One particular conservative congressperson stated to him that they spend half of their time in Washington trying to convince people that they are not crazy, and the rest back at home trying to convince constituents that they are.
Whenever the electorate is found in a fury, they are looking for candidates who will give voice to it all.
This is the wave of dissent that seems to be driving the distorted campaign to defund Planned Parenthood, an organization that only receives 3% of its funding from federal dollars.
Poll after poll shows that Planned Parenthood has wide reaching bi-partisan appeal and not only among the 2.7 million people that used these services last year. In fact, Planned Parenthood out polls every presidential candidate for the 2016 election and Barack Obama as well. This persistent effort to take on a really old abortion battle by attacking a really popular health organization has way more downside than upside considering the fact that any resolution to defund would only survive the House and would die in the Senate or by presidential veto, but won't be forgotten by those who consider this an attack on the rights of the individual.
Yet, they press on, convinced that the danger of losing a re-election at home is much worse than the risk of a further divided nation.
Planned Parenthood president Cecille Richards, spent today entertaining a crowd in congress that convened another session to convince angry republican voters that they hear them and they are responding, even though this group of voters does not represent a majority of Americans or a majority view on abortion.
Might there come a day when the abortion fight finally turns in favor of those who refuse to let it go?
No!
There is no reasonable expectation that really smart women, who have already decided on their own ability to choose their own health care direction, will suddenly question their own intelligence and hand this decision over to congress.
In fact, there is a really strong expectation that Planned Parenthood, an organization that also funds advocacy and lobbying efforts to further their cause, will coordinate themselves against this opposition taking advantage of their popularity that has NOT diminished even with all of the negative publicity.
The Hyde Amendment itself (the abortion related bill that disallows most federal support of abortions) might be reconsidered since all of this conversation is revealing the lack of federal support that certain health clinics receive as a result of providing abortion services. An effort that began to defund abortions could essentially result in an expansion of fund access to other abortion providers who might seek to display a separation between the funding of abortions versus the funding of other services as Planned Parenthood does to maintain its federal support.
In other words, watch out republican party. This is not a weak organization without resource or recourse when facing challenges. Political ads created by this group have typically been powerfully influential and damaging to potential republican candidates.
Given our new found freedom of choice relative to health care, Richards capsulized her argument before congress into an obvious truth. If congress has a problem with Planned Parenthood, they actually have a problem with the 2.7 million that choose to use them versus other health care options.
Despite limited hours of availability at most locations, and limited access to certain types of screenings (i.e., mammogram machines), 2.7 million still would rather use Planned Parenthood over the overcrowded clinics that might offer more services but aren't always as clean or capable of meeting the rising demand for health care services. Whether Planned Parenthood remains or not, America is clearly desperate to meet the growing needs created by expanded health care access from the ACA.
Who a woman chooses as a doctor (and most women seem to prefer their OB-GYN as their primary physician as well) is as personal a decision as is abortion, and as sacred as the right to worship and the right to bear arms.
Stated clearly, there is no potential for a political victory when you threaten to shut down government over an issue that polls so heavily in the other sides favor. There is only the potential to force out a capable House Speaker in favor of an inexperienced puppet who will soon be in for a sad surprise. Keep in mind that the Speaker of the House sits behind the vice-president in line to the White House, yet- because of conservative infighting- few republicans in congress are remotely interested in this once esteemed post.
The impetus for all of this were these anti-abortion attack videos against Planned Parenthood, however, today's committee did not attempt to include the testimony of the video's producer who was not called by the committee chair and was reportedly unwilling to testify alongside Richards.
Fetal stem cell research had its day under congressional review back during the Ronald Reagan days, and it passed as an acceptable scientific practice that is not exclusively done with Planned Parenthood fetal donations. Only two of Planned Parenthood's 500+ locations do fetal donations and only one sales the parts in order to offset the cost of the program itself. If the debate over stem cell research and abortion deserve to be taken up again in the halls of congress, there is a way to make this happen.
To Hell With Legislation
Is there an excessive amount of unusual waste in the realm of government?
Of course, but it came to be via a legislative journey that had value and purpose at the time, even if only to insure the full maintenance of "use it or lose it" funding attached to certain bill appropriations.
If you ask Senator Rand Paul, he believes that blocking funding should be the backdoor approach that his party should employ to destroy legislation that they don't particularly agree with instead of actually doing the legislative work that congress is elected and paid to do.
The roughly 60 million dollars of federal assistance that Planned Parenthood receives might not be a significant percentage of our entire wasteful budget, but it should be under the same scrutiny of waste that every area of government spending deserves. Shrinking wasteful spending is noble and necessary, and if Planned Parenthood is truly an unnecessary expenditure for taxpayers, it should be included in our efforts to reduce the size of government.
Yet, by defunding only the things that a majority in congress doesn't particularly like, they render the path and process of legislation as moot and laws as malleable with back end funding fights designed to circumvent laws.
The Freedom Coalition?
What makes very little sense is why would congressional republicans build a coalition to defund America instead of using the same coalition that it will take to be successful in this effort to simply change the laws in the first place?
The reason is, they don't have the numbers (67 votes in the Senate) to get it done, they only have the numbers to be a nuisance.
Paid political protesters if you will, but hardly legislators.
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