GOP Wants a Benghazi Committee for Planned Parenthood
The Republicans Investigating Planned Parenthood Might Have A Teensy, Tiny Bias
If you thought the Benghazi panel was bad, just wait.
The eight Republican members of the Select Investigative Panel who will probe the practices of “big abortion providers” -- which everyone understands to mean Planned Parenthood -- have spent years trying to defund the reproductive health provider and restrict women's access to abortion.
The release, earlier this year, of sting videos made by an anti-abortion group that show Planned Parenthood staff members discussing fetal tissue donations for research has led to Republican claims that Planned Parenthood profited from the donations. Federal law allows the organization to accept reimbursements to cover the processing and transfer of the tissues. Planned Parenthood has insisted that it has done nothing illegal, and numerous state and federal investigations have found no evidence of wrongdoing.
The health provider receives over $500 million in federal funds annually, money that derives from Medicaid reimbursements and the Title X program, which provides services to low-income women such as cancer screenings, contraception and tests for sexually transmitted disease. The Hyde Amendment, a provision that has been routinely inserted into appropriations bills for decades, prevents federal funds from going toward most abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger.
In his Friday announcement of the eight appointees to the panel, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the group would “focus on the grisly practices of big abortion providers,” without mentioning Planned Parenthood by name.
“Recent videos exposing the abortion-for-baby-parts business have shocked the nation, and demanded action,” Boehner said in a statement. “At my request, three House committees have been investigating the abortion business, but we still don’t have the full truth. Chairman [Marsha] Blackburn and our members will have the resources and the subpoena power to get to the bottom of these horrific practices, and build on our work to protect the sanctity of all human life.”
Planned Parenthood responded to the announcement by saying that it is cooperating with the investigations even though they are the result of “false and discredited claims.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/10/23/planned-parenthood-congress_n_8374508.html
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A "committee" so packed with absolute loons it makes the Benghazi Gang look like Sam Ervin, Howard Baker and the Watergate Committee. Fly-eating gobshites one and all.
Quoth Mr. Pierce:
A real pack o'pips, this one. Blackburn is a thoroughgoing nut. Her Tennessee colleague, Diane Black, is no fan of the 14th Amendment, and hires people with interesting views about our African American president. Duffy's the former Real World contestant who complained that he can't make it on the nearly 200-large he gets for being a congresscritter, and who also put words in the Pope's mouth and is therefore going to hell. Bucshon has visited the shebeen before; here's another science-denying wingnut physician. He is joined on Grand Rounds in the nervous ward by Harris, another doctor who doesn't know fck-all about his day job. Mia Love is the perpetually rising Republican star from Utah, and Vicki Hartzler is just flat-out freaking amazing. She's standing tall against the Chinese, who are spying on her through her toasters. Put this bunch on TV, too, primetime. Yeah, this oughta work.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a39130/planned-parenthood-committee-wingnuts/
Nobody hits both the bull's eye and the funnybone like Charlie. 
I imagine it will be like the ending of Kingsmen. 
