Restoring the Sacred

Monday, April 30, 2012

Rep Gowdy's Questions Demonstrate Ineptness of Sebelius



Bill McGurn posted this video at Ricochet.Com on Saturday with the following comments:
My wife pointed me to this interesting to and fro between HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Congressman Trey Gowdy (R, SC). Mr. Gowdy is courteous but firm, and under his questioning Mrs. Sebelius discloses that she did not consult any Supreme Court ruling on religious liberty before handing down her mandate. 
All in all, it's an incredibly embarrassing performance for a woman who served as a governor and whose husband is a federal magistrate judge. The video captures her irritation as well as her helplessness before some basic questions.
By now everyone is familiar with the HHS Mandate that nearly all health insurance plans cover female sterilization and contraceptives (including abortifacients) free of charge.  The mandate has come under attack by most religious groups in the United States, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in a March 14th statement, declared what their opposition to the mandate is NOT:
This is not about access to contraception, which is ubiquitous and inexpensive. . . . This is not about the religious freedom of Catholics only, but also of those who recognize that their cherished beliefs may be next on the block. This is not about the bishops’ somehow ‘banning contraception,’ when the U.S. Supreme Court took that issue off the table two generations ago. Indeed, this is not about the Church wanting to force anybody to do anything; it is, instead, about the federal government forcing the Church . . . to act against Church teachings. This is not a matter of opposition to universal health care, which has been a concern of the Bishops’ Conference since 1919, virtually at its founding. This is not a fight we want or asked for, but one forced upon us by government on its own timing. Finally, this is not a Republican or Democratic, a conservative or liberal issue; it is an American issue.

The irritation and helplessness shown by Secretary Sebelius during the questioning by Congressman Gowdy are manifestations of her arrogance and incompetence, two common traits in the Cabinet of this administration.

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