Health Care Follies, Misguided Foreign Policy, and Justice Subverted

Friends:

It's been a busy week. Here are three issues that have me very concerned.

Health Care Follies

As you know, health care reform is still the major issue. The Senate has put the brakes on their bill for now, but the House finished up their committee work before recessing for August. Late Friday night, the last House committee with jurisdiction, Henry Waxman’s Energy and Commerce Committee, passed the bill. It’s been a real see-saw in that committee. The Energy and Commerce Committee was our last hope to stop this monstrosity before the August recess. It looked for a while like the Blue Dog Democrats on that committee were going to hold out, but Waxman brought them on board with a deal to reduce the cost of the bill and some weakening of the public health component.

That’s right, while some of the Blue Dogs expressed concern about abortion, there never was any serious pushback by the majority of the Blue Dogs over sanctity of human life issues. The real exception was Bart Stupak (D-MI). He has been a true Blue Dog champion for pro-life values through all of this. The greatest disappointment in the whole affair was the other Bart on the committee—Bart Gordon (D-TN). Gordon, a Blue Dog Democrat, was the swing vote that defeated the Pitts/Stupak amendment that would have prevented the House health care plan from mandating abortion. On the first vote, Gordon voted yes, and the amendment passed, 31-27. Waxman voted for the amendment so he could bring it back up for a revote. When he brought it back up for the revote, Bart Gordon switched his vote and voted against the amendment, and it failed, 29-30. Bart Gordon’s vote was the deciding vote.

The bill the House will be voting on is very troubling. The ERLC recently completed a fact sheet on it that I think you’ll find very helpful. You can get it here, http://erlc.com/documents/pdf/20090731-affordable-health-choices-act-exposed.pdf. Here is the summary statement from the fact sheet:

“The House health care bill, H.R. 3200, is 1018 pages in length. The magnitude of the bill along with the innumerous citations to other legislation makes it nearly impossible to figure out what everything in the bill actually means. The information in this document is a compilation of what we have determined to be the most dangerous language in the bill and our analysis of what that language could potentially mean. The simple fact is that if passed, no one can say for certain how badly this will all play out in practice. However, what we can say with absolute certainty is that this legislation will lead to diminished health care for most Americans, less choice, higher taxes, and unprecedented government intrusion into every level and aspect of society, from business, to education, to marriage, to individual liberty.”

I encourage you to visit with your congressman and senators while they are back home during the August recess to raise your concerns about health care reform before they return in September to try to finish this job.

Misguided Foreign Policy

You should also be concerned about ongoing developments with Honduras. The Administration is on the wrong side of this issue. Yet, they seem determined to dig themselves in deeper. They continue to persist in their refusal to recognize the new Honduran government. Last week the State Department reinforced its error by revoking the diplomatic visas of four Hondurans working in the interim Honduran government. If you want a good quick read on the situation and what the U.S. should be doing, I recommend this article, http://www.insideronline.org/summary.cfm?id=10547, from the Heritage Foundation. The writer concludes,

“In the July 5 flight over Honduras, Zelaya announced that failure to force his return would constitute 'the death of democracy in Latin America.' There is an ironic truth in his statement: An internationally coerced and unconditional return of Zelaya to the Honduran presidency will weaken the fundamentals of liberal democracy (limited government, checks and balances, and executive accountability) in the Western Hemisphere and hand Hugo Chávez and his ALBA alliance another propaganda scalp.”

Now contrast the Administration’s attitude toward Honduras with its complete caving to Sudan. Jamie Dean wrote an important article, http://www.worldmag.com/articles/15481, on the Obama administration’s failure to act on behalf of Darfur. Here is part of what she had to say:

“When Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir ruthlessly expelled 13 foreign aid groups delivering at least half of the life-sustaining aid to millions of people in Darfur in March, Obama called the action 'unacceptable.' A few weeks later, Obama renewed his call for Bashir to allow aid workers to stay, saying he would otherwise have to 'find another mechanism' for delivering aid. But by late May, no new mechanism existed. Obama's new special envoy to Sudan, Major General Scott Gration, had even softer words when he visited the African nation for the first time in April. Gration, a retired Air Force officer, told officials in Sudan's northern capital city of Khartoum, 'I come here with my hands open,' and said he hoped Sudan would respond 'with a hand of friendship.' The envoy didn't mention genocide. Indeed, he didn't mention Darfur.”

Contrasting the Administration’s response in these two situations reveals some very troubling foreign policy shifts. Human rights and freedom are no longer U. S. priorities. The Administration’s ideology of political equivalence has rendered it incapable of distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys. You see that with Sudan, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Palestine, China, Venezuela, and now Honduras.

Justice Subverted

And while you’re thinking about the Obama administration, the recent decision by the Department of Justice to drop the charges against those New Black Panthers who stood at the entrance to the polling place in Philadelphia should give you reason to be very concerned about the Administration’s commitment to equal justice under the law. It would seem that President Obama’s twisted empathy standard is well-represented at DOJ. Here is a video clip of the New Black Panthers activity at that polling booth, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neGbKHyGuHU. This news report helps to fill in some of the details of what was going on, http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/voting_intimidation_by_black_panthers_in_philadelphia/. This sure looks like voter intimidation to me.

The ERLC raised concerns about Eric Holder’s nomination as Attorney General. His decision to not pursue charges against these three men, especially the one wielding a nightstick, reinforces those concerns. In fact, this is just one in a growing string of troubling developments at DOJ. This Weekly Standard article, http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/799hlime.asp?pg=1, makes the point.

Blessings,

Barrett