The shameful squishiness of House Republicans

There is the moral cowardice of what the House did regarding transgender surgery for military personnel, but I'd like to pursue an auxiliary angle: Reportage of this abysmal turn demonstrates that words matter.

Before we get to the semantic monstrosity committed by the Washington Post in this headline, let's go back up a couple of layers and establish a few facts.

1.) Transgendered people have a mental illness. They can carve up their crotches and load themselves up with hormones, but they will always have the DNA they were born with.

2.) It is ill-advised to have people known to be mentally ill entrusted with the defense of this nation against foreign enemies.

3.) It is also ill-advised to have the nation's defense apparatus's focus on its core mission diluted by accommodating people with this particular affliction.

4.) Government funds allocated to the mission of defense, just like government funds in general, should not be used to meet the needs or wants of particular individuals.

Now, consider the mentality required to come up with a headline like "House Rejects Attempt to Ban Transgender Surgery for Troops."

Now, given that, at least for the time being, the military is proceeding with the acceptance of people with this particular mental illness into its ranks, such people are as free as anyone to carve up their crotches and otherwise mutilate the bodies God gave them - on their own dimes. Such mutilation is a practice confined to an infinitesimal portion of those serving. What Missouri Representative Vicky Hartzler's amendment to existing health-care provisions for military personnel would have done is prevent tax dollars from being used.

The same Post article also covers another disgusting Congressional decision to indulge the military's distraction from its mission:

The House also shot down an amendment aimed at getting the Pentagon out of having to submit a report to Congress detailing the impact of climate change on the armed forces. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said the requirement puts an unnecessary demand on the military at a time when it should be concentrating on defeating the Islamic State group and countering other serious threats.

With this kind of poltroonery manifesting itself in legislation having to do with the most essential Constitutional function of the federal government, it's no wonder these pitiful excuses for statesmen don't seem to be capable of framing the repeal of the "A"CA in free-market terms.

If the House of Representatives as presently composed lacks clarity about three of the most basic principles under attack today - health care not being a right, the global climate not being in any kind of trouble, and transgenderism being a mental illness - it's not of much use for anything other than joining the Freedom-Hater party in nudging this once-great country right over the precipice.