Posted on 04/21/2015 7:45:48 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Surprised? Don’t be, as the confirmation vote for Loretta Lynch was never going to be stalled forever. Under pressure themselves, Democrats finally cut a deal on the human-trafficking bill to get the Lynch nomination completed:
“I’m glad we can say there is a bipartisan proposal that will allow us to complete action on this legislation so we can provide help to the victims who desperately need it,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on the Senate floor.
“As soon as we finish the trafficking bill, as I’ve indicated for some time now, we’ll move to the president’s nominee for attorney general in the next day or so,” he added.
Democrats will spin this as a victory, but they caved on the use of revenue from the law’s fine structure for abortions:
After weeks of abortion-related stalling on the trafficking bill, which in turn has delayed Lynch, the solution turned out to be a fairly simple one. The handshake agreement on trafficking gives Republicans what they sought: assurances that none of the funds provided to trafficking victims will be used for abortions, under the Hyde amendment.
But Democrats also got what they wanted: A path forward without expanding the Hyde language. The fees collected from convicted traffickers will be used for legal services and other concerns but under the new language cannot be used for medical services. Separate money appropriated by Congress, and thus subject to Hyde, will then be used for medical services.
That means that the Hyde language is now unnecessary for the bill, since none of the revenue can be used for medical services at all of any kind. Those resources will have to come from appropriations instead, which already carry the Hyde language. It’s the same result through a different mechanism for Republicans, who wanted to make sure that the trafficking bill didn’t get used as a back door for federally funded abortions. Reid and the abortion lobby worked hard to open that path by demanding the removal of the Hyde language from the bill, but in the end they ended up with nothing at all.
That will allow the Senate to take up Lynch’s confirmation as Attorney General. Most whip counts published in the last few weeks have her winning the vote, but not by much. National Journal’s Sarah Mims says Lynch has 51 confirmed ayes, with another 13 Senators publicly undeclared. Don’t expect too many more Republicans to climb aboard the Lynch bandwagon, and there may still be a surprise or two on the way to confirmation. We’ll see.
Update: It’s worth noting that John Cornyn originally offered to direct all revenues from this bill into the general fund and then use appropriations to fund the services it authorizes, an offer that’s very similar to this compromise, and which Reid rejected outright.
Anyone who votes for her is a lawless traitor to this country and to the law.
Sorry, but AZ will no more rid itself of McPain than MS would of Cockroach.
Fat chance; they are more likely to get prime speaking spots at the convention in Cleveland in 2016.
Orrin Grant Hatch found out that UT is a very liberal state; others did not know that. Either liberal or uninformed or both
Quisling. Defeatist. Describes the gop wing of the uniparty well. You could also add corrupt, amoral, evil, petulant, petty, autocratic, and socialist.
Its a one party system. The gop faction wins regardless.
Two Congress Critters walk into a Bar and sit down.
The Bartender moves over to their place at the Bar and asks “good evening gentlemen, nice to see you again tonight, would you like the usual?”
One of the congress critters looks at the Bartender and says “It’s been a hell of day on the hill, we’ll take the usual and leave the bottles!”
The Bartender says “two glasses, One bottle of Kentucky Bourbon and a bottle of Orange Bacardi Rum coming right up!”
The one congress critter grabs the wild turkey by the neck and is interrupted by the other Congress Critter.
“Dammit John! Stop trying to strangle me!”
Utah was the state that gave Obama the smallest percentage of the vote in 2012, 24.75% to Romney’s 72.79%.
Orrin Grant Hatch must have seen liberalism there that isn’t.
“...the use of revenue from the law’s fine structure for abortions.”
All the arguments I heard, aside from those absolutely against any abortion even for 12 and 13 year olds raped in brothels, were that it was not right to use taxpayers’ money to pay for abortions. I believe that is the prohibition of the Hyde Amendement? In fact the medical services were to be paid by fines paid by traffickers and related criminals. So the question I have is what do we do to help the young trafficked victims if they are pregnant? Are there provisions for that in the bill?
As usual, the GOP lied like dogs to get in and now have gone right back to being Democrats Lite.
Senator Hatch beat the Democrat candidate in 2012 67% to 33%. Name recognition goes a long way for incumbents.
Hatch beat the Democrat candidate in 2012 67% to 33%.
Now Hatch is leading the long knives of the GOP establishment against Sen. Mike Lee. Lee desperately needs your donations for his campaign in 2016:
http://www.leeforsenate.com/
“handshake agreement”?????
That tells me the gop caved again. Democrats couldn’t be trusted to swear on a bible let alone a handshake.
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