Pay to Play...and Those Who Support It.

Pay To Play…and Those Who Support It.  Two of the big stories making the rounds these days are the Planned Parenthood controversy swirling around their startling videos and the demise (or is it?) of Congressional authorization for the Export-Import Bank program.  In my humble opinion, and at the heart of both matters, we see symptoms of our politically corrupt system of government and vivid illustrations of paying to play.

I am not fan of Senator Ted Cruz.  Although clearly an intelligent and effective politician, he seems to feed too easily on the cameras and his ambitions too often lie close to the surface.  Having said this, the Senate Republicans do themselves no good when they chastise him for challenging Senate Leader McConnell for his handling of the Ex-IM Bank issue.  Senate decorum be damned, right is right; and in this case, Cruz has exposed McConnell for being the fox in the henhouse.   Reports indicate that well over 95 percent of exports and imports manage to occur organically without the intervention of the Ex-Im Bank.   And when you see that the biggest beneficiaries of the Bank are corporations such as GE and Boeing, and you look at the salary structure of their management, one cannot help but question exactly whose interests Senator McConnell is representing in this deal.  Plain and simple, the Ex-Im Bank is a classic example of an international corporation buying favorable treatment in Congress with money.   The House has passed a Transportation Bill without any extraneous riders and has made it clear that they do not support the re-authorization of the Ex-Im Bank.  If the Republican majority in the Senate wants to walk the walk and refrain from weasel behavior that is the height of hypocrisy, they will NOT attach an Ex-Im Bank re-authorization rider to their version of the Transportation Bill.  Mitch McConnell…I’m looking at you.

Of all the serious, contentious, and multi-faceted issues currently facing this nation, none is more emotionally wrenching than that of abortion.  The debate is dictated by the extreme positions on each side, with the majority of Americans watching from the sidelines and discussing the merits of the issue in the sunroom over morning coffee.  If you believe that life begins at conception, abortion is simply murder; whenever it occurs.  If you believe that a fetus only becomes a person when the cord is severed, then you can support abortion right up until the birth process.  I cautiously suggest that the consequences for most abortion decisions lie between an individual and their God and the government really has no place in the argument.  Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in.  Our country is greatly divided on this issue, with sincere and well-meaning people on both sides.  It strikes me that an extremely rational and reasonable course of action for regulating abortion is the 20 week rule, with exceptions for rape and incest.  I believe that the clear majority of people oppose abortion in the last trimester and a clear majority of people are at least open to an abortion option in the first trimester.  Barring abortions after 20 weeks, with these two exceptions, strikes a balance between these two positions and addresses the heartbreaking complications of rape and incest.  It is a reasonable place to start.  However unsettled the question of state and federal policy towards abortion might be, one thing is clear: When a nation is as divided on an issue as it clearly is on abortion, not one red cent of taxpayer money should be spent on the procedure.  If Planned Parenthood wants to justify its taxpayer subsidy on the good works it does (and it does some good work), then the abortion practices and efforts of the entity should be separated from the balance of its other work in the appropriation process.  Planned Parenthood has bought its existence and suckled at the taxpayer teat for decades through the naked purchase of Democratic political support in Congress.  It is time to pull the sheet back on this illicit arrangement and only support what the clear majority of citizens agree with.  Under no circumstances should that taxpayer support include abortion.