Posted on 07/27/2017 8:20:26 AM PDT by sickoflibs
Earlier today, President Trump announced that the new Department of Defense policy on transgender was the old policy in effect before Obama’s Secretary of Defense Ash Carter ordered it changed.*
Most hot button issues have a gestation period so the sudden appearance of transgenders in the military as a topic of discussion was as shock to just about everyone. Politic has an interesting story on how this all came to pass.
Nearly two weeks ago, the House was debating the Defense Authorization Act. Included in the bill was an amendment that forbid Department of Defense from spending funds on “gender reassignment” surgery. The amendment, which in saner times would have been unremarkable and even unnecessary, was defeated 214-209 with 24 squish or morally apathetic Republicans voting with the Democrats.
(See list at link)
While those 24 Republicans could block the amendment, they also put the entire bill in jeopardy because there was a very good chance the bill would not pass with that amendment.
Numerous House conservatives and defense hawks this week had threatened to derail their own legislation if it did not include a prohibition on Pentagon funding for gender reassignment surgeries, which they deem a waste of taxpayer money. But GOP leaders were caught in a pinch between those demands and moderate Republicans who felt the proposal was blatantly discriminatory.
“There are several members of the conference who feel this really needs to be addressed,” said senior House Appropriations Committee member Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) on Tuesday. “This isn’t about the transgender issue; it’s about the taxpayer dollars going to pay for the surgery out of the defense budget.” As it happened, included in the Defense bill was money for a lot of Trump projects…including the Wall.
That’s why House lawmakers took the matter to the Trump administration. And when Defense Secretary James Mattis refused to immediately upend the policy, they went straight to the White House. Trump — never one for political correctness — was all too happy to oblige.
…
After lawmakers went around Mattis to engage the White House, Mattis was consulted before the announcement and knew the ban was being considered, according to several White House officials. But the decision ultimately came down from Trump and was “White House-driven,” Trump aides said.
The president was also annoyed by the Pentagon delay, one person said. A different official said the White House had gotten positive reaction from conservatives, an important factor amid their displeasure with Trump’s recent bashing of Jeff Sessions. So now the gender reassignment surgery issue is mooted.
The president’s directive, of course, took the House issue a step beyond paying for gender reassignment surgery and other medical treatment. House Republicans were never debating expelling all transgender troops from the military.
“This is like someone told the White House to light a candle on the table and the WH set the whole table on fire,” said one senior House Republican aide. The source said that while GOP leaders asked the White House for help, they weren’t expecting — and got no heads up on — Trump’s far-reaching directive.
While Democrats and centrist Republicans are already blasting the move, one White House official said the decision would be “seen as common-sense” by millions — though likely vociferously protested by others.
“It’s not the worst thing in the world to have this fight,” the administration official said. Had this group of Republicans not pushed the issue, the transgender issue would have been settled downstream and, because Mattis is not a social conservative, probably in their favor. This is the Law of Unintended Consequences in action. A small number of socially liberal Republicans decided to hold the entire Defense bill hostage and force Trump to make a move…and they won a victory they won’t ever forget.
Thank you President Trump.
And the 24 House RINOs that demanded that the military pay for gender change procedures.
It’s like when you’re trying to fix an old crappy piece of furniture for the Nth time and finally realize it’s time to just toss the whole thing on the trash heap and burn it.
Bad ideas need to be burned, not just tinkered with.
Kick them out of serving as any Republican "aides!"
Gayness in DC fouls everything, making the country think everyone believes in the homosexual agenda!
We, the American people DO NOT!
“moderate Republicans who felt the proposal was blatantly discriminatory”
There it is right there. Somebody is gonna have to explain to me how its “discriminatory”. Got a friend that couldn’t get into the service because he only had a GED and no high school diploma.
He probably agrees with the 25 liberal House Republicans who demanded the military pay for the changes and threatened to kill the defense bill by defeating the amendment to ban it.
Oh, yes, he made that perfectly clear last night.
That's discriminatory.
I think the Army takes GEDs
Pray for the president!
Shoulda qualified, it was the Air Force and back in the 1980s.
Why would Republicans push back on this? Its not like they would alienate anyone who would have voted for them. This only alienates people who would vote for them.
Hmmmm....
Telling men to dress as men and women to dress as women is not anti-gay in any way. It is enforcing a dress code.
I think this move demonstrates that Trump is maturing in office and gaining more confidence and becoming even less inclined to pay any attention to all the NOISE surrounding him 24/7.
Or his way of saying “*I* make the noise!”
Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and other RINOs will be saying...”Transgenders are COUNTING on these VERY EXPENSIVE operations, you can’t take it away from them”!!!
They represent the super state, which get's it's social morals from the North Eastern elite. They also control the airwaves, and so they have pushed these ideas on the rest of the nation as well.
Term limits might not solve the problem of our representatives doing what the North East Elite wants, but it would certainly put a dent in it.
The saga of Bradley/Chelsea Manning was the focus point that crystallized the thinking on how “transgenders” fit into the whole picture of military service.
High maintenance does not win wars, with the equipment or in the barracks. Especially if along with high maintenance, poor performance of assigned duties or outright sabotage of the mission proves the decision to recruit either the system or the person in the first place was misplaced trust.
And without trust in material and/or personnel, no military operation can operate effectively.
Not all states and districts that have elected Republicans are conservative.
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