Coach Tuberville’s Latest Football

Senator Tommy “Coach” Tuberville, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has stopped the Senate’s confirmation of general and flag officer nominations and appointments, claiming the Department of Defense (DoD) policy funding travel and paid time off for service members having an abortion is illegal. So far, the Senator’s hold has caught more than 180 nominations, according to al.com.

In an op-ed article in The Washington Times, Tuberville argues

“Congress writes the laws, and Congress directs all federal spending,” saying, “Nobody in Congress voted for this.”

Lloyd Austin, the Secretary of Defense, says the DoD policy is legal. At a Senate hearing he said,

“About one in five of our troops are women. I want them focused on the mission and not worried about whether or not they’re going to have access to reproductive health care.”

The DoD policy was implemented in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson case, which overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Roe said a women had the right to an abortion under the Constitution (with certain restrictions). The Dobbs ruling reversed that decision, saying no such right is explicitly defined in the Constitution. Where do you see the word abortion? The outcome of Dobbs is that legal access to abortion is determined independently by each state. Many states essentially prohibit all abortions.

The conundrum is we have troops based in all states, as well as around the globe. To prevent a two-tiered military, this DoD policy provides consistent access to reproductive health care. Unfortunately, some women will have to travel outside the states where they are based, so the policy grants them time off and reimburses travel expenses — which the Coach objects to because he is against abortion.

Another letter:

Senator Tuberville,

I write to express my disagreement with your policy of blocking military confirmations because of your opposition to the Pentagon’s medical policies, which include leave and travel for service members who have an abortion.

While I understand and respect your personal beliefs on abortion, enforcing your beliefs on all women serving in the U.S. military is an abuse of your power as a Senator and a violation of the separation of church and state, which is enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

Your religious beliefs on abortion are not shared by all Americans, even Christians. A Pew Research Center survey conducted one year ago found 61% of Americans feel abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared to 37% holding your view.

Memorial Day is a fitting time for you to lift your hold and let the military proceed without further unwarranted delay.

Heading Toward a Crash with the U.S. Debt Ceiling

The latest estimate by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellon forecasts the U.S. government hitting the debt ceiling — unable to incur any further debt to make payments — as early as June 1. Despite approving increases during the Trump administration, the House has tied this increase to a long list of spending cuts, reducing spending for most federal programs to the levels two years ago, according to NPR.

Disguised as concern for America's fiscal future, the House gambit is taken from classic Republican orthodoxy: cut spending except for defense and lower taxes, ignoring that the latter will actually increase the debt.

There's another dimension to this looming crisis, that of speaker Kevin McCarthy held hostage by the most conservative members of his caucus, forcing him to play a no compromise hand. Such is the price of his power.

Hard to say if rationality will prevail or we'll hit the ceiling and hope for the best. Nonetheless, it seemed prudent to reach out to my representative in the House, Mike Rogers:

Representative Rogers,

I urge you to approve an increase in the debt ceiling before the U.S. government defaults on any of its obligations. A default would be a first for the country, a self-inflicted error with unpredictable consequences for our credit rating and global financial markets.

As Jerome Powell said yesterday, “No one should assume that the Fed can protect the economy and financial system and our reputation from the damage that such an event might inflict.” A default could upend the Fed’s measured interest rate strategy to reduce inflation without incurring a recession.

As you well know, the debt ceiling simply reflects the approved spending of past sessions of Congress, Republicans as well as Democrats. Refusing to honor those debts is like me refusing to pay my credit card bill. The appropriate action for me is to reduce future charges to my credit card. The same holds for Congress.

The increasing federal debt is a longterm economic concern and should be addressed by Congress through its appropriations process. The list of spending cuts recently approved by the House is a starting point for negotiating the fiscal 2024 budget with the Senate.

The current strategy of tying a long list of wished for spending cuts to the debt ceiling in a political competition has way more downside than the outcome of reducing federal spending.