Score one for President Obama and his spinmeisters. Or at least that is what the liberal media wants you to think about how Obama and Debbie Wasserman Schultz turned the Obama regime’s mandate for religious organizations to provide contraceptive coverage into a women’s health issue.
To them, it is an issue of individual rights which is funny because they are the ones pushing a mandate which eliminates rights for the churches.
The Democrats have even tried to raise funds, create online petitions, and kick Rush Limbaugh off of the air as a part of their spin campaign that Republicans are against women because they don’t want churches to be forced to provide coverage against their cannons. Even Obama’s former Communications Director Anita Dunn got involved by helping to stage that Georgetown University law school activist who testified before a phony Congressional hearing held by Democrats.
But what I find most outrageous about this whole contraception individual rights issue is how the media completely ignored Obama Health Secretary Katherine Sebilius’ comment when she told Congress that “The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception.” She actually put a price on the benefit of not having kids. Sounds to me like she probably also believes in the Chinese one-child policy that Vice-President Biden said he understood and would not second guess when he visited China last year on an official visit.
To me individual rights are not a Democratic issue nor a Republican issue because all political parties have pushed and passed legislation which interferes with our individual freedoms since the founding of our country.
What has caused the subject of individual rights to become such a hot topic this year is because of President Obama’s ongoing antics to pass intrusive legislation, issue executive orders, and implement burdensome rules and regulations by fiat through his Cabinet secretaries. And the granddaddy of them all, Obamacare, is currently being reviewed by the United States Supreme Court to assess whether its individual mandate for buying health insurance is constitutional.
And recently the Obama regime released an updated Executive Order during a Friday night information “dump” in mid-March about National Defense Resource Preparedness which was first issued during the Korean War. While the majority of the order is no more of an update than was done previously by subsequent Presidents during their terms, Obama has made some verbiage changes which have invoked conspiracy theorists to worry about his intentions. Such as expanding implementation from during wars and natural disasters to now include the generic term peacetime.
That change seems innocent enough to me but given Obama’s published thoughts about not liking our Constitution and telling Democratic Governors to work with him in bypassing Congress, it is understandable why some are concerned about another possibility to invoke government powers over our individual lives. Some have even compared his actions to Germany in the 1930s or to Chavez’s socialization of Venezuela in more recent times.
As I mentioned before, Republicans are not innocent of trampling on individual rights either. I cannot forget the efforts of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush interfering in the life and death struggle of the Schiavo family in 2005 regarding their beloved Terri which pitted husband versus parents. The Republicans in Tallahassee also recently passed a law allowing student led religious prayers in school rather than my preference which is just allowing for a moment of silence during which each student can pray or meditate as they desire.
And I cannot talk about Republican efforts involving the rights of private citizens without mentioning gay marriage. It is hypocritical to talk about government intrusion into private lives when you advocate such interference with private love lives. I personally do not favor gay marriage but I believe civil unions should be allowed so that both loved ones have the necessary legal rights for healthcare decisions, estate matters, and family health insurance plans regardless of my moral beliefs.
My above thoughts on the Schiavo issue, school prayer, and civil unions is sure to disappoint many of my Republican friends some of whom will say I am not enough to the right to pen this column. But I have been a proud Jewish Republican since 1980 when I went against my family and friends to advocate for President Reagan. I will match my conservative fiscal positions against anyone. And I agree with the Republican Party in theory about how to deal with illegal immigrants. But when it comes to litmus test social issues, I will support individual rights every time even if I believe some go against my moral upbringing.
