Jack & Jill Politics

That’s the beautiful headline and image from Politico at about 6pm today. First, I must give credit to Twitter user Nisha Chittal who posted about it and got my attention. I shall henceforth refer to Chittal’s post as “the money tweet.”

Now, why is this important? Some key excerpts from Politico’s reporting:

The Republican National Committee’s health insurance plan covers elective abortion – a procedure the party’s own platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.” Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.

<snip>

Leading up to passage of the House health care reform bill last week, 176 House Republicans joined 64 Democrats in voting for the so-called Stupak amendment, a measure that prohibits federal funds from being used to buy health insurance that covers elective abortions. A spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee – the campaign arm for the House Republicans – said it does not include coverage for elective abortions in its employee insurance policy.

<snip>

According to several Cigna employees, the insurer offers its customers the opportunity to opt out of abortion coverage – and the RNC did not choose to opt out.

This is where I defer to those far more eloquent than me:

New rule: if you don’t know what is in your own party’s health care plan, don’t get in the way of serious people trying to improve mine.

I’d love to laugh this off as yet another adorable slip up by RNC Chair Michael “What Up” Steele, but there is a troubling pattern to the GOP’s health care reform opposition. Remember the “death panels” from Our Great Hysterical Town Hall Summer of 2009? Remember when the end of life counseling so derided by these GOP health care deniers was actually supported by them in the 2003 Medicare bill?

Some of us are trying to fulfill a demand of the American people for a more sane health care system while others distort the facts, and their own records in the process. Our health care premiums are doubling, and out of pocket expenses are up 30 percent, yet the opposition party doesn’t have a solution for that. What they have are a set of dangerous and inconsistent values, whimsically applied and dishonestly promoted.

I sure hope the RNC plan covers constipation because that party is full of shit right now.