Rand Paul is threatening to derail the federal highway funding bill in order to defund Planned Parenthood

[ABX]

Sen. Rand Paul has pledged to defund Planned Parenthood, as have several other Republicans seeking the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, and he may set up a roadblock to the federal highway funding bill this week to do so.

His efforts are in response to the undercover video released last week that shows Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, describing in gruesome detail how fetuses are aborted to preserve body parts—and implying that the organization is involved as a middleman in selling them.
“Not one more taxpayer dollar should go to Planned Parenthood and I intend to make that goal a reality,”

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/07/20/will_planned_parenthood_blowup_derail_highway_bill.html#ixzz3gZlKIfAh

[alicewonders]

I hope Rand Paul has success with this.  I abhor abortion, and to think that my tax money is going to fund this macabre practice goes against every fiber of my being.  What's next?  Soylent green?

[EdinVA]

I hope Rand Paul has success with this.  I abhor abortion, and to think that my tax money is going to fund this macabre practice goes against every fiber of my being.  What's next?  Soylent green?

Agree Alice but BO will simply let the money run out and shut down the gov and blame it on the republicans.
We need a different approach, don't know what but something.

[massadvj]

Agree Alice but BO will simply let the money run out and shut down the gov and blame it on the republicans.
We need a different approach, don't know what but something.

But we haven't yet tried the "let the government shut down" approach.  How do we know it will fail?  Maybe after a while people will figure out they can get along perfectly well without nonessential services.

[alicewonders]

Agree Alice but BO will simply let the money run out and shut down the gov and blame it on the republicans.
We need a different approach, don't know what but something.

Yep.  This is SOP, Obama blames Republicans and the media piles it on - and then the Republicans cave. 

Gotta clean house. 

 

[EdinVA]

But we haven't yet tried the "let the government shut down" approach.  How do we know it will fail?  Maybe after a while people will figure out they can get along perfectly well without nonessential services.

We did it just 2 years ago.  Remember the barricades at the memorials thing?

[massadvj]

We did it just 2 years ago.  Remember the barricades at the memorials thing?

Yeah, but I don't remember it being a failure.  In 2012 Republicans swept the midterms by promising more obstruction.

[EdinVA]

Yeah, but I don't remember it being a failure.  In 2012 Republicans swept the midterms by promising more obstruction.

It was a failure because the republicans caved in.......

[Fishrrman]

EdinVa wrote above:
[[ Agree Alice but BO will simply let the money run out and shut down the gov and blame it on the republicans.
We need a different approach, don't know what but something. ]]

Fishrrman's credo:
Reality is what it is. It is not what we believe it to be.

The "approach" you need is right there in front of you. You can recognize it for the reality it is, or keep believing that there "is something else".

The Republican Congress has but two effective tools with which to thwart the president:
1. The power of funding, or more correctly, the power to "refuse to fund",
and
2. The power to confirm judicial and administrative nominations, or more correctly, the power to "refuse to confirm".

Both of these can be quite effective, if the party would be willing to use them.

Aside from the above, if you want to punish Planned Parenthood, Congress (the Republican "majority" in Congress, that is), doesn't have many (any?) other options...

[EdinVA]

EdinVa wrote above:
[[ Agree Alice but BO will simply let the money run out and shut down the gov and blame it on the republicans.
We need a different approach, don't know what but something. ]]

Fishrrman's credo:
Reality is what it is. It is not what we believe it to be.

The "approach" you need is right there in front of you. You can recognize it for the reality it is, or keep believing that there "is something else".

The Republican Congress has but two effective tools with which to thwart the president:
1. The power of funding, or more correctly, the power to "refuse to fund",
and
2. The power to confirm judicial and administrative nominations, or more correctly, the power to "refuse to confirm".

Both of these can be quite effective, if the party would be willing to use them.

Aside from the above, if you want to punish Planned Parenthood, Congress (the Republican "majority" in Congress, that is), doesn't have many (any?) other options...

I know all that but making the highway companies and people driving back and forth to work suffer is not going to do anything.
Why can't we hold the entire whitehouse and whitehouse staff budget hostage.
When THEY have to go a few months without pay, the pressure to come to the table will be greater.

Holding funding is the answer but which funding.
If BO is not feeling the pain, he does not care.