt.
We will not let u-(de)ter-us from our mission.We must eggcellerate our fallopian way against all who seek to de-fetus.
My name is GINA and I'm from VA.
I wonder how the wives of these "pro Blunt" congresspeople's bill feel...I mean if employers can prohibit any employee's healthcare based on their religious beliefs...oh wait..I am the taxpayer, I am essentially congress's employer...hmmm....
True and I have "moral objections" to paying people who do nothing. As their employer I want to revoke their health care completely.
Didn't mean to "like" your comment.
If you're employing your employees then aren't they doing something?
Dwore I think Jane's comment was meant as sarcasm. As in well since I employ people shouldn't I be able to morally object to paying them since I don't want to?! That kind've thing.
It's time to vote all of them up for re-election out come November. If not they are going to be the downfall of this country. Where are the jobs Rethuglian Party?? Do you even care about jobs and family security or are you so wealthy we are just peons to step over on your way to the top? Get rid of all of them, bring on the jobs bill, and let's protect our environment! I'm sick to death of their stall tactics, and their holier than thou attitudes. They are no better than I am, but there is one thing I am and they are not...a person with a conscience.
Remember the Republicans in 2010 ran on, according to speaker Bonher," Jobs will be our Number 1 priority" I call bs they have not added one jobs bill but lots of government intrusion in our lives. Smaller government, bs also!
They are doing their jobs which they think is to listen to all the large Corporations that are in their back pockets. The large Corporations do not want to help people to afford healthcare. They would rather let them die so that they can finish playing monopoly. I'm serious they should really just buy themselves a country and leave Gods' children alone.
This whole thing is sickening. How about concentrating on something actually important, like .... oh I don't know ... a jobs bill? What the hell is Congress debating 'moral' issues and religion? Just as they claim the Constitutional right of freedom of religion, I am guarateed the Constitutional right of freedom FROM religion.
Here's some examples of health care that could be denied under the Blunt amendment: type 2 diabetes, because of lifestyle, out-of-wedlock pregnancy because of lifestyle, ectopic pregnancy because it would be taking a life.
They could deny health coverage to African Americans because the Mormon religion used to beleive that black people are dirty and God has shunned them. They say they don't believe this anymore but, remember what they said about baptising dead people they are still doing it.
I don't understand why none of the opposition has brought up the stuff that will really threaten these Yahoos come November: how about Muslim employers denying care based on Sharia?
Yes, ladies, you can't get care from men, nor can the mens get treated by females. Think nurses.
It's true, it's true -- the Republicans are sneaking in Sharia law to the USA by the back door, and the Democrats aren't pointing that out by example. (No, I'm not pushing for whipping up the bigots. Just pointing out extremes that people will really recognize as extreme.)
Going after abortion? Bread and butter for them.
But BIRTH CONTROL?? Are you EFFING KIDDING ME??
It is probably just as well that you are not allowing comments on the Breitbart death!
A number of us might say nasty and negative things about him.
Good. It's about time the Democrats starting pushing back on something.
Conservatards care about liberty and freedom: They want the freedom to be mean to anyone they don't like. They want the freedom to subvert the resources of government to punish the people they don't agree with. Nothing has changed, it's the same people pushing the same agenda as they have done for centuries. Simply put, it's "Be like me or suffer."
"Over the wild waves of battle rose and fell the banner of Jesus Christ. For sixteen hundred years the robes of the church were red with innocent blood. The ingenuity of Christians was exhausted in devising punishment severe enough to be inflicted upon other Christians who honestly and sincerely differed with them upon any point whatever." [Robert G. Ingersoll, "Heretics and Heresies", 1874]
In a free nation, I believed that as an American citizen, the First Amendment protected me from the tenets of any individual church and that anti-discrminatory laws protected me as a woman from any level of discriminatory practices, which this clearly is.....it singles out women. Vasectomies and viagra are not an issue. This is more than outrageous. To allow any employer the freedom to decide the health coverage for employees based on personal bias is well, un-American. I hope men and women are fighting and I hope that all who have studied the constitution are ready to declare this ignorant attempt to push the tenets of one church on those whose religious beliefs differ unconstitutional and illegal.
Half right. Vasectomies are also prohibited by the Church, and IIRC by Orthodox Judaism. Plus, there are a lot of men who find them icky to think about.
Wow what a story...feels like I just saw an aftershoool special where the lesson is look before you leap, or be more thoughtful and considerate about others even if they are different. Also an eye-opening lesson on the difference between right and wrong.
At some point in a man's life, his sexual ability is thwarted by erectal dysfunction. Perhaps this is God's way of telling this person that he should actually NOT try to procreate anymore. After all, we all know that the ONLY reason for sexual activity is to make children. In this case, prescribing viagra or similar drugs would therefore be MORALLY wrong.
forgive me, process question: How does an amendment like this get attached to a transportation bill?
Unlike a lot of State constitutions, the United States Congress does not have any requirements that the various parts of a bill be germane.
So a funky rider like the Blunt instrument can be added to any bill before the Legislature by simple majority either in committee or on the floor.
They are called 'Free Riders.' DC is 100% correct on this one. They can get added to just about anything. This is part of why it sucks to be a Senator or House Representative especially if you intend to run for the White House. All someone has to do is look back through your record and see that you voted in favor of a rider that you might otherwise have opposed. Of course when you cast your ballot you didn't do so because of the rider you did so because of the main emphasis of the bill. But once it gets tacked on that means if you favored the bill you favored the rider.
Both parties- but especially Republicans- like to throw in what are called 'toxic riders' in an attempt to stop politicians from voting for a bill for this very same reason. So if I wanted to pass a bill that would expand birth control coverage to women and a Republican Senator had reason to believe the bill would pass, one way that he might be able to kill the bill is to add a free rider in which, in order for the law to be legal under the 14th Amendment, we also must provide expanded Viagra coverage to everyone including people convicted of sexual crimes. If I still voted for the bill despite this toxic rider then when I was challenged the following year my Republican opponent would run ads saying that I voted to give Viagra to inmates who were convicted of rape.
Nasty thing, politics.
Normally I could go months without thinking about organized religion. Did you catch "The Last Word segment about the priest who refused the daughter communion at her mother's funeral mass because the priest felt she was living in sin? The priest also conveniently got laryngitis to avoid speaking at the funeral. I don''t remember when judging others was part of Christian doctrine. The zealotry used to try to destroy the ACA, with women as the prime casualty, is beyond reprehensible.
That would be the hypocritical Catholic Church at its finest. Judging everyone, sexually assaulting children, and not letting a daughter speak at her own Mothers funeral.. thank God I left that church Years ago! I am ashamed of them!
Same here Mary.
The republicans have shifted so far right they have fallen off the edge - now looking for representation for the far left, since the radical dems have shifted to the middle.
Whoever told the Republican Party that a prolonged and very public fight over access to birth control was a good political move was giving the GOP very bad advice. This has become the biggest gift to President Obama and the Democrats that anyone could have possible "conceived" of (yes, bad pun...). Every poll finds that Americans are not interested in banning contraception or engaging in this debate. The GOP is simply appeasing the right-wing extremists at the expense of the broader party's future viability. They cannot win running on a platform of a new culture war. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Maybe, maybe not. It's moving the Overton Window again so that being merely anti-abortion now qualifies as "moderate" and will become the compromise position that Democrats will "triangulate" on.
I am against abortions and birth control personally but, I would never infringe my beliefs onto others. This law is not about birth control. Who stands to benefit from this law The Almighty Insurance Companies they cannot abolish the new Healthcare reform so they are gonna try and get as much money as they can by denying certain coverage to people. This is why we need socialized medicine. The Insurance Companies do not care about the American people they care only about the Almighty Dollar. This is about greed a dying breed and it is gonna kick and scream until it gets its' way. What the world needs is love sweet love. The cost of healthcare must go down.
Birth control has always been a winner for big insurance. A baby costs them a lot more and God forbid, a baby with birth defects or unhealthy from lack of prenatal care will cost them a fortune. I agree they dislike ACA since it requires they spend a lot more of premiums collected on actual care.
Is there contradictions about abortion and contraceptives in Santorum's wife views, when Karen Santorum's old fling had liberal views on the subject? Wow.
http://www.carbonated.tv/blogs/weird-facts-about-rick-santorums-wife-affair-with-an-abortion-doctor-who-delivered-her-a-s-a-baby