Washington’s acrimonious politics have now evolved to a point where they threaten the health and lives of Americans, precipitating a health disaster caused by the Zika virus. The partisan rancor must stop here.
The same Republican tea party extremists who inflicted Donald Trump upon their political party, are now hijacking federal dollars desperately needed to fight the Zika virus. Their heartless plan — backed by Senate leaders and Colorado’s own GOP Sen. Cory Gardner — continues to hold up funding to fight the dangerous virus out of a vengeance scheme to destroy Planned Parenthood.
This has gone too far.
Not only have Senate Republicans repeatedly hard-baked what Democrats accurately label “poison pill” provisions into a similarly politicized House bill — approving money that the Obama administration begged for in February — but yesterday they doubled down on their Trumpish strategy, attempting to blame Democrats for not yielding to their cruel and unconscionable ploy.
Gardner parroted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by disingenuously claiming, “It is a glaring example of the political machine at its worst: the very people who are demanding the passage of Zika funding are its only obstacle to approval.”
It’s nothing more than cold-hearted and irresponsible political subterfuge.
The short-sightedness of a political party that has utterly lost its way is mind-boggling. Republicans at one moment are lamenting that it has emboldened irresponsible and reckless tea partiers to the point that they are now running the asylum and have hoisted Trump as its exemplar. And at the same time, these very dispirited Republican leaders play out the exact destructive political gambit that has caused them to lose control of their party in the House and the Senate.
It’s political madness, and innocent Americans soon to be infected with the Zika virus are the ultimate victims of their political cannibalism.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet has insisted partisan politics be set aside from the Zika issue, and his colleagues should heed that advice.
This is the third time Senate Republicans have tried to extort the Zika virus funding this year. Republicans demand that no money in this convoluted bill go to fund any Planned Parenthood expenditure. Republicans have been stalking Planned Parenthood for years, touting a repeatedly debunked video scam throwing shade on the agency as part of a macabre anti-abortion rights ploy. One would think this has nothing to do with Planned Parenthood, except it absolutely does. In Puerto Rico and Florida, which are ground zero for growing Zika cases in the United States, Planned Parenthood remains a critical source of birth control for women and men. Senate Republicans, including Gardner, have played key or supporting roles in this foolhardy abortion-rights farce.
While so much is unknown about a virus proven to cause widespread, fatal birth defects in South America, scientists are certain that this virus is easily spread by sexual contact. It means that you don’t have to go to Florida to get Zika, people exposed by mosquito bite or sex are bringing it to Colorado, and all over the country. Not only is the Republican grudge against Planned Parenthood precipitously out of line in light of a funding bill that American lives hinge on, but GOP obstruction is outrageously inane, given that access to birth control is right now a prime defense against transmission and infected babies.
American lives and welfare are paramount, but extorting Democrats over the Planned Parenthood ruse and delaying Zika virus funding also guarantees that Florida’s tourism-clad economy will be in ruins in just a few short months as nobody will want to go to a place rife with unchecked Zika.
Congress, and especially the Senate leaders, must end this charade today, disingenuously feigning surprise as to why the federal government can’t fund a fight against Zika. Strip any measure of Planned Parenthood politics from a Zika funding bill today.