H. R 7

NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue on H.R. 7 Floor Vote Today

WASHINGTON - January 28 - As H.R.7, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, heads to the floor today, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue will be available to discuss this anti-woman measure and how, with this first action of 2014, GOP leadership continues to ignore the priorities of American voters.

“The majority of Americans are supportive of abortion rights and we have made clear that we’d like Congress to have a genuine conversation about economic opportunity. Yet, conservative politicians continue to focus almost single-mindedly on finding new ways to dictate the private, medical decisions of women and their families," said Ilyse Hogue. “By introducing a bill that breaks new ground in intertwining our tax code with reproductive decisions and meddling in the private insurance marketplace, extreme members of the GOP have put their cards on the table – they are willing to violate their own principles in order to make attacking women’s reproductive rights their first and foremost priority. The War On Women cost conservatives in 2012 and it will cost them again in the midterm elections and beyond."

During its recent winter meeting, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution affirming that their anti-choice politics are central to their party platform. At the same meeting, Gov. Mike Huckabee equated offering women birth control coverage to “Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of government."

H.R.7 would do the following:

• Revive the failed Stupak-Pitts amendment to the ACA, effectively banning abortion coverage in the new health system, even for women in state insurance exchanges who use their own, private funds to pay for their insurance. Experts have stated this could also jeopardize the availability of private insurance coverage of abortion for all women in all private health plans nationwide.

• Impose tax penalties on small businesses that choose private health plans that cover abortion care, with the goal of driving consumers away from these plans. (Absent political interference, 87 percent of private plans cover abortion services.)

• Permanently block abortion coverage for low-income women, civil servants, D.C. residents, and military women by recodifying anti-choice riders that reside elsewhere throughout federal law. Congress should be repealing these unfair and discriminatory abortion bans, not recodifying them.

The brand-new version of H.R.7, unveiled after committee mark-up last week, also adds these two new provisions:

• Bans coverage of abortion services for women insured by multi-state health plans under the ACA—private health-insurance plans which offer consumers a uniform array of health benefits in every state in which they operate.

• Mandates health plans to make biased, one-sided “disclosures” of abortion coverage and force plans to mislead consumers about the health-care law’s treatment of abortion coverage.

 

WHO IS LEFT TO VOTE REPUBLICAN?

 Who will be left to vote for Republicans, once they have completed their Hate List? Every day the list of persons, peoples, and entities that the Republicans despise is extended. Who is left, other than each other, those of their own ilk? Wall Street? Chamber of Commerce? Oil, Gas, and Coal Industry?
Ah, but never think that the Republicans don’t have a plan. Call it voter suppression, which involves disenfranchisement of voters, caging of voters, purging of voter registration lists. New laws limiting early voting, absentee voting, registration. Inadequate voting facilities, voting equipment, voting supplies in poor and minority enclaves. Distributing false and misleading information about polling places, dates, and times. These laws and actions disproportionately affect minorities, aged, students, the poor. They are in violation of the spirit of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
More than a dozen states have passed laws that could make it difficult for from five million to 21 million eligible voters to actually vote. The states affected account for 171 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Eight states have enacted voter photo ID laws, and five are reducing early voting and absentee access.
I have these suggestions:

(1) No name can be purged from existing voter registration lists. Everyone who has ever voted is presumed to be a valid voter, in effect, grandfathered in. Exceptions for treason or felony conviction (until sentence and probation are completed) or proven voter fraud.

(2) It may be valid to require photo ID of all new registrants, but this should not be retroactive for registered voters.

(3) Place a moratorium on all new voter laws; none to take effect in 2012, but all to be reviewed by Department of Justice, and those approved will not take effect before 2014.

Following is the list I have compiled of persons, people, and entities that the Republicans hate.  Some of these have been named by political candidates, legislators, politicians, and some by pundits and writers.  Perhaps I have been too harsh, you might want to add or detract from this list. 
ACORN, Activists, Agnostics, Arugula eaters, Atheists, Blacks, CDC, CFPC, Climate scientists, Communists, Community organizers, Constitution (except the parts they like), Democrats, Department of Education, Dijon mustard lovers, Elderly, Environmentalists, EPA, FDA, Firefighters, Food stamp recipients, Gays, Al Gore, Head Start, Health care providers, Hispanics/Latinos, Hoffa, Homeless, Immigrants, Janitors, Jon Stewart, Judges, Kucinich, Labor stooges, Lesbians, LGBT, Liberals, Media Matters, Medicaid recipients, Medicare, Middle class, Minimum wage, Mormons, MSNBC, Muslims, NLRB, NPR, Obama, Occupiers, PBS, Peacemongers, Nancy Pelosi, Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Movement, Policemen, Poor people, Progressives, Progressive Radio, Protesters, Public sector workers, Harry Reid, Bernie Sanders, Scientists, Secular Humanists, Sick people, Social Security, Social workers, Socialists, College Students, Teachers, Trumka, Unemployed, Unemployment benefits recipients, Union members, Veterans, Voters, Elizabeth Warren, Welfare queens, Welfare recipients, Women, Working class, Working poor.
The question remains:  Who is left to vote for Republicans?

Dogs in the House--An Allegory

Dogs in the House

Bear is a big dog—I would say he weighs about 90 pounds, because I don’t like to exaggerate.  I do know that I am no match for him if he chooses not to go where I say he should--at such times he is an immovable object and I can’t budge him.  An apparent cross between a Golden Retriever and a German Shepherd, he is a gentle, companionable dog and gets along well with my other dogs, Frankie and Tessa, though he just barely tolerates my daughter’s dog, Ming.  And for good reason, as Ming always snarls and growls at him when he, Bear, comes into the house.

Frankie is a Border Collie mix, about 50 pounds, quiet and shy, with blue eyes, hence the name, though she is female.  Tessa, a terrier/dachshund mix, 25 pounds, friendly and gregarious, is everybody’s friend, a storybook dog.  Ming, a Pekinese, about 13 pounds, a temporary resident of the household,  holds a permanent grudge against Bear, perhaps because Bear is so big that Ming perceives him as a threat to his mistress.

Bear is afraid beyond measure of thunder storms, gun shots, and fireworks, and at the sound of any of these he is ready to tear down the door to get inside.  Once inside, he takes up residence in the bathroom, which is in the center of the house, away from windows, quiet and cool.  Lately, he has been spending most of the day in there, and I attributed this originally to the fact that it was cool, the floor is cool.  But now his motive seems to have evolved into something more sinister.  Although he is never seen to make a threatening gesture—lower his head, snarl, growl, bare his teeth--all three of the other dogs refuse to come down the hall past his doorway.   Frankie and Tessa sleep in my room, and Ming in my daughter’s room, but if I am already in my room at night and the dogs did not accompany me, they will not pass Sarge’s station, but will yelp or whine for me to come provide safe passage.  He just lies there looking innocent, but clearly he has them intimidated.  Clearly he has apprised them of the dangers inherent in any attempt to pass by his station.  And they dare not challenge him.

So, do you see an allegory coming?  Consider Congress, wherein the Republicans seem to have intimidated the Democrats—you don’t see them snarl or growl as the Democrats pass by, but you know they must have done it, just by way of demonstrating their power; why else would the Democrats cower?  They just make it very clear what can happen.  Then all they have to do is sit back and wait for the Democrats to cave, to fold, to whine, even yelp, to beg for someone to help them by this impasse, so they can go on with their lives.   The Republicans, outnumbered or not, have it all under control.

B-b-but, you see, I can’t be there to walk the Democrats past the Republicans:  “Come on…it’s okay…you can do it, see?  They won’t bother you, just keep going…”