By John Ballard
At this writing it looks like Obama's personal lobbying has paid off and the Strategic Arms Treaty with Russia will get approved by the Senate after all. (He needs all the notches on his belt he can collect after the tax and spend capitulation compromise, but that's another story.) Jon Western at Duck of Minerva posted this TV story from 1986.
Whenever politics and science collide politics always wins. Anyone watching Congress has been able to see this principle illustrated repeatedly over the last two years.
Come to think of it, collisions with economics, history, common sense -- pretty much anything you can think of -- all lose when politics is involved. Truth and facts are among the first casualties of any political debate.
I'm waiting to see what direction the new Congress will take since it is now crowded with Climate Zombies following the midterm elections.
The 9/11 First Responders health bill is supposed to come up for a vote today. I suppose it will pass, but not before a few Senators, notably Oklahoma's Senator DOCTOR Tom Coburn, attempt to block it.
As this Rump Congress prepares to dismiss themselves for the holidays it leaves behind two bloody late-term legislative abortions -- defeat of the Child Marriage Act and failure to pass the DREAM Act.
?Child Marriage Act is described by Conor Williams at WaPo
In case you missed it, S. 987 (The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act) failed to pass last night. Despite unanimously passing the Senate, it only garnered a 241-166 majority in the House. Since House rules were in suspension, the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who sponsored the bill, had a blunt response in a late-night press release:
The action on the House floor stopping the Child Marriage bill tonight will endanger the lives of millions of women and girls around the world. These young girls, enslaved in marriage, will be brutalized and many will die when their young bodies are torn apart while giving birth. Those who voted to continue this barbaric practice brought shame to Capitol Hill.
His frustration makes sense: the corresponding House Bill had 112 co-sponsors! What the heck happened?
In the hours before the vote, Republicans circulated a memo to pro-life members of Congress alleging that the bill could fund abortions and use child marriage "to overturn pro-life laws." It also reiterated concerns over the bill's cost. When it came time for a vote, a number of the bill's pro-life supporters in both parties abandoned ship. Even co-sponsors of the corresponding House bill (H.R. 2103), like Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.), voted against it.
Time for the facts. First of all, S. 987 is short--the body of the bill is around ten pages long--and does not mention abortion ("family planning" isn't in there either). A quick read suffices to show that the bill is not dealing with abortion.
Second, as I noted yesterday, it does not appropriate any additional funding. It requires that the President and the State Department make child marriage a core part of American international development strategy. One more time: this means that this bill can't provide funding for abortion. It's not a appropriations bill. Nonetheless, some Republicans appear determined to showcase their conservative credentials at all costs--even when the facts make it unnecessary, even when the world's most vulnerable children bear the bill.
At this point, the bill's future is uncertain, but the ongoing bizarre misrepresentation of a bill designed to empower young girls and women is the worst sort of political gamesmanship. Why play politics with their lives at stake?
?The Dream Act passed the House but failed in the Senate, revealing how craven our elected representatives have become in the face of anti-immigrant, racist bigotry in its most recent manifestations.
We have not heard the last of this.
In retrospect this negligence on the part of the 111th Congress may prove to have been the most far-reaching piece of non-legislation in recent years.
WASHINGTON, DC � Today, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Forty-one predominantly Republican senators voted against a bill which would have provided young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents a path to legalization by pursuing a college education or serving in the U.S. armed forces. Fifty-five senators voted in the affirmative. In an incredibly disappointing vote, a minority of Senators prevented the Senate from doing what most Americans understand is best for the country. Voto Latino, the nation�s leading non-profit, non-partisan Latino youth civic engagement organization, has been at the forefront of youth activism on behalf of the DREAM Act.
�It is a truly sad day when a minority of obstructionist senators would choose to block a bill that has tremendous long-term benefits to our nation,� says Voto Latino Executive Director Maria Teresa Kumar. �Sacrificing the dreams of hundreds of thousands of our brightest youth for shortsighted political gains flies against America�s guiding principles and values. The Latino community will not forget those political leaders who today chose to obstruct progress for personal gain.�
When I think of this last development the only way I can describe it is transparent stupidity on the part of elected representatives.
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