Governor Daniels in his January 24, 2012 rebuttal to the State of the Union Address said - As a loyal opposition who put patriotism and national success ahead of party, or ideology or any self interest, we (the Republicans) say that anyone who will join us in the cause of growth and solvency is our ally and our friend; we will speak the language of unity. On February 1 the Susan G. Komen cancer foundation ended its partnership with Planned Parenthood (PP) because PP is being investigated for using public funds for abortions and their policy bars them from associating with organizations under investigation. Per Barbara Walters a Republican Congressman started this investigation because PP councils people on abortion; they’ve been under scrutiny for this issue over and over again and have been cleared each time; they don’t use federal money for abortions. On February 2 the Komen foundation (headed by a Republican) said there are better and more streamlined mammogram providers (last year Komen gave $680,000 which covered 35,000 of the 750,000 screenings given each year by PP). The problem with Komen’s decision is that it takes money away from the poor who get breast exams via PP. How did the people react – in 48 hours they gave more than $1 million (New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $250,000) to PP; 26 Democrats asked Komen to reverse their decision and people hacked their website. With this news Komen was still getting support from conservative Republican groups like Americans United for Life but 7 California affiliates dropped their support and a Komen official reigned (another did on February 7). Komen denied that they picked politics over poor women’s health and has since agreed that PP can apply for funds. This reversal doesn’t mean a thing as they’ve partnered with Discount Gun Sales for a real Walther P-22 handgun with a pink slide. In my opinion this is hypocritical to a life saving charity but it coincides with the Republican view that we should be able to bear arms anywhere and at any time. In addition to this issue it was reported on November 10, 2011 that a Judge dismissed charges of falsifying records against the Kansas PP when it’s discovered that state officials had destroyed key evidence. I wonder what other extremes the Republicans will go to in support of their views instead of those of the people.
Daniels also said - Any other disagreements we may have can wait. No they can’t. There’s been a lot of talk about double standards so let’s talk about some of them and other issues the Republicans want you to wait on. On January 27, 2012 we hear that the Senate is to take up a bill banning insider trading by members of Congress and on February 1 we hear the Senate passed a bill requiring members of Congress to report stock trades within 30 days; I’m not sure that earlier reporting of trades eliminates the insider trading problem that others like Martha Stewart go to jail for. Now don’t forget that the money Romney and Gingrich made was all legal because of this same kind of weak laws being applied to Congress. But we also have the January 30 ABC News report that said government run Freddie Mac, the mortgage company that’s supposed to help people refinance mortgages, is making profits by telling people ‘no’ to refinancing and keeping them in high rate mortgages. This report was due to a joint investigation by National Public Radio and ProPublica that found that Freddie Mac invested billions in securities that will lose money if homeowners refinance; critics say it’s legal but a clear conflict of interest (a bond trader told ProPublica it’s like betting on the Super Bowl and shooting Tom Brady in the ankle). Freddie Mac wouldn’t comment on this issue but did say that refinancing is 80% of their business.
On January 18 at the Dallas-Ft Worth airport a 65 year old woman had a gun in her carryon computer bag, when the TSA agents went to pull the bag she and the bag were gone; she was found aboard an American Airlines plane headed for Houston and arrested (passengers had to be rescreened and the plane was an hour late taking off). On January 23 Kentucky Senator Rand Paul refused a pat down after he set off an alarm at a Nashville Tennessee airport; Rand wanted to repeat the scan instead of getting his leg patted down but instead went and bought a ticket to DC (the detector found nothing wrong with his leg, the area that set the previous machine off). His father, Ron Paul, said “The evidence of the police state in this country is growing out of control” and Rand said “I think it’s an indignity that we’re going through this, it’s not making us safer”. Passengers said if they have to go through it so should he (about 3% of passengers go through a pat down). Security experts said not only would rescreening hold up the line it would also allow potential terrorists to hide or activate a device. On January 31 the US Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, told the Senate “Some Iranian officials – probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived US actions that threaten the regime”. He said that “Iran is well capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if its political leaders, specifically its Supreme Leader himself, choose to do so.” On February 1 it was reported that Iran is hiking its defense budget by 127%. With Iran, the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and other extremists wanting to harm us I don’t think Rand or Ron has it right.
The Republicans are not speaking the language of unity; they are in fact showing a disregard for the poor as well as a disregard for the safety of all Americans (deregulate and cause health problems or deaths, cause financial losses and reduce government and jeopardize our lives by taking away the securities of the Patriot Act).
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