“Fake news.”
It’s like the morning after pill for politicians. Call it fake news and it just goes away?
On Friday, BizPac Review published a list of 24 (since updated to 23) GOP Representatives who voted to reject an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would have banned the Pentagon from paying for surgeries and hormone therapy for transgender individuals in the military.
The headline reads, “Here are 24 Republicans who voted to have Uncle Sam pay for transgender surgeries & hormone therapy.”
Those members have obviously, and deservedly, taken heat from their constituents for this vote because, no matter how much you try to spin it and no matter how pro-LGBT you may be, asking the military to fund these operations through military-provided insurance as a “medical necessity” is the height of insanity and a complete waste of taxpayer money.
So the fact that Republicans are the ones who defeated this amendment, individuals who are supposed to be the guardians of not only sound fiscal policy but military readiness as well, is an extra special stab in the back to conservatism and conservatives everywhere.
Michigan Rep. Justin Amash was singled out because as a libertarian he, of all people, should know better.
Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow Ryan T. Anderson, and plenty of others, called out Amash via Twitter…
Hey @justinamash can you help me understand why you voted to allow taxpayer dollars to fund sex reassignment surgery? https://t.co/4Di5KquROg
— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) July 15, 2017
@justinamash as your constituent I would like an explanation please.
— Feinstein’s Dogma (@ReallyJustG) July 14, 2017
Here’s what the congressman had to say on BPR’s Twitter feed:
That headline is fake news. The underlying bill says nothing about transgender individuals, and voting no on the amendment expends no money.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 14, 2017
Ouch! Fake News? Really?
Congressman, you can dance around semantics all you want, but what is the result of your vote? Maybe the “underlying bill” doesn’t say transgender, but the amendment you voted ‘no’ on surely addresses it. Nice dodge, but it isn’t going to fly.
He then added:
Sec. Mattis and the White House oppose the amendment. They are working on a policy and want an opportunity to craft it.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 14, 2017
Have Sec. Mattis and Pres. Trump betrayed “conservative principle and our military” by asking us to vote no while they craft new policy?
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 15, 2017
So, the guy who has been a constant thorn in Trump’s side is now blaming his vote on the president? How convenient! He’ll get the benefit of the doubt that Mattis did indeed prefer a ‘no’ vote on the amendment. That’s what the Huffington Post reported and it was in BPR’s original article. If the Secretary is indeed considering having the military pay (via insurance) for sex-change surgeries and hormones for transgender individuals, it’s likely much more because of political pressure and political correctness than any logical analysis of the situation.
Congressman Amash could have helped him with this. After all, Congress controls the purse strings, no? There’s no use hiding behind President Trump or Secretary Mattis, with whom conservatives can be supporters of but still disagree on certain issues.
Amash responded to someone asking why only 24 agreed to the administration’s “reasonable” request:
It nearly didn’t get a vote bc of pushback from administration. Why only 24? Bc Congress does what’s politically expedient, not what’s best.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 15, 2017
The Congressman argued that he isn’t necessarily voting “for” the government to fund transgender surgeries:
I didn’t vote FOR anything. I voted no on an amendment that the administration feels is unwarranted while they craft their own policy.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 15, 2017
The problem with this point is that, as Amash knows, the government funding such surgeries through insurance will be the result of this policy, and this vote is essentially allowing it to move forward.
Maybe you should seek the facts. Current policy does not permit elective surgery.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 15, 2017
Here’s the problem, and Amash knows it. In their coverage of the issue, which they clearly support, Time inadvertently describes the slippery slope:
In the past, gender reassignment surgery has often been banned from coverage — by both private insurance and government programs — because it was viewed as experimental or cosmetic. While Hartzler argued that there is still a “lack of medical consensus on the effectiveness of gender transition treatments,” organizations such as the American Medical Association have in the last decade released statements saying that research supports the effectiveness and “medical necessity” of treatments such as surgery for individuals with gender dysphoria. That is the official diagnosis for individuals who experience “a marked difference between the individual’s expressed/experienced gender and the gender others would assign him or her.”
Time describes how Medicare began covering such surgeries in 2014. So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these surgeries will likely all be considered “medically necessary” and not “elective.”
Here’s the bottom line: Despite his voting eccentricities and even his opposition to President Trump, Amash may be a good person and a principled individual. However, he and the other Republicans who voted against this common-sense amendment can argue semantics all they want, but the bottom line is their vote will allow a massive and pointless waste of taxpayer money in the name of political-correctness.
And for an already increasingly under-fire “do-nothing” Congress, to miss this veritable 6-inch putt is absolutely inexcusable.
Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BizPac Review.
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