Welch backs abortion pills via U.S. mail

Sanders slams BBB-killer Manchin

Leahy says Biden too tough on Cuba

By Guy Page

Like a backyard naturalist with a motion-sensing camera, Vermont Daily Chronicle monitors traditional and social media to see what our ‘Congress critters’ are up to. Yesterday we ‘caught on camera’ some interesting activity from our three-person delegation to Congress. 

Sen. Finance Committee Chair Bernie Sanders’ yowls of protest over W. Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s refusal to support the $4.75 trillion ‘Build Back Better’ bill could be heard in airports and fitness clubs from coast to coast, thank to a CNN interview. Sanders tweeted this ‘challenge’ to the Democrat who killed his dreams of unlimited social spending glory: “Sen. Joe Manchin should explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t have the courage to stand up to special interests.” 

Manchin did just that on Sunday. “if I can’t go home and explain to the people of West Virginia, I can’t vote for it,” Manchin told Fox News. Those are the same people who gave President Donald Trump a 40 point margin of victory in 2020. He added elsewhere: “Inflation is real, it’s not going away any time soon. What we need to do is get our financial house in order, but be able to pay for what we do and do what we pay for.”

Rather than address Manchin’s real-world, constituent concerns, on December 17 Sanders tweeted the curious notion that it is “arrogant” for a Democrat to put conscience and constituents over caucus: “You can disagree. You can fight for your ideas. But when we have zero support from Republicans, two Democrats cannot torpedo a bill supported overwhelmingly by the American people. I do not respect that kind of arrogance.”

Over in the House, Rep. Peter Welch tweeted tidings of joy that abortion pills will now be available through the mail. “This is good news: patients can now access abortion pills through the mail, instead of having to visit an in-person provider. Though there’s much more work to be done, this is a positive step in the fight for abortion access.”

As both sides of the nation focus on the Texas ban on most abortions, the Food & Drug Administration has made permanent a temporary rule allowing abortion pills to be dispensed via U.S. mail due to – wait for it – the pandemic. 

Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins says chemical abortion pills should not be dispensed so recklessly. “While the pro-life generation wants to abolish abortion, there are many reasons to oppose distribution of chemical abortion pills,” she said in Lifenews.com. “Even for those who say they support abortion, that’s no argument for these pills to be used recklessly. These pills kill. They end preborn life and can end a mother’s life as well.”

Back in the Senate, a lengthy press statement by Patrick Leahy called “bewildering,” “tragic,” and “exasperating” President Joe Biden’s failure to abandon the U.S. government’s economic blockade of the communist government of Cuba. 

Leahy castigates U.S. government policy for Cuba’s failures, saying it “has emboldened Cuba’s hardliners who have cracked down even more on citizens who dare to peacefully protest about shortages of food, medicine, and electricity, and against government repression.  And it has exacerbated the crisis that has engulfed the island due to the COVID pandemic and the government’s dysfunctional economic policies.”

That’s as critical as Leahy gets of the Marxist (a term he never uses) government’s utter, historic failure to serve its subjects-er-citizens. The rest of the lengthy op-ed is all about how the U.S. has failed Cuba. Message: when the Marxist Revolution fails in Cuba, it’s our fault.

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