This will take a while. The story has several pieces and parts. Lets begin with this: Conservative Republicans refused to put up a fight or barely even a whimper on one of the most important challenges to the Constituion in over 60 years. They had the information. They had the votes. They all shook their heads and agreed. Then they walked into the Congress and folded like a bunch of cheap chairs in a funeral parlor.
No, this was not Obamacare. They had the courage to repeal the individual mandate as part of the tax reform process. That should have been the deal breaker. That took guts and somehow they found the courage to put that repeal into the tax “reform” plan. But when it came to the First Amendment, when it came to protecting the Constitution and righting a wrong that has been on the books since 1954 – the Republicans betrayed the Constitution.
They went into hiding on the Johnson Amendment. They collapsed. They forsook the defense of free speech and religious liberty. They had the votes to repeal the individual mandate for Obamacare but not to restore free speech and religious liberty in America.
How does that work?
Please listen to the broadcast The Johnson Amendment Mess on The Public Square® right here. You will hear the whole story.
Update: 12:15 at 2:40pm
Clearly the Republicans are getting hit hard on this betrayal. They are attempting to sell the excuse “The Parliamentarian in the Senate won’t let repeal of the Johnson Amendment into the reform law.” The talking point of defense tries to baffle the uninformed with process. The argument is not genuine. The Johnson Amendment is in the IRS Code. This is an IRS reform bill. Every part of the IRS law is policy and touches on policy. Every part of the IRS Code is fiscal and touches on fiscal measures. You cannot claim that the repeal of the Individual Mandate of Obamacare is NOT policy and only fiscal. And the repeal of the Individual Mandate is IN the Senate Tax Reform Plan and the Parliamentarian approved it. So to say that the repeal of the Johnson Amendment is only policy and not fiscal and must be left out of this debate is exponentially ridiculous.If this was the case, then why are all the Progressives saying that repealing it would have a fiscal impact on the national revenue?
Republicans are trying a process argument hoping to intimidate their own base who are outraged over the betrayal of the GOP. Good luck with that argument. The people are paying attention and they are not stupid.