July 21, 2017
If liberals thought the debate over military sex changes was over, they underestimated the American people! Even Republicans have been stunned by the level of outrage over the policy, which has been lighting up phones on Capitol Hill since last Friday, when 23 GOP members agreed that $3.7 billion in transgender “treatment” was a valid use of taxpayer dollars. Those Republicans are almost certainly having second thoughts now, after hearing from their constituents, who can’t believe the GOP is letting Obama’s radicalism continue to dictate military policy!
For conservatives like Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), who’s led the charge against this dangerous distraction, the grassroots pushback is giving them all the motivation they need to keep fighting. Reenergized by the outpouring of support, she and members like Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) are more determined than ever to protect the military from an agenda that’s not only jeopardizing the future of national security, but compromising its present. “Steps must be taken to address this misuse of our precious defense dollars,” Hartzler told her colleagues in the lead-up to next week’s appropriations debate. “This policy hurts our military’s readiness and will take over a billion dollars from the Department of Defense’s budget. This is still an important issue that needs to be addressed.”
With the defense appropriations bill on deck for debate, Republicans are already warning the Pentagon that they aren’t going to approve the bump in spending — not if the administration is willing to spend billions on treatments for people who shouldn’t be serving in the first place! As someone who understands the problem firsthand, Congressman (and Brigadier General) Perry explained to me on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch” just how backwards the policy is. In his own district, he says, he couldn’t believe the military would welcome the gender-confused while it turns away solid recruits like this young man:
“[He’s] the kind of person you want carrying the squad automatic weapon (and guys who patrol will know what I’m talking about). Just desperate to serve his country in uniform — but has a very mild peanut allergy. He’s barred from enlisting. He cannot join. And I juxtapose that situation — this man wants to fight for his country and secure our freedom and liberty, and he’s not allowed to join. We can’t fix the broken backs of Special Forces soldiers at the VA… but somehow, we’re going to spend $3.5 billion for people to have their sex reassignment in the military, be off the job for a couple hundred days, not deployable, while they convalesce after the surgery. And then they require drugs, hormones, etc. if they do deploy — yet this young man who wants to join but has a peanut allergy and might need something as simple as an [EpiPen] or anti-inflammatory, he can’t join… This doesn’t lead to readiness or enhanced strength, and I don’t know how you can make an argument that it does.”
Like some of his House colleagues, he’s amazed the GOP would go along with an agenda that makes special accommodations for unstable people like Chelsea Manning. “I don’t know what party I belong to when Republicans are in control of the House, we decide what gets put on the floor, and we don’t have the votes to pass an amendment in the House… To me, it’s very, very disappointing. We dealt with this kind of attitude for eight years under a president that I think was very counterproductive to national security in the military, and I think most of us thought when his term is over, that kind of attitude was over. But unfortunately, we’re fighting that fight among our own and that’s disappointing to say the least.”
After a rocky week with constituents, maybe some of the 23 Republicans have learned their lesson. When Vicky’s amendment to stop the flow of taxpayer dollars to gender reassignment failed, the GOP “spent a good chunk of a closed-door Republican conference meeting harping about what happened.” The outcome this time around, Politico speculates, might be far different. “The federal government has no business paying for that procedure. A lot of us feel very strongly about that and we want to have a chance to have that in the bill,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) insisted. If that means a blockade of the increased funding for defense, so be it.
President Obama is gone. It’s time his extremism is too. Call your House member today at 202-224-3121 or email them here! Tell them to oppose the Make America Secure Act until the president makes our military sound.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.