Michelle Obama's nutrition bill derailed

Under normal circumstances I would be ignoring the bill in question (S-3307), but my nose got twitching and I decided to look further, boy am I glad I did. When the bill got to the House, along comes a poison pill amendment to the bill to stop otherwise good legislation. Nothing irks me more than the use of tactics to stop a bill, rather than the real focus of the bill. Here is what I found.

The way they are trying to stop the bill is, by forcing qualifying institutions to do background checks. OK, but are sex offenders the real focus of the background checks? NO! Look closer at how they are trying to purify workers, first sex offenders, but then workers also cannot be someone who:

``(4) has been convicted of a felony consisting of--
``(A) homicide;
``(B) child abuse or neglect;
``(C) a crime against children, including child pornography;
``(D) spousal abuse;
``(E) a crime involving rape or sexual assault;
``(F) kidnapping;
``(G) arson; or
``(H) physical assault, battery, or a drug-related offense, committed within the past 5 years.''.

Allegedly there are 700,000 or so former sex offenders, but do you know how many millions of folks are added to PRIVATE "child abuse registries" every year (many who have done nothing but be part of a investigation into a case of child abuse or neglect [4mb PDF file, 2008 cases only]), and kidnapping would include parents involved in divorce proceedings, then comes domestic violence cases, and, assault, battery and drug offenses in the past 5 years. Some lawmakers may very well get caught up in that list.

And, it gets worse, look how far back in time an institution must check into a possible worker's background "and each State where such staff member previously resided." Can you imagine how long it would take. OH, you say, schools should do this! Well guess what, schools aren't the only institutions covered by this bill, see 42 USC 1766 (2) Definition of institution. You know that little old lady down the street who takes care of kids (licensed) for parents going to work every day, well, where is she going to get the money for such background checks?

Couched as "protecting children," this absurdity is really nothing more than a "Poison Pill Bill" to stop otherwise good legislation, under the pretext of protecting children! And there is more, see Text of Amendment by Rep Kline of Minnesota.

12-3-2010 Washington DC:

House Republicans scuttled a pet bill of Michelle Obama, using a procedural gambit to knock her child nutrition bill off the House floor Wednesday.

House Democrats scrapped plans to vote on an Obama-backed child nutrition bill Wednesday after Republicans threatened to force a procedural vote that would bar funds from going to child care institutions that employ individuals who refuse criminal sex-offender background checks, or lie on them.

The amendment created a bind for Democratic leaders: a vote in favor would send the bill back to the Senate, threatening its enactment in this Congress, and a vote against it would put Democrats on the record as opposing restrictions on federal funding for institutions that employ workers who have committed sex offenses against children.

"I am disappointed Republicans chose to play politics with a bill that enjoys strong bipartisan support and would increase access to school meal programs, improve the standards of food provided, and help reduce childhood obesity," Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement. "The real purpose of this motion to recommit was to delay this bipartisan bill from being signed into law.

The amendment, called a motion to recommit, was introduced on the House floor by Rep. John Kline, a Minnesota Republican who is the ranking member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Democrats will attempt to push the vote through Thursday by voting on the changes as a stand-alone suspension bill, clearing vulnerable Democrats to vote for them without jeopardizing the nutrition legislation.

"After that vote, we will return to the Child Nutrition bill where we left off, voting on the motion to recommit and final passage. This will allow a good, bipartisan bill to reach the President's desk without delay," Hoyer said.

This latest hurdle comes just as Democrats overcame internal dissent over a controversial provision that would pay for the bill by making cuts to the food stamp program-SNAP.

The normally low-profile, bipartisan legislation shot into the spotlight with the endorsement of Michelle Obama, who has championed the cause of tackling childhood obesity. But the bill became a target of the frustration by some House Democrats who felt that the White House was willing to endorse continued cuts to the food stamp program in order to fund its legislative priorities.

The $4.5 billion "Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act," which passed unanimously in the Senate in August, was paid for by siphoning off $2.2 billion from SNAP. And earlier in the year, Congress used an additional $19.9 billion to pay for emergency funding for teachers.

The SNAP program received a boost in funding through the Recovery Act in 2009 that would increase the value of the food vouchers given to recipients for five years. The nutrition bill's cuts to that funding would roll back the program funding to pre-Recovery Act levels in five months earlier.

In a meeting at the White House on Tuesday, senior advisers sought to clear the last remaining obstacles to the bill's passage by reassuring some skeptical Democrats that the president would commit to restoring the $2.2 billion in cuts to SNAP. According to sources, President Obama has committed to making a statement of support for SNAP during the signing ceremony at the White House.

Initial holdouts Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-Conn.) have both have endorsed the bill, saying that they had received sufficient assurances from the White House that funding would be restored.

But the Obama's statement will amount to an uncertain promissory note given that Congress continues to look for ways fund legislative priorities without adding to the deficit. ..Source.. by ABBY PHILLIP & JONATHAN ALLEN & JENNIFER HABERKORN

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GOP Amendment: No Viagra for Sex Offenders

Another example of "Poison Pill" amendments. From Politico:

Dems reject amendment to ban Viagra for sex offenders

Democrats killed an amendment by Republican Sen. Tom Coburn to prevent the newly created insurance exchanges from using federal money to cover Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs for rapists, pedophiles and other sex offenders. The amendment failed 57-42. "The vast majority of Americans don't want their taxpayer dollars paying for this kind of drug for those kind of people," Coburn said.

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus urged his colleagues to defeat the amendment. "This is a serious bill. This is a serious debate. The amendment offered by the senator from Oklahoma makes a mockery of the Senate, the debate and the American people. It is not a serious amendment. It is a crass political stunt aimed at making 30-second commercials, not public policy," he said.

Democrats have defeated every amendment offered by Republicans so far, arguing that any change will kill the bill.

3-23-2010 Washington DC:

As part of their effort to slow (or even stop) passage of the bill that would make changes to the health care legislation signed into law by President Obama Tuesday, Senate Republicans have vowed to introduce hundreds of amendments.

One part of that strategy is to offer amendments on which Democrats would be hard-pressed to cast a "no" vote. If the Senate makes any amendments to the legislation, it has to go back to the House -- a possibility that Democrats are hoping to avoid.

GOP Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma (pictured) today released a list of the nine amendments he has filed, and right at the top is a clear illustration of the strategy -- an amendment entitled "No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders." Here's how it's described:

"This amendment would enact recommendations from the Government Accountability Office to stop fraudulent payments for prescription drugs prescribed by dead providers or, to dead patients. This amendment also prohibits coverage of Viagra and other ED medications to convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders, and prohibits coverage of abortion drugs."

By opposing that amendment, Democrats are, at least in theory, opening themselves up to charges that they support using government money to provide sex offenders with Viagra -- surely an unpopular position if ever there was one.

Other amendments on Coburn's list are designed to undercut Democrats' claims about what the bill will do - see amendment #5, "If You Like the Health Plan You Have, You Can Keep It." Coburn's third amendment says simply, "Congress Should Not Lecture Americans About Fiscal Responsibility."

Senate Democratic leaders are pressing their members not to break ranks and support Republican amendments (or introduce amendments of their own) in order to get the bill passed as soon as possible. In a statement, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka made that same argument.

"Any amendment offered during this process is nothing more than a poison pill," he said. "A 'NO' on amendments is a 'YES' on health care." ..Source.. by Brian Montopoli

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The impudent tyranny of Harry Reid

A example of a "Poison Pill" type of amendment. Note highlights near end.

12-23-2009 National:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada is proving once again the maxim that darkness hates the light.

Buried in his massive amendment to the Senate version of Obamacare is Reid's anti-democratic poison pill designed to prevent any future Congress from repealing the central feature of this monstrous legislation.

Beginning on page 1,000 of the measure, Section 3403 reads in part: "... it shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection."

In other words, if President Obama signs this measure into law, Reid intends that no future Senate or House will be able to change a single word of Section 3403, regardless whether future Americans or their representatives in Congress wish otherwise.

Note that the subsection at issue here concerns the regulatory power of the Independent Medicare Independent Advisory Board to "reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending."

That is precisely the kind of open-ended grant of regulatory power that effectively establishes the IMAB as the ultimate arbiter of the cost, quality and quantity of health care to be made available to the American people. And Reid wants the decisions of this group of unelected federal bureaucrats to be untouchable for all time.

No wonder the majority leader tossed aside assurances that senators and the public would have at least 72 hours to study the text of the final Senate version of Obamacare before the critical vote on cloture. And no wonder Reid was so desperate to rush his amendment through the Senate, even scheduling the key tally on it at 1 a.m., while America slept.

True to form, Reid wanted to keep his Section 3403 poison pill secret as long as possible, just as he negotiated his bribes for the votes of Sens. Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana, Ben Nelson, of Nebraska, and Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, behind closed doors.

The final Orwellian touch in this subversion of democratic procedure is found in the ruling of the Reid-controlled Senate parliamentarian that the anti-repeal provision is not a change in Senate rules, but rather of Senate "procedures." Why is that significant?

Because for 200 years, changes in the Senate's standing rules have required approval by two-thirds of those voting, or 67 votes rather than the 60 Reid's amendment received.

Reid has flouted two centuries of standing Senate rules to pass a measure in the dead of night that no senator has read, and part of which can never be changed. If this is not tyranny, then what is? ..Source.. by Examiner Editorial

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