The Next Hostages

by digby

I wrote the other day about the GOP congress’s stated goal to make the Hyde Amendment permanent. Now it appears they are going to try to amend the health care bill to exclude any subsidies from going to health plans that offer coverage for abortion (even though the plan already calls for women to pay for that coverage themselves.)

None of this should be surprising to anyone who has followed the Tea Party. They were culture warriors long before they because born again deficit hawks. But whyile these supposed enemies of debt aren’t exactly raising a fit about the millionaires tax cuts, they aren’t going to settle for nothing. After all, Reagan already proved “deficits don’t matter.” Culture war victories are their due.

I sure wish that I felt more confident that the administration would hold the line, but I suspect that even the Tea Baggers have learned that you can pretty much always package a deal in such a way that the president will sign on as long as liberals are the ones that don’t like it. And I’m guessing choice is one of those winning items. If they’re smart, they’ll put it together with something that helps sick kids so they can really twist Democrats into pretzels.

But make no mistake, it’s the culture war, wedge issues that really animate the Tea Party, not all that dreary old stuff about tax codes and deficits. And they’re going to want their due.