DR RICHARD MOSS TAKES CONGRESSMAN BUCSHON TO TASK

“More ‘phony show votes’ from Larry Bucshon and the Republican Establishment to placate the ‘rubes’ back home.”

Jasper, IN – “Congressman Larry Bucshon has been awfully busy on Facebook, his official website, and a stream of breathless “press releases,” detailing his many legislative and legal attempts to thwart Obama and the federal bureaucracy. The only problem is that none of his proposals will work. Those trains have left the station, Congressman, thanks to you and other Republicans in Washington. It is more of the same – political posturing for the folks back home with no policy impact at all.”

Item #1: “Congressman Larry Bucshon and other members of the House and Senate filed an amicus brief supporting petitions by 27 states, including Indiana, seeking to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan.”

So Dr. Bucshon and our ‘stalwart’ Republican Congress are going to impede the Obama wrecking ball including the Environmental Protection Agency by supporting a lawsuit filed by 27 states? It really is laughable when the Congress, arguably the most powerful branch of our Federal government, sinks to lawsuits as a measure to rein in our lawless federal bureaucracy. Congress has all the power in the world over the EPA. It created it in 1970. It could end it if it wanted to. It controls it through Congressional oversight and its spending power. Congress does not have to depend on another branch of government, in this case the Supreme Court, to exert its vast influence. It has all the authority it needs through appropriations and funding – and this is precisely what our housebroken, mush Republican Congress failed to do. Congressman Bucshon and fellow Republicans already voted for the Omnibus bill last December, which fully funded the EPA for the remainder of Obama’s term, including its destructive Clean Power Plan regulations regarding CO2 emissions. This will devastate Indiana’s coal industry costing the state thousands of jobs. They already failed their constituents, Indiana, and the country – and more political stagecraft will not change it. Congressman Bucshon cannot have it both ways. He cannot claim to support coal and coal miners while voting to fully fund the anti-coal EPA. And then use what amounts to meaningless legal flimflam, mere political posturing to score rhetorical points back home. It is more of what we have come to expect from Congressman Bucshon and the Republican Congress – political theater. And we are tired of it.

Item #2: January 6, 2016 Press Release
(WASHINGTON, DC) – On Wednesday, the House passed a budget reconciliation package that dismantles Obamacare and defunds Planned Parenthood. This legislation will reach the President’s desk for the first time ever.

I’m afraid this is more of the same. Bucshon already voted to fully fund Obamacare and Planned Parenthood last December when he voted for the 2000 page, $1.1trillion massive Omnibus Bill last December. So now after the deal is already done, he and fellow ‘rock ribbed’ Republicans will engage in more political theater, more phony show votes, by sending bills that will have no impact because Obama will veto them. Congressman, just so you understand, when you give up your power of the purse for the entire year including the remainder of Obama’s term, you have given up all leverage. And Obama knows that. The time for action is when you are funding the bills. And that is precisely where Republicans will fail as you did last December. More empty political posturing for the folks back home. We need a change.

Item #3: March 2, 2016 Press Release
(WASHINGTON, DC) – On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved a bipartisan Medicaid reform bill authored by Congressmen Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN), Peter Welch (D-VT), and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC). H.R. 3716, the Ensuring Access to Quality Medicaid Providers Act, strengthens the Medicaid program and saves taxpayer dollars by ridding the program of bad actors. “This bill strengthens Medicaid and improves patient access to quality care by ridding the program of fraudulent actors who seek to take advantage of the most vulnerable patients and scam taxpayers. Our bipartisan bill ends waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicaid program saving taxpayers an estimated $15 million…” Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN)

It is almost embarrassing to see the Congressman touting this bill. So he coauthors a ‘bipartisan’ bill working with two Democrats to save taxpayers $15 million over ten years or about $1.5 million a year? Current spending levels have the federal government spending about $8 million a minute, so the savings from the bill amounts to about 18 seconds of spending. Does the Congressman appreciate that the Federal government is drowning in red ink, with $19 trillion of online budget debt, greater than the size of our economy? That Obama and the Republican Congress have together doubled the national debt in seven years? That we have more than $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities? That all of this spending is unsustainable and that we are peering over the fiscal abyss? That we are imposing crushing burdens on our children and grandchildren? That Medicaid costs $500 billion a year and is breaking the backs of our states?

What efforts has Congressman Bucshon made to address the growing costs of this massive unsustainable federal program? Has he thought about turning it over to the states, perhaps in the form of block grants instead of the current method that employs matching state dollars, which incentivizes states to expand the program by giving them basically a dollar of spending for 50 cents? Or privatizing it? Voucherizing it? Employing free market mechanisms to rein in the rising costs? Medicaid HSAs? What about the millions of immigrants, legal and illegal, who abuse our government programs including Medicaid that drives up the costs?

While there is nothing wrong with saving $1.5 million a year, to raise it as a serious effort to rein in another out of control federal program that is bankrupting the country borders on the truly absurd. It seems that Congressman Bucshon and our ‘stanch’ Republican Congress do not have the stomach for the serious fight of cutting spending, reducing the size of government, and balancing our budget.

We need someone who will take on career politicians in both political parties and fight for conservative causes in Washington, a new conservative champion who will represent the conservative values of Indiana’s 8th district! We have had enough of “go along to get along” from Congressman Bucshon and our hapless Republican Congress.

Find out more about Dr. Moss at www.rmoss4congress.com.  Call or email at 812-684-0971 or hq@rmoss4congress.com.  Find Moss For Congress on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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US Supreme Court Overturns Alabama Court, Restores Parental Rights In lesbian Adoption Case

BY KELSEY STEIN and Kent Faulk

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned an Alabama court’s refusal to recognize a same-sex adoption and denial of visitation rights to a lesbian mother.

The unanimous decision was issued early Monday. The short ruling says that the Alabama Supreme Court overstepped its authority by not recognizing the adoption that had been granted in Georgia.

A woman identified in court documents as V.L. sought visitation rights after splitting with her lesbian partner, identified as E.L., who gave birth to three children between 2002 and 2004 when the couple was together.

The ruling issued Monday restores full rights as an adoptive parent to V.L.

“I am overjoyed that the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Alabama court decision,” the adoptive mother, V.L., said in a prepared statement. “I have been my children’s mother in every way for their whole lives. I thought that adopting them meant that we would be able to be together always. When the Alabama court said my adoption was invalid and I wasn’t their mother, I didn’t think I could go on. The Supreme Court has done what’s right for my family.”

The case was first appealed to the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals. That court ruled in October 2014 that a Jefferson County judge had erred when he granted the woman – identified in court documents as V.L. – visitation rights. But then that appeals court reversed itself in February. The case was then appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court.

On Sept.18 the Alabama Supreme Court issued an order refusing to recognize V.L.’s Georgia adoption and declaring it void. The court found that Alabama did not have to recognize adoption by V.L. of her partner’s biological children because it found the Georgia court didn’t properly apply state law.

V.L. was represented by attorneys with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who said the Alabama Supreme Court disregarded clear precedent with that ruling.

In November, the adoptive mother filed an appeal of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that denied her visitation rights. Her request said “this Court’s review of the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision is urgently needed” because “the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision flouts a century of precedent on the Full Faith and Credit Clause and will have a devastating impact on Alabama adoptive families.”

In December, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling in the case, temporarily granting V.L. visitation rights.

NCLR attorneys lauded the ruling as a landmark victory for adoptive parents across the country.

“The Supreme Court’s reversal of Alabama’s unprecedented decision to void an adoption from another state is a victory not only for our client but for thousands of adopted families,” NCLR Family Law Director Cathy Sakimura, who is representing V.L., said in a news release. “No adoptive parent or child should have to face the uncertainty and loss of being separated years after their adoption just because another state’s court disagrees with the law that was applied in their adoption.”

In addition to the National Center for Lesbian Rights, V.L is represented by Adam Unikowsky and Paul Smith of Jenner & Block, and Alabama attorneys Heather Fann of Boyd, Fernambucq, Dunn & Fann, P.C., and Traci Vella of Vella & King, Attorneys at Law.

The children’s Guardian Ad Litem is Tobie J. Smith of the Legal Aid Society of Birmingham, who is represented by Marc Hearron of Morrison & Foerster LLP.

AL.com reporter Kent Faulk contributed to this report.