United States Senate 2

[Cartmann99]

Rubio Targets Citi, Amazon With Bill on Abortion-Travel Benefits

Quote

Senator Marco Rubio is sending a message to Amazon Inc., The Walt Disney Co., Citigroup Inc. and other U.S. companies that have vowed to pay travel costs for their employees to access abortion services or gender-affirming care for their children: Republicans want to make it more expensive.

The Florida Republican, a potential contender for the GOP nomination in 2024, is proposing legislation that would prevent companies from writing off these costs for their employees and their families. The tax code generally allows companies to deduct their business costs, including employee health coverage and other benefits.

Rubio’s bill illustrates the GOP’s split with corporate America, which has grown since former President Donald Trump’s presidency over concerns about his rhetoric about racism and democracy, as well as disagreements over trade and immigration policies.

Rubio, who was a favorite of corporate donors during his 2016 presidential bid, has recently called corporations “the instrument of anti-American ideologies,” a view echoed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another potential GOP presidential contender.

“Our tax code should be pro-family and promote a culture of life,” Rubio said in a statement. “Instead, too often our corporations find loopholes to subsidize the murder of unborn babies or horrific ‘medical’ treatments on kids. My bill would make sure this does not happen.”

The legislation has no chance of becoming law while Democrats control any of the levers of power in Washington, meaning it would be blocked at least until the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January 2025. But the bill reveals a glimpse of Republican messaging and legislation the party would consider if it gains a majority in either the House or Senate after November’s midterm elections.

Rubio said his bill is a direct response to corporations who have said they’ll pay for employees to travel to access abortion services, and follows a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Those companies include Amazon, Apple Inc. and Citigroup.

Thirteen states, including Texas, Tennessee and Missouri, have laws that would immediately ban abortion if the Supreme Court reverses the 1973 decision affirming the right to an abortion. 

Rubio’s bill also adds more heat to an ongoing feud with Disney, which has more than 77,000 employees in his state, over Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, which restricts educators from talking about LGBTQ issues. Disney publicly opposed the legislation and says the company will help their employees and their children access gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and top surgery, if they seek it.

In an opinion piece published by Newsweek, Rubio pointed to abortion, gender-affirming treatments, and “leftist indoctrination in public schools” as three issues affecting kids in the U.S.

Medical experts agree that affirming a child’s gender can be lifesaving. 

“Every major medical association supports gender-affirming care for transgender youth as evidence-based, safe and lifesaving, and abortion is still legal throughout the United States,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive officer of LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD. “It is unconscionable to threaten companies who are doing the right thing and supporting their employees and their families against state-sponsored discrimination.”

A survey released Wednesday by the LGBTQ mental health advocacy organization The Trevor Project found that transgender and nonbinary youth reported higher rates of attempting suicide in the past year if their homes or schools were not gender-affirming.

LGBTQ youth “are seeing people in positions of power talking about kids as if they don’t deserve love and or respect, as if they are political pawns,” said Amit Paley, the CEO of The Trevor Project. “That’s really damaging, and that’s terrifying for young people who, for most cases, just want to be themselves.”

Local lawmakers have recently ramped up efforts to ban books from public school libraries. An April report from PEN America found that 33% of the over 1,100 titles that had been challenged between July 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 centered on LGBTQ protagonists or themes.

 

[WiseGirl]

I hope his rhetoric against corporations comes back yo bite him in the ass...and then some. How does such an unpopular party have so much power? I mean besides the Moscow money, gerrymandering, ...

[Cartmann99]

*screams profanities, sets things on fire*

Spoiler

I'm honestly surprised that Cruz and Cornyn aren't involved in this.

In related news:

 

[Cartmann99]

Looks like the Log Cabin Republicans deleted the tweet I posted. I still had the tab open, so here's a screenshot:

EDITED TO ADD: It's still up, must have been a temporary issue with Twitter. I'll leave this up just in case.

EDITED TO ADD MORE: I can still see the tweet on Twitter, but not in my post above.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Cartmann99

[Cartmann99]

 

[WiseGirl]

1000000+ percent agree.

 

[Howl]

Dammit to hell.  Pennsylvania's fabulous Lt Gov. John Fetterman had a stroke today. 

He is currently running for a US senate seat.  He says he's recovering and feeling good, but DAMN that's a set back. He's only 52. 

[Cartmann99]

[WiseGirl]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

  If you've ever seen someone described as "100% pro-gun" and wondered exactly what that means:

Spoiler

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

GQP senators doing performance art about the "border crisis":

[47of74]

Senator Baldwin had a few things to say to that fuck stick Marco Rubio

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As he was walking on an elevator on Wednesday, GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida told CNN that a vote on a bill to codify same-sex marriage was a "stupid waste of time."

But when he said that, there was another senator on the elevator who heard him: Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat who is also the first known gay politician elected to the US Senate.

"You probably would have loved to be on the elevator to see the exchange after," Baldwin told CNN on Thursday, adding: "of course I did" speak to him about the remark.

"I said that, 'The recent Supreme Court decision eroded a constitutional right to privacy. There's a whole bunch of cases that have been decided based on a constitutional right to privacy that are in jeopardy,' which he disagrees with. And anyways, I said we'll be talking some more," she said.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

The level of obsequiousness is repulsive:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Jon Stewart speaks the truth about the senate:

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Yeah, I have zero interest in reading or supporting him:

[Ozlsn]

On 7/30/2022 at 4:30 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Yeah, I have zero interest in reading or supporting him:

Oh I think he sold that off quite some time ago, along with his spine.

[AmazonGrace]

Apparently Hawley is against.

[Xan]

Hawley voted against admitting Sweden and Finland.  Funny thing was that Tom Cotton got up and dunked on Hawley for his stunt.  He said that "someone" had voted to allow Montenegro and North Macedonia but somehow was against Sweden and Finland??

[GreyhoundFan]

I'm glad Senator Whitehouse is not letting Wray off the hook for Kavanaugh:

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

On 7/31/2022 at 10:37 PM, Ozlsn said:

Oh I think he sold that off quite some time ago, along with his spine.

All I'm saying is that if people aren't constantly anonymously sending him cheap sneakers- like those $10 pairs you can get at WalMart- a golden comedic opportunity is being lost.  Maybe with a note that says, "My contribution for your next Congressional run."

 

22 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I'm glad Senator Whitehouse is not letting Wray off the hook for Kavanaugh:

 

I was just discussing the Kavanaugh hearings with a colleague yesterday.  I still get emotional and upset when I think about how Dr. Christina Blasey-Ford, who could have kept silent and gone on living her life without having to deal with death threats and other horrible results from coming forward- bravely came out of anonymity to expose that rapist in the hopes that the Senate would do the right thing and not seat him.  My hands are even shaking as I am writing this post.  Of all three of the Trump appointees, he is the one who outrages me the most.  Even the handmaiden, as odious as she is and as fast as her hearings were rushed through, doesn't make me as angry because with Kavanaugh it was absolutely clear he was lying the entire time he was trying to rebut Dr. Blasey-Ford's absolutely credible and absolutely true testimony (not to mention all of the very sketchy payoffs of his debts).  I drew a tiny bit of solace that he was denied his victory lap by going up the Supreme Court steps on his first day but was snuck in a separate entrance.  I am glad to see that Sen. Whitehouse is keeping up the good fight.  I really hope that the investigations into the debt payoffs continue and it bears some kind of fruit substantial enough that it results in Kavanaugh being removed from the bench (if not actually prosecuted).  I know it's probably a pipe dream but hope springs eternal.  After the Alex Jones case, the Kansas vote, the DOJ charging people in connection with Breonna Taylor's death (unfortunately not the killer and his putative co-defendants but it's a start) and the Senate passing the recent economic bill, I am starting to see some glimmers of good.  The SCOTUS may have really screwed up badly by the Dobbs decision as it seems to have caused people to really scrutinize the Court overall and specifically the three Trump appointees as well as Thomas due to his marriage to someone clearly connected to Jan. 6th.  Perhaps they inadvertently, by trying to run rogue, lit a fire they can't contain.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Just when you thought Josh Hawley couldn’t stoop any lower …"

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Take a can of beer, add light rum and stir frozen limeade concentrate into the mixture. Voila! You’ve whipped up a cocktail known as the Missouri Jackass. Surprisingly, the drink is not named for the state’s junior U.S. senator.

Josh Hawley (R-the nearest full-length mirror), last seen dashing in fear from the Jan. 6 mob he helped incite — he was the guy who raised his fist as high as his ludicrously tight-fitting suit would allow — is back in the news for his lonely stand against NATO membership for Finland and Sweden. In search of a position that would set him apart from his rivals among the Senate’s young conservatives, Hawley arrived at the cockeyed notion that adding two robust military powers with vibrant economies would somehow increase NATO’s burden on U.S. resources.

By “lonely” I mean that Hawley was the only senator to vote no. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) looked ready for a stiff drink as he contemplated this epic display of grandstanding idiocy. “If any senator is looking for a defensible excuse to vote no, I wish them good luck,” McConnell said — fully aware that the Missouri, um, senator had already announced his opposition. “This is a slam dunk for national security that deserves unanimous bipartisan support.”

A slam dunk indeed. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) shares Hawley’s boundless ambition, although in Cotton’s case, there is some justification for it — not least a military experience that permits him to understand certain basics. Said he: “Aside from their military strength and economic power, Finland and Sweden also allow us to turn the Baltic into a NATO lake, bottle up Russia’s Baltic fleet, cut off its isolated military base at Kaliningrad and expose Russia itself to much greater risk in the event of conflict.”

In his defense, Hawley has lately been occupied with other matters. He is the author of the forthcoming book “Manhood,” which promises to be a worried meditation on a topic that, in my experience, is rarely discussed by people who are secure in their own. Perhaps his research was so solitary and all-consuming that it left no time to consult a map or a history book.

Had he done so, he might have learned that Cotton is correct: Given their location, Finland and Sweden add far more to NATO than just their robust economies and their well-trained and well-equipped militaries. In strategic terms, the shift of these nations from neutral status to NATO membership is a massive failure for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the necessary effort to impose a steep penalty for Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, this is a huge success, at negligible cost.

Attempting to rationalize his vote, Hawley argued that NATO expansion could only mean weakening U.S. resistance to Chinese hegemony in the eastern Pacific. But this muddled thinking can’t survive first contact with logic. The competition with China is not (yet) a primarily military competition. While China is certainly increasing its military capacity, it remains a weaker power compared with the United States. Nor is the competition primarily a matter of economic strength. The U.S. economy continues to be the largest and most diversified in the world.

Today, the most important aspect of U.S. competition with China is in the sphere of expectations. Nations worldwide are looking to the future and placing their bets. Perceptions of strength and perceptions of weakness both tend to be self-fulfilling, and if other countries perceive that China is rising while the United States is in decline, the actions they take will strengthen China and further weaken the United States. Nations will invest in China, align with China, borrow from China and curry favor with China.

It is unfortunate that the world must choose. For a generation, the United States has made extraordinary efforts to encourage China’s development in hopes that it would join the peaceful and prosperous world order stretching from Europe across the Americas and on to the Pacific powers of Japan, Australia, South Korea and so on. Unfortunately, under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has tightened its grip, squelched liberty, menaced its neighbors and knocked its own economy off-kilter. Xi has turned to muscle-flexing to distract his people from his own parade of errors and outrages.

Every new ally the United States embraces is another vote for the Western way of peaceful progress. Bringing Sweden and Finland, two of the world’s leading economies and strong democracies, out of neutrality and onto the U.S.-led team is not a distraction from the competition with China. It’s a major victory.

These are serious matters with real implications for human freedom. The Senate is to be commended for its overwhelming and bipartisan action. As for Hawley, maybe a little beer, rum and limeade would make him easier to tolerate.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Aw, poor Chuckles couldn't go to his family reunion because he was expected to stay in DC and do the job for which he is paid a huge amount of money.

Some great reactions to the whining:

Spoiler

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Of course the GQP doesn't want to make things better for everyday Americans: "Republicans block cap on insulin costs for millions of patients"

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Republican lawmakers on Sunday successfully stripped a $35 price cap on the cost of insulin for many patients from the ambitious legislative package Democrats are moving through Congress this weekend, invoking arcane Senate rules to jettison the measure.

The insulin cap is a long-running ambition of Democrats, who want it to apply to patients on Medicare and private insurance. Republicans left the portion that applies to Medicare patients untouched but stripped the insulin cap for other patients. Bipartisan talks on a broader insulin pricing bill faltered earlier this year.

The Senate parliamentarian earlier in the weekend ruled that part of the Democrats’ cap, included in the Inflation Reduction Act, did not comply with the rules that allow them to advance a bill under the process known as reconciliation — a tactic that helps them avert a GOP filibuster. That gave the Republicans an opening to jettison it.

“Republicans have just gone on the record in favor of expensive insulin,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). “After years of tough talk about taking on insulin makers, Republicans have once against wilted in the face of heat from Big Pharma."

Some Republicans did support the price cap in the 57-43 vote for the measure, but not enough joined Democrats in support of it to meet the threshold for passage.

More than 1 in 5 insulin users on private medical insurance pay more than $35 per month for the medicine, according to a recent analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Some 7 million Americans require insulin daily. A Yale University study found that 14 percent of those insulin users are spending more than 40 percent of their income after food and housing costs on the medicine.

Despite an adverse ruling from the chamber’s parliamentarian, Democrats opted to keep the full price cap provision in the bill anyway. That gave Republicans, led in debate by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), an opening for a challenge on the Senate floor. Democrats would have needed 60 votes — their entire caucus plus the support of 10 GOP members — to beat back that challenge. They came up short.

The fight was a policy loss for Democrats, but it was also a political win, as lowering the price of drugs like insulin is popular with voters.

"The only way it doesn’t pass is if folks on the other side of the aisle decide to block it,” said Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.), who had previously put forward legislation calling for a price cap.

GOP lawmakers had earlier tried to offer their own, more scaled-back version of an insulin price limit, but Democrats rejected it as too narrow.

“The cost of insulin isn’t just out of control," Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on the Senate floor, imploring the GOP not to strip the price cap from the bill. "This should not be a hard vote to cast.”