Are Senate Democrats for They/Them?
Who can forget the famous video that defined the latter stages of last fall’s presidential campaign? “Kamala [Harris] is for they/them—President Trump is for you.” Even Harris herself admitted that the ad contained a “winning message” for the Trump campaign, attacking her for supporting taxpayer-funded transgender procedures.
Yet Senate Democrats are about to do the exact same thing Kamala did—publicly support taxpayer funding of sex change operations. They just hope nobody will notice.
Warner Legislation
That’s the issue surrounding a resolution of disapproval that may come up for a vote in the Senate this week. The privileged resolution will overturn a marketplace integrity rule finalized by the Trump Administration in June.
That final rule contains many reforms designed to combat fraud (a topic for a future post). But it also, beginning in January, will prevent states from including “specified sex-trait modification procedures” as an essential health benefit. (See the discussion on pages 79-93 here.)
As I have noted in prior work, five states require coverage of trans procedures as an essential health benefit. (A total of 24 states require some form of coverage of trans procedures.) For instance, Colorado’s Division of Insurance publicly advertises that it was the first state to include “gender-affirming care services” as an EHB. It also includes a very exhaustive—and explicit—list of trans procedures that its insurers will cover—paid for by your taxpayer dollars.
While the Trump Administration’s rule would help to prevent taxpayers from funding such procedures (at least until a future Democratic Administration overturns it), the Warner resolution would endorse taxpayer funding of trans coverage. Moreover, because the Congressional Review Act prohibits agencies from enacting substantially the same rule once Congress has overturned it, the Warner resolution, if signed into law, would block any future attempt by an Administration to prevent taxpayer funding of trans procedures.
Democrats’ Deafening Silence
Democrats don’t seem particularly interested in advertising this aspect of their resolution of disapproval. When Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced the resolution in September, his office included myriad quotes from various leftist groups, and explained several of the final rule’s provisions that his resolution would nullify. But his press release contained not one word explaining how his resolution would also enable taxpayer funding of sex-change procedures. (Funny that.)
Would voters in rural Georgia support Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) voting for taxpayer-funded sex change procedures? Perhaps he doesn’t want to find out. Ossoff is an original co-sponsor of Warner’s resolution, but a press release on the issue doesn’t appear anywhere on his website.
For both Democrats and Republicans alike, the Warner resolution provides a helpful reminder that Obamacare subsidies fund trans procedures. And if Republicans don’t like the idea of taxpayer dollars funding sex change operations, then perhaps they shouldn’t vote to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies.