Yes, Ma’am, Boxer Did Vote to Use Government Funds to Buy Viagra for Sex Offenders
Last month, we reported that the junior Senator from California, enjoying a 51% unfavorable rating from her Golden State constituents,
. . . joined her fellow Senate Democrats in blocking her Oklahoma colleague Tom Coburn’s amendment to “prevent convicted child molesters and rapists from getting reimbursed by the government for drugs to treat erectile dysfunction“.
While our critics faulted the post, calling the Coburn amendment, for example, “a nasty, dirty tactic“, seems that good man had a point. Over at the Washington Examiner, Susan Ferrechio alerts us to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) study of the matter:
Coburn asked the CRS to look into whether convicted sex offenders can get taxpayer-funded coverage for erectile dysfunction medication under the new health care law and CRS’s response indicates they are eligible for those benefits.
According to CRS, the new health care law includes nothing “which would require qualified health plans to limit the type of benefits that can be offered based on the plan beneficiary’s prior criminal convictions. Additionally, there do not appear to be any provisions that would specifically restrict qualified health plans’ coverage of drugs prescribed to treat ED.”
The CRS goes further to state specifically that “a convicted rapist, child molester, or other sex offender who is not incarcerated would not appear to be excluded from enrolling in a qualified health plan offered through an American Health Benefit Exchange in their state solely because of that conviction.”
The good and gracious Oklahoman had a point. And in trying to get a “clean” bill by toeing her party line, Barbara Boxer ended up blocking a measure which could have prevented her much vaunted heath care bill from paying for using taxpayer funds to treat their ED (erectile dysfunction).
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I addressed half of the issue by identifying this as motivated by politics rather than a desire to protect the general public (your attaching of this to more about Barbara Boxer’s approval ratings makes that even more clear, thank you very much) but it was plutosdad who addressed the other half by explaining how useless the amendment would’ve been even if passed.
There really is nothing further to be said on this issue, so I’ll leave you in the echo chamber now.
Comment by Serenity — April 8, 2010 @ 2:12 am - April 8, 2010
Serenity, but have you addressed the issue now that we have the CRS report which I mention in the post?
You didn’t consider that in your comment.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — April 8, 2010 @ 2:15 am - April 8, 2010
That would require him to think, Dan.
As to the bill and the ammendment, it is part of teh contempt that ma’am has that she assumes she’ll be able to ‘fix it later’.
Comment by The_Livewire — April 8, 2010 @ 6:58 am - April 8, 2010
Where in hell did this ‘fix it later’ and “it’s good enough”(because it doesn’t apply to me and mine, but to YOU PEOPLE) attitude come from? Why isn’t doing a good, clean, helpful bill/law even considered prudent and beneficial anymore? It’s the same reason it’s acceptable to have the industries being affected/regulated actually writing the legislation anymore; the same reason it’s okay to tack 100 other bills and concerns onto one “important, have-to” bill: no longer is fair, intelligent governance a priority, nor the advancement and protection of American ideals and way of life, and the cause of common sense and decency has been muted.
It IS about 14 minutes of fame, about being seen and hobnobbing, about towing the Party line and being seen to do so, about raping and pillaging and stonewalling the hearts, wallets and minds of the American people and anyone who dares to pursue the American dream (though millions still risk life and limb to come here and do just that) and it’s about laziness, selfishness and irreverence to ideas and ideals older, larger, better and more worthy than the pathetic lives of any and all politicians.
Comment by rodney — April 8, 2010 @ 7:19 am - April 8, 2010
Sorry, guys, I rambled…my partner wasn’t awake yet this morning to kick my soapbox.
Comment by rodney — April 8, 2010 @ 7:21 am - April 8, 2010
A rapist with erectile dysfunction has two problems and society has only found a way to deal with one of them. We don’t do lobotomies or castration any more and these people do get out of prison.
Where does it follow that, logically, since we can’t stop what drives them we will fortify their equipment and make them more successful at rape?
Serenity floated by to do a piety dance and linked to Plutosdad. Plutosdad did the same old song and dance about getting educated by a few lone experts on rape and trying to understand the rapist. The same could be said for all those lefties who want us to understand why radical Islamists act out the way they do.
Funny, though, these people never try to get into the heads of the KKK or people who brutalize gays or even folks who attend TEA party rallies.
Why is that?
Comment by heliotrope — April 8, 2010 @ 8:48 am - April 8, 2010
No amount of leftie spin can change the following facts:
1) Convicted sex offenders can get taxpayer-funded coverage for erectile dysfunction medication under the new health care law.
2) Boxer and other Democrats had a chance to fix it. And chose not to.
Serenity: Deal with it. Face facts. Respond to facts. Denial isn’t a river in Egypt, remember.
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — April 8, 2010 @ 12:51 pm - April 8, 2010
ILoveCapitalism,
Is it true that if Coburn’s amendment had passed, it could have delayed the passage of the reconciliation bill?
Comment by Phil — April 9, 2010 @ 2:49 am - April 9, 2010
Phil, it would have delayed it, but no longer than it had to be delayed anyway, when the parliamentarian discovered some provisions that couldn’t go through reconciliation.
Comment by B. Daniel Blatt — April 9, 2010 @ 2:52 am - April 9, 2010
[...] out that, indeed, Sen. Boxer (D-CA) voted to provide viagra for sex offenders. Share and [...]
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