Rebranding be damned. Nothing is going to stop the Republicans from continuing their War on Women and their obsession with abortion. Add their obsession with Obamacare, and you have today's massive waste of time and taxpayer dollars: the "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act." It passed today, 227-188.
Never mind that we already have the Hyde Amendment that is included in every spending bill, banning taxpayer funding for abortion. Republicans want that to be law, codified permanently. They also want to prevent the District of Columbia from spending locally raised public funds to provide abortion care to the women of the District. But most of all, they want to connect it to Obamacare, and not just dictate women's health care, but dictate what products insurance companies can sell and impose higher taxes on small business owners that purchase health plans that cover abortion. Yes, higher taxes on small business, those job creators. Because lady parts.
And no, there is no taxpayer funding for abortion coverage in Obamacare. House Blue Dogs and Senate ConservaDems made sure of that back in 2010.
The bill, just like 99 percent of the bills the House passes—mostly focused on Obamacare repeal or abortion—won't even make it to the Senate floor. For its part, the White House has issued a veto promise, like it seems to do with 99 percent of the total-waste-of-time bills the House passes.
"The legislation would intrude on women's reproductive freedom and access to health care; increase the financial burden on many Americans; unnecessarily restrict the private insurance choices that consumers have today; and restrict the District of Columbia's use of local funds, which undermines home rule," the White House said in a statement. "The Administration strongly opposes legislation that unnecessarily restricts women's reproductive freedoms and consumers' private insurance options."
Meanwhile,
1.6 million people have lost their unemployment insurance. House Republicans aren't in any hurry to spend time on fixing that.