Some people think that if we elect a conservative Senate and House that President Obama will have no choice but to compromise with Republicans. Well, think again. Look no farther than the internal debate within the White House on the rule mandating Catholic universities and organizations to provide free contraceptives to employees. According to ABC News, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley and Vice President Joe Biden – all Catholics – warned him against this. He didn’t listen. Despite the known political fallout, Obama went with the far left.
The debate within the White House on this issue was, sources say, heated, and President Obama was legitimately torn. Panetta wasn’t alone in his concerns. For months, Vice President Joe Biden and then-White House chief of staff Bill Daley argued internally against the rule, sources tell ABC News. Biden and Daley didn’t think the rule was right on either the policy or the politics, sources said. Joshua Dubois, head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, also expressed concern.
The policy was wrong, the two Catholic men, Biden and Daley, argued, saying that the Obama administration couldn’t force religious charities to pay for something they think is a sin. Sources say that Biden and Daley in these internal debates emphasized the political fallout more so than the policy issue. Catholics are the ultimate swing voters, they argued. President Obama won the Catholic vote 54-46% in 2008, but he lost among white Catholics 47-53%, according to exit polls.
But Biden and Daley faced a strong group making the case for the rule within the administration – including Catholics such as senior adviser David Plouffe and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, senior White House advisers Valerie Jarrett and Pete Rouse, and then-domestic policy council director Melody Barnes. Others outside the White House also pushed hard for the rule, including former White House communications director Anita Dunn, Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards. (Some of the details of this internal division were first reported yesterday by Bloomberg’s Mike Dorning and Margaret Talev.)
Read the whole thing. According to the article, Plouffe, Sebelius and Jarrett were arguing for this assault on religious freedom based on “science,” saying birth control saves lives. But we all know it had nothing to do with science – women are still free to purchase birth control. It was about appeasing the abortion lobby and ginning up the base before the election.
In this case, it’s looking like they pushed the envelope just a little bit too far.
What I find ironic is that so many Catholic organizations were so gung-ho for Obamacare, and are now shocked that Obama would cross this line. Hello!
Update: Linked by The Other McCain – thanks!
Update 2: The White House announced a “compromise” which is really no compromise at all.
Update 3: Linked by Katy Pundit – thanks!
Tags: contraception, debate, joe biden, obama, white house
[...] One Day Before Carnival Bungled Conservation Effort Kills South African Rhino BLOGS & STUFF Lonely Conservative: Internal WH Debate On Contraception Mandate Proves Obama No Kind Of Moderate Shot In The Dark: The Not-So-Paper Bull? Powerline: Is 2012 Slipping Away From The GOP? [...]
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Obama will reluctantly cave, the liberal Catholic leadership will bring its congregation back to obama for the election, and if re-elected obama will then reinstate the mandate. The entire saga was predictable from day 1.
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oh goodie – they get two steps forward and only one step back. every one of the commie idiots should be forced out of the white house, and preferably out of the usa. It is the socalled advisors who actually matter – like all those czars. That is where the real left wing fangs are. Every one of these creeps needs a background check by the FBI. But folks can’t even defend traditional marriage in california – so the creeps get to set up their own religion of the State. More and more like the nazis and bolsheviks.
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[...] Internal White House Debate on Catholics and Contraception Shows Obama Will Never Be a Moderate [...]
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That was a classic union negotiation move—ask for something so beyond the pale and then come back and “settle” for much, much more than the employer was originally willing to entertain.
The man has no authority to “mandate” that any private enterprise be forced to give away any product for free. Women who are so concerned about their “health” can purchase birth control pretty much anywhere; why, Planned Parenthood will subsidize that. They want it for FREE, as a new RIGHT. Insurance companies had better not let him get away with that; today it’s birth control pills, tomorrow we’re Venezuela.
We know that the Constitution is a thorn in Obama’s side; he freely admits that with his NBC pals: the Constitution doesn’t allow him to “force Congress” and he hasn’t been able to do all the things he wants to do. That is an incredibly important statement to keep an eye on. He has, for three years, ground the Constitution into the mud. It’s the only thing protecting us–including the hate-spewing John, Andy, and Liberalmann–from a government that can decide if we are just too troublesome to remain free and alive.
The Constitution was not written in order to give us a load of freebies; it was written to protect the People from its Government.
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You are right liberty, if Obama can force insurance companies to pay, he can get away with murder! He will force them to perform free abortions as well! During the debate for the health care reform bill, Obama also promised insurance companies that he would treat them fairly and not place unreasonable demands on them as well.
DeMint is right, you cannot compromise with Democrats, they will undermine and back stab at every opportunity!
Insurance companies should aggressively fight Obama now while the attention is still on the Obama led church scam!
This is bullying and its time that we fight back, otherwise Obama is free to concoct other attacks on our freedom.
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