Coburn’s House friends also said no to Rachel
But I’ve got some good news for you. Coburn isn’t all alone in his crusade to stop Congress from honoring Rachel Carson. He has some good friends in the U.S. House of Representatives. There, in April, 53 representatives voted against naming the post office after Carson. Another 3 voted “present,” which also often signals symbolic opposition to a bill.
The bill passed the House anyway. Unlike the Senate, where a minority of Senators or even one Senator has tremendous power to block a bill, the House is pretty much run by majority rule.
Still the fact that there were a good number of dissenters in the House may embolden some more Senators to join Coburn and just say no to the cult of Rachel. And it’s interesting to look at the vote and see who voted which way.
The good news is that the “nays” included some of the very top members of the House Republican leadership, including Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo. The bad news is that some free market-leaning members who should know better, such as Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Republican Study Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, were among the “yeas.” And for those of you who are Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., fans, you should know that he cast his vote in favor of honoring Rachel. Hmmm, I wonder if there’s any evidence that she was an illegal alien?!
It’s also bad news that no Democrat voted against the bill. The effective combating of malaria in poor countries should be a bipartisan issue. Hopefully, it soon will be.