Jake Tapper reports some Catholics in the Obama administration advised against the mandate, predicting it would backfire for the White House:
“What are we doing here?” asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, stepping outside his wheelhouse to ask about a rising storm involving the Obama administration and the Catholic Church. “What’s the point?”
It was the Fall of 2011 and Panetta had read about a proposed Obama administration rule that would require employers – excluding houses of worship but including religious organizations such as charities, hospitals, and schools – to offer health insurance that fully covered contraception.
Panetta — a Catholic, former U.S. Representative, and White House chief of staff — didn’t quite understand why the Obama administration would be stepping into this conflict.
Panetta’s fears have to a degree been realized as White House officials now find themselves taking heat on a policy debate about conscience and religious liberty; the Obama administration is working to find a way to allow religious organizations to not pay for services they find morally objectionable, while also ensuring that, say, the women nurses and doctors who work at Catholic hospitals have full access to birth control. Some officials are discussing a way to introduce something like the law in Hawaii, where religious organizations don’t have to pay for employee insurance that covers contraception, but they do have to inform employees how they can get it on their own.
The debate within the White House on this issue was, sources say, heated, and President Obama was legitimately torn. Panetta wasn’t alone in his concerns. For months, Vice President Joe Biden and then-White House chief of staff Bill Daley argued internally against the rule, sources tell ABC News. Biden and Daley didn’t think the rule was right on either the policy or the politics, sources said. Joshua Dubois, head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, also expressed concern.
The policy was wrong, the two Catholic men, Biden and Daley, argued, saying that the Obama administration couldn’t force religious charities to pay for something they think is a sin. Sources say that Biden and Daley in these internal debates emphasized the political fallout more so than the policy issue.
I suppose all this stuff is thrilling for Catholics like Ms Lopez because there are so few occasions to really get out and play the oppressed victim card. But it really is boring for the rest of us. How many posts have you done on this today?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis makes you wonder if Daley's departure was precipitated in some way by this decision which he knew back then was coming down the pike.
Not quite the same thing as announcing a formal resignation on principle, but still...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is not that hard. If you want to move policy in a certain direction, let's say to the left, you first propose something completely outrageous. This will prompt an outcry, so you give back half way. Then you've compromised, you look reasonable, generous even, while still getting what you want. Anyone who objects is labeled an extremist who can't compromise.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI agree with you William. I wrote the same thing earlier today. Obama will float the compromise and when the Bishops turn it down, as they must; Obama will either cave altogether or label the Bishops as extremist. Many Catholics will agree that the Bishops are extremists, and then Obama will go on to capture the Catholic vote again in 2012. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't have a lot of faith in most "Catholics".
On the other hand, I'm not sure what reason the many liberal Catholics would have to vote for Obama again.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBiden puts his foot in mouth frequently, but he would have been a much better President than Obama, imo.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI know this is Tapper's characterization, but I would hope the head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (whatever that is!) would express more than "concern" over the mandate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThese folks haven't got wit or humility to inspect what they themselves find obvious, nor imagination to wonder how anyone could possibly disagree.
They aren't evil, just mediocre. And when mediocre people are making decisions for everybody, things are bound to break.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHmmm, why is it that Conservatives suddenly want to talk about everything other than the economy? I'm sure it has nothing to do with a DJA nearing 13000 (up over 40% since Obama's inauguration), a decreasing unemployment rate, increased consumer confidence, and the first increase in real manufacturing jobs in a long, long time.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhy would they care? They're all pro-abortion cafeteria Catholics. So their arguments strictly boil down to politics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI haven't been living under a rock for the last three years, but I seem to have missed the point at which President Obama's vision of providing affordable health insurance to 30 million uninsured Americans became forcing employers and health insurance companies - private businesses - to provide free healthcare services and products to their employees and customers. Since when does health insurance entitle anyone to free healthcare services, especially when they're not free? Someone has to pay for these "free" services and it isn't going to be the insurance companies. If the government forces insurance companies to pay for services and products they otherwise wouldn't, the money has to come from somewhere.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCompletely logical. No wonder you have trouble understanding liberals. If we need more money, just tax the rich. If that doesn't produce enough, just change the definition of rich and tax some more. It's easy and fun, too!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLooks like Tapper is being used as the stooge to leak the phony "debate" within the administration, along with the "sensible" Hawaii option that the Administration will magnanimously capitulate to eventually.
Fast forward a year, and some liberal interest group will run a sting operation, catching a Catholic hospital worker failing to refer some poor victim to the nearest Planned Parenthood office for free birth control. The MSM will launch an investigation into the conspiracy by evil woman-hating backwater Catholics to proactively try to stop women who want birth control from receiving it, as the friendly MSM reporter gently reminds us that private hospitals are "required by law to refer women to providers of free basic health services if they do not provide them directly" We will all be asked why these evil backward Catholic hospitals are so bigoted that they would partake in such an evil conspiracy, and can't just get with the program and stop trying to prevent women from receiving basic health services out of some backward bigoted hatred of women.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The debate within the White House on this issue was, sources say, heated, and President Obama was legitimately torn."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDuring the Clinton administration there were regularly stories about how Sen Lieberman was wrestling with his conscience over whether her could support the administration on this or that issue. Funny thing was, in all those close agonizing decisions he ended up on the same side. And I don't think Obama is even as torn as Lieberman was.
Not one of these Catholics even threatened to resign over this malicious political assault on their Church and faith. They will have much to answer for.
"You have been weighed on the the scales and found wanting."
Daniel 5:27
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseActually, Daley may have resigned over this.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDaley and Biden are two of the dimmest bulbs in the administration, and even they could see this was a dumb policy.
Tell me again how smart Obama is?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI guess it depends on whether Obama would rather run against Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe first of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
Obama's secular state might as well be symbolized by a golden calf. And he puts it before, and above, everything.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet's phrase the issue properly, I.e., not the way the progressive media want it: no one, NO ONE, is denying poor women birth control products and services. They can PAY for them. The pill is less than $50/month. Planned Parenthood makes contraceptives free or low-cost.
This is about forcing us to do what the Obama administration wants. It is about power and showing us who is boss.
Archbishop Dolan claims he thought Obama promised in good faith to compromise. Archbishop Dolan is either the most naive man on the planet (and I don't think anyone rises to power in the church and remains naive), or he thought he had some sort of deal already worked out, wink, wink, nod, nod. Which makes him a schm***.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI guess President Obama checked the wrong box.
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