Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who has been at the congressional forefront of opposition to the Obama administration’s mandate that even Catholic institutions cover birth control sans co-payment, told reporters today that the next move will be for the president to admit he went too far.
Rubio, who on Jan. 30 introduced the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012 to counter the mandate, spoke after a meeting of Senate Republicans along with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.), Conference Vice Chairman Roy Blunt (Mo.), and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.).
Rubio said the overreaching of the mandate sets a dangerous precedent and is even making many in the White House “uncomfortable.”
“Here is the solution in my mind,” he said. “The solution is for the president to come back and say, ‘You know what, maybe we overreached. Maybe we went too far. We’ve heard from a lot of people, we are going to reconsider this decision.’ There is nothing wrong with that.”
Rubio said there are plenty of other issues on which they go to battle with Obama, and this didn’t have to be one of them.
“All the president has to do is basically reconsider the decision they made and acknowledge that maybe they went too far and maybe they did not think about it all the way when they made it,” he said. “And I hope that is what will happen.”
If not, he said, Republicans are ready. Rubio’s bill, which faces an uphill climb in the Democratic-controlled Senate, has 26 co-sponsors and has been referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. A companion bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) on Feb. 3.
“If it doesn’t, then I hope that this Senate and that House will act on it, as well, because the American people are asking us to, and I think that’s an important issue,” Rubio said.
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) signed on as co-sponsor of Rubio’s bill. “Requiring our nation’s religious institutions to defy the basic tenets of their faiths shows a disturbing disregard for the Constitution’s protections of religious freedom,” Alexander said in a statement today.
They can’t do that — it’s a slippery slope leading to the admission that the whole Obamacare project went too far.
Am I being too cynical in thinking this entire thing is an insidious (yet ingenious) setup by Obama, Cass Sunstein, and company to make Christians look like hypocrites by crying “religious freedom, religious freedom!” over this, but then turning around and trying to scream bloody murder when Muslims demand The Shari’ah be instituted as part of _their_ “religious freedom, religious freedom!”?
So I’m not the only one to see Sunstein’s fingerprints on this.
Oooh, you may be onto something there.
Whether intentional or not, the outcome may well be the same. A conundrum, to say the least.
I think this is right out of Axelrod’s playbook. Obama would like nothing better than to see the Republican’s continue their sniping at one another and to see the nominating process drag out to a big convention fight. Uh-oh, Romney is kicking butt to often and by too much for this to happen. Well we know we can’t do this with the Catholics, but we know we need to make a show of it for our atheist statists to be happy. Sooooo, why don’t we launch this grenade in time for Gingrich to use it on Romney, who was forced to sign such a measure by the Democrat majority in the Republic of Massachusetts and therefore can’t say anything about it. And Newt, being the sonofabitch that he is, took the bait and began to hammer Romney about religious persecution. Imagine their glee when Santorum also took the bait, but managed to look like a pious religious nut in the process, and impressed those ignorant Republican voters enough to win three contests in one night. Now, Gingrich is a negative campaigning jerk, Romney is a flip-flop-flip-flopper, and Santorum is a religious nut in the minds of our vital election statistic(the so-called independent voter). Now that we have wrecked as much havoc as we can on the Republican candidates with this, lets wait until just the moment when our wavering Democrat Catholics are about to mutiny, and then walk this thing back with the motions of a magnanimous President Obama being his most Presidential. Plus Sean Hannity can be counted on to talk about this all the way up to the election just like we killed him with the old Reverend Wright rope-a-dope. Maybe this is even more cynical, but this would be a textbook political play. Destroy you enemy by doing what you are eventually going to do after the election anyway. I have nothing against Gingrich and Santorum, but Obama would much rather run against either of them. He can see that Romney is the only Republican who is organized and ruthless enough to beat him. Someone tell me how I got any of this wrong, so I can still have my delusions that America will someday throw off the heavy yoke of Socialism.
I meant to say something about Marco Rubio in here, that it is refreshing to see such a good man involved in politics. I hope he lasts until he gets his own shot at the big show.
Another person giving His Arrogancy too much credit. He is committed to always “being right”; when in fact he should simply be committed.
The Supremes may soon do us all — including the Obaminator himself, who’s carrying one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation ever into an election — a huge favor by torpedoing ObamaCare.
Don’t hold your breath. Sigh.
Hey, but I thought that when ObamaCare was passed in Congress, Obama signed an Executive Order stating to the Blue Dog Democrats that Abortions would NOT be covered by Obamacare. He did that in a desperate way to get the votes of the Blue Dogs. So now not only is he forcing Catholic Hospitals to break their faith, but he’s also ignoring the very Executive Order he signed and making the Federal Government pay for abortions! What a guy. A dastardly dog does not even begin to describe what this president is. I hope the Catholic hospitals fight this all the way to the Supreme Court and just ignore the Federal Government’s mandates. I doubt that in an election year even Obama would threaten to cut off Catholic Hospitals over this. If so, then he’s going to have a few million angry Catholics this fall. And guess what, Mr. President, they vote too.
Yes, he did. The law trumps executive orders though, and many voiced that concern when he was doing it. He reassured them he would not go back on his word and would follow the executive order and not the law. What a transparent scam it was……..Now he is looking them straight in the eye and letting them know he lied to their faces. He is going to lose not only much of the religious vote, but the support of many in his party.
He is going to lose on this as sure as the sun comes up in the morning. Am I a bad person for getting so much pleasure out of watching this despicable bastard shoot himself in the foot?
I am afraid he won’t, even though he richly deserves to lose their votes. Wait until his second term, when he doesn’t have to worry about the political fallout from his actions. ABO2012
Sen. Rubio’s bill is ok as far as it goes, but the core problem is that on our side we haven’t developed a coherent alternative. There are 50MM uninsured in our country and while selling insurance across state lines and malpractice reform are fine, but they are not a solution to the healthcare problems we face. Obamacare does little to address the issues of access, costs, affordability, and portability, but we don’t have any solutions either! I guarantee that if we would recognize that a basic level of affordable healthcare is a right for US citizens and come up with solutions to provide for that level of medical care, Obama would be a one term president.
Someone who used to write…here I think….went by the handle ‘A Doctors labor is not my right’.
That sums it up very well. Perhaps you should look up the definition of ‘right’.
You have the right to remain healthy, by your own initiative.
You have the right to hedge your bets on the decisions on your life style choices.
You have the right to ask for help and guidance by those who have studied the issues.
You have the right to go extinct should you make wrong choices.
You do not have the right to demand that someone else pay for your disease.
Ok. You are clearly a superior libertarian, completely disconnected with the world in which you live. Go for it. Your ilk represents the worst this country has to offer. No rationale discussion, just an ill-informed dogmatic recitation of libertarian talking points. God bless you – and you alone. Ugh.
“our side”
What you mean “our,” kemosabe?
When did it become necessary and not redundant to propose a bill that proposes the federal government recognize the authority of the citizens, when the federal government doesn’t and won’t?
Rubio et al need to come out and say it plain and clear: ObamaCare in its entirety is over-reach. The current brouhaha with the Catholic church is just one example among many.
ObamaCare must be rescinded and dismantled.
Do you recall the 55 MPH speed limit that Congress “required” the States to enact? It was a simple bit of extortion – if you don’t enact the speed limit then you don’t get Highway funds. Now why doesn’t Obama simply rescind ObamaCare and instruct the States that if they want Medicare and Medicade reimbursement then they must enact RomneyCare? After all, Obama will reasonably say, shouldn’t the Federal Government be the health care provider of Last Resort? Shouldn’t the State do everything that they can to keep the burden off of the Federal Taxpayer? Why yes, it’s a matter of Personal Responsibility and who can be against that?
Say it with me… Thank You, Mitt Romney.
And in a horrible development, Obama and his Communist buddies coined the name “Romney Care”. That train has already left the station and Rick, Newt, and you are all on board.
Como se dice, “posturing for the veep slot”?
trying to get in a good position to be the Vice Presidential nominee.
We MUST have a brokered convention, and adopt Marco Rubio as thee candidate in order to beat BO………Please push this(I can do nothing sitting in Tennessee)
Please draft Marco Rubio at a brokered convention………we need someone else in order to beat BO………
Considering the reference to the 55 mph “extortion”…
No federal health funding to the state(s) UNLESS
1. There is only ONE health insurance group per state per insurer
2. Employers must provide the same health insurance subsidy (if any)to each employee.
3. Employers may not require a specific health insurer to be used.
4. The federal government will provide a credit to families of 90% of health care costs that in a calendar year exceeds US$200,000
5. All medical (and rehabilitation) costs relating to motor vehicle accidents must be covered by medical insurance paid as part of vehicle registrations.
Discuss how these measures would affect health insurance premiums and health care delivery costs.
what about you moving permanently to Europe to live your dreamy insurance utopia and leave the grown up people alone and free to work hard and pay our own bills?
I don’t know if you are joking or if you actually believe this could work well, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt and ask you how many tax dollars do employers ever really pay? All taxes ultimately get paid by the individual. If an employer gets taxed, he just raises the price of his goods and services to cover that cost. Who buys the goods and services besides people. Confiscatory taxes levied on employers makes it more difficult for employers to compete with foreign employers, who don’t have to raise prices for their goods and services as much, and jobs are then lost to foreign countries. Those countries benefit from the higher taxes that American companies pay and American workers get screwed in every way possible. This is for the concept that everyone should have equal access to all their health care needs. What about Americans who already shoulder the burden of military defense of Europe and the far East. Now we want them to pony up for the whole worlds health care costs? I don’t even go into how crappy the universally government provided health care would doubtlessly be. Under whose Constitution does it guarantee our freedom to have someone else pay for our health care. What makes this any different from getting the taxpayers to buy my new vehicle so I can have transportation? Where would it end? It would end with the total collapse of the economy and abject poverty for nearly everyone. All collectivist economic ideologies are doomed to failure and always have been. I could go on for hours here, but the big problem with what you say is that it is based on a very flawed understanding of the human condition.
Aren’t Obama & the Bamettes in a bit of a bind?
If they buckle to the Catholic church, then fundamentally, they’re saying ObamaCare ONLY applies to those who are so politically inept and unconnected they CAN’T extort an exception or gladhand a waiver.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2012
It’s not in the government’s power to take away, nor to restore either. Rubio needs to read his Constitution. He’s buying into the government-as-fountain-of-all-rights fallacy.
Better he take Obama to court for his First Amendment transgressions.
– could not be reached for comment.
personally, i don’t put too much faith in the courts.
1. they are all lawyers. they caved to feminism decades ago. when have you seen any truth, fairness, equality, honor or justice coming out of any of those courtrooms lately. around here they treat men in a divorce court like something you picked up on your shoe. equality? and i heard someone say ‘if you tell the truth down there in that sewer, you’ll be the only sob there doing it’. ethics/honor/justice vs the best lawyer $$ can buy? yeah, real trusty bunch. imho, a sorry state of affairs for what was surely once a proud profession.
2. i was young when feminists groups started screaming for abortion right. i remember people saying that the supremes didn’t do the usual, and look for a way within our given establshed rights/laws that have been slowly advanced through the courts. to appease feminists they created a right to privacy or some such, and hoisted that as the reason for abortion approval. totally bogus and everybody said so. but like all things feminist (like donating $$, vawa, aa, pp, etc.), once they get their claws on it, its their’s forever.
3. it was unthinkable to anyone that we would someday be forced to pay through our taxe$ for this obominable pratice; and, that was another thing abortion would never be about, according to its proponents. like bill oreilly said last night, i don’t want to be judged by my G o d for paying to help support something i find to be an abomination. for me, there is a reason people of G o d find it offensive. if you don’t understand that, well, that’s the difference between us.
4. our current obomination is a fervent feminist. haven’t we all seen him sporting his “this is what a feminist looks like” t-shirt? my first thought was, “exactly”.
5. this is a problem that the supreme court has brought onto itself. they went outside their s.o.p.s, to appease the p.c. crowd in the beginning of this abortion quagmire. now that same fatted calf has come home to perch his bloated arse right in their living room, over 50 million dead human beings later. maybe there is some justice here, poetic justice.
Right.
When Rubio admits that defending Romney as “Conservative” went too far.
This.
On Saturday Night Live, Republicans have been portrayed as dumb for years. I’m starting to see why.
On PJM, I’m sorry to say the article writers often are just as politically inept as the commenters. This article is a prime example. You mean well. But haven’t a clue.
You remind me of horses. You’re guided in one direction; you merrily go there. You’re guided in another direction; you perhaps angrily go there. Your rider falls off, and you immediately look back and wait till he gets back on.
People, Obama fell off the horse. He’s all dirty, on the ground, a mess. And you proceed to give him every chance to jump back up and act like he never fell off.
When arrogant Obama made his decision to put the Catholic church in its place; tell it what it can and can’t offer insurance-wise regardless of deeply held beliefs, right away you reacted. Wrong.
You should have given the anointed one some time; the hook was in his mouth. All yo had to do was set it. Give him 48 hours, maybe a week, to think everything would be all right.
“Oh, yes, Mr. Obama, what you say, the church will do.” But the politicians like Rubio and the Bishops and the outraged Catholics and non-Catholics with a conscience all over the United States couldn’t hold back. I guess it’s because we have no real leader.
Does anybody know what I’m talking about?
When Montgomery and the British were fighting in North African, Field Marshall Rommel would let the British move into his trap, and then outflank the British. Time after time he did it and time after time it worked.
But Catholics and patriots one and all, don’t seem to understand about traps and politics; didn’t anyone realize you don’t want to give Obama a chance to slide off the hook?
If Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League for civil and religious rights, is your mouthpiece, all you’ve got is a screamer, not a thinker.
You should have gradually built up the anger, the press announcements, the political actions. The Fox appearances. Over weeks and months. You should have gotten this issue hotter and hotter. So hot that by election time all of Obama’s men would have been wearing asbestos gloves.
The first move might have been to appeal to the ACLU for help. The second move might have been to discredit the ACLU after they told you in so many words to go to hell.
Instead you reacted without thinking. The discussion should have covered your fear of Obama.
“Obama, sir, how will you punish places like Notre Dame and Loyola if they refuse to do as you say? What if our religious beliefs don’t let us follow the anointed one’s wishes to go along with the shredding of the first amendment?”
And what will befall us should we refuse to pay the fine? Will you send a drone over? Will you take the President of Notre Dame away in handcuffs? Take the President Of the Loyola Health Center in Maywood, Illinois away in handcuffs likewise. Set federal marshals into action?
There were a million and one ways to play this golden opportunity to dismantle Obama. He gave the opening on a silver platter that you could have driven an Obama demolishing truck through. But you didn’t know what to do. All you knew that you were mad and outraged.
I give Obama 3 more days to slither out of this situation; a pickle that was capable of costing him the election.
When it comes to politics, does any one around here speak the language?
I really don’t think your approach would work at all.
Given enough time, Obama’s approach would be cemented as status quo, and then any sudden refusal to carry out orders would be seen as just some radical venting.
You’ve got to get in front of a wave to surf it.
At first I thought you were on to what I always lament about people who call themselves conservatives. But my take on it is that Obama baited the hook with this move and went fishing for a conservative sucker. To his surprise and joy, he caught, not just the sucker he was after(Romney), but two other desperado Republicans as well(Gingrich, who falls for everything Obama does and Santorum who suddenly think the Catholic Church will get him to the White House). And, to your point, the Republicans will ratchet this up fast enough to allow Obama to complete the strategy and walk back his proposal in time to bring Catholics back into his fold. Yes conservatives are bad at politics, but that is because they still believe that the majority of the voters actually believe in anything. Stupid people can be manipulated into believing anything, even to the point of ridiculing more thoughtful people. The big problem modern conservatives has is that too many people around them are stupid and too many of the stupid get to vote. And conservatives don’t have the will to even take the education of their children away from labor union hacks, who are so stupid that they think they need someone else to help them by determining the terms of their employment for them.
Yes, you move the goalposts. Demand a good faith concession as a precondition to negotiating.
Too Far with Birth Control Mandate? Religious freedom? All too many are missing the really big picture here: The total power over private lives given to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the President) by the Obama Health Care law. No human being, no agency, no government should have that kind of power over another human being. Power is the problem, power over others our Constitution was created to prevent.
The power we have allowed this government to assume over us will someday lead to American gulags, re-education camps and killing fields. We have Federal agencies unaccountable to anyone, courts set up as fiefdoms and a military whose officer corps is being purged of integrity and Constitutional fealty. We have crossed the Pale.
Suppose the Federal government had no policy on birth control – pro or con. Some insurers would cover it, while others would not. People who wanted that service could simply move companies. What a boon to the companies who offered contraceptive coverage! It is a perfect way to “cherry pick” the younger but otherwise healthy crowd. Those policies covering diseases of the aging would also have to ultimately have to offer contraceptive coverage, because without the healthy individuals, insurance would be too expensive. Reasoning for hospitals would be reversed. Hospitals would not have to offer abortion or contraceptive services to exist, since they want the more extensive and expensive services offered mainly to the aging generation. On the other hand, some hospitals would want the income stream from abortion procedures. The individual would simply seek out such a hospital with insurance payments from the company supplying the benefit.
What is the problem with this approach? Benefits would not be identical for all people, thus, not in step with Socialist values. A flexible solution is not within the grasp of the average Socialist ideologue.
A lot of folks involved in this debate must have skipped their logic classes. Asking to not be forced to offer something to everyone is not at all the same as asking that everyone be forced to not have something. The Catholic church is not asking to impose Sharia Law on the country or its employees. If we can’t discuss this issue without keeping that straight we are really going backwards as a culture.
But the logical extreme of forcing the Catholic Church to provide contraception to everyone is that they can be forced to follow Sharia law if they can be forced to do anything that goes against their own beliefs. Once we let the government dictate that we all wear seat belts, the cat was out of the bag. Now, using the same reasoning, the government forces us to use purchase a myriad of safety regulations in most of the products we buy. I am not advocating that people shouldn’t wear safety belts, I am advocating that the government has no business making it illegal for me not to wear one. Having already raised children, I’m pretty sure that requiring child safety seats for kids under four feet tall is totally unnecessary. So, try using a little logic about forcing religions to provide free services they don’t believe in providing even for money. But don’t get too wound up in righteous defense of Obamacare, Obama will back off on this one as soon as the political damage to Republican candidates has gone about as far as it can.
According To The FBI, Internet Privacy Is Now Considered To Be Suspicious Activity
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/according-to-the-fbi-internet-privacy-is-now-considered-to-be-suspicious-activity
Post writing is also a excitement, if you be acquainted with after that you can write if not it is complex to write.