Red Herring Trifecta in Defense Spending Bill (Update: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Fails In Senate)

How do you get your liberal social polices to pass Congress?  Why cram them in a defense spending reauthorization bill:

What should have been a routine budget bill for the Pentagon is now a political cauldron brimming with proposed policy changes over abortion, gay rights and illegal immigration. Senate Democrats have folded, or attempted to fold, all those issues into a single defense package, leading to accusations that the Senate is needlessly politicizing its annual obligation to fund the military.

As the parties hurl political hand grenades at one another, stuck in the crossfire is the military itself.

Joe Davis, spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said Congress will avoid a Pentagon shutdown, as it always does, by passing a resolution to continue funding defense at current levels.

But he expressed concern about the "attachments" to the authorization bill.

"The United States military does not exist to serve as a control group for social experiments," Davis said.

Thank you Senator Harry Reid, let’s avoid a substantive debate on these issues, instead let’s politicize funding our troops.  The red herrings include the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowing homosexuals to openly serve in the military.  The only real arguments I’ve seen related to that policy are those who haven’t served in the military.  Most people who serve or have served are against this, like the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  While I’m not against homosexuals having jobs there is a fundamental lack of understanding of how that impacts troop morale and basic infrastructure.

The second red herring includes allowing military base hospitals, both domestic and international, to provide abortions.  Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) pointed out in his op/ed at Big Government that overnight, “your tax dollars will create 423 new abortion clinics.”  He makes a great argument, but the simple fact is this.  If somebody wants abortion, even though it is is legal, the taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it.

The third red herring is the illegal alien student bailout called “The Dream Act.”  What that has to do with the military I’ll never know, but Michelle Malkin has a good write up here (with numbers to call) and here.

The Senate is taking this up today.  If you live in Iowa be sure to call Senator Tom Harkin at (202) 224-3254 and Senator Chuck Grassley (202) 224-3744 and have them vote no.

Update: From  WashPo – the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” fails in the Senate.