A Real Femme Fatale: U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden
Hillary supporters do not despair: You do have a woman on the Obama ticket, and her name is Joseph “Jo†Biden. When Obama talks about wealth distribution, he seldom, if ever, mentions any related programs by name. But you can bet your last dollar – and you won’t have much else left by then – that “ Jo†Biden is percolating plans for a national “man tax.â€
Legislating a “man tax†(reparations of sorts) will be done under the noble guise of compensating women to the benefit of all society and, of course, especially children. The Financial Times of London last year allowed two university economics professors to write anonymously in promoting a “man tax.†The commentary in part stated, “Men’s labour supply is more rigid, so an increase in taxes does not reduce their labour supply by much, if at all. … A higher take-home salary for women created by our proposal would allow them to buy more childcare at market prices and, since childcare facilities employ mostly women, they would also benefit on their costs.†[1]
When the Equal Rights Amendment was renamed the ‘Women’s Equality Amendment’ in 2007, Dr. Stephen Baskerville called it “a real-life validation of George Orwell’s fictional portrayal of the opportunism of extremist political movements and their tendency to turn high-minded ideals into the opposite of what they promise. In Animal Farm , Orwell’s allegory of the Soviet revolution, the pigs proclaim that ‘All animals are equal.’ Once they seize power, the pigs revise the principle: ‘But some animals are more equal than others.’†[2]
Much of this is a result of decades of feminist control at state and federal levels. “Today’s female-friendly politicians stir a stew of vaguely defined issues such as violence against women, women’s medical needs or girls’ education,†Laura Ingraham wrote in The Hillary Trap . “They ladle it out to the public whenever it seems politically advantageous, however expensive, and however ridiculous. When these policies become law, the real beneficiaries are mainly bureaucrats, lobbyists and activists, not individual women or their daughters.†[3]
“ Jo†Biden reigns as the darling of feminist pork for his unwavering support of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). His Congressional Web site praises VAWA as “the catalyst for passage of hundreds of state laws prohibiting family violence; and provided resources to set up shelters so battered women abused by husbands and boyfriends had a place to go. … By empowering women to make changes in their lives, and by training police and prosecutors to arrest and convict abusive husbands instead of telling them to take a walk around the block.†[4]
To note that similar law-enforcement partnerships have led to mass civil-rights violations is appropriate. VAWA passed under a convoluted interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Act, and some VAWA provisions violate the constitutional statute prohibiting Congress from selectively abridging rights. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1942 ( Wickard v. Filburn ) broadly interpreted the interstate commerce clause, and some legal experts consider the court’s decision one of the more egregious violations of constitutional authority. [5]
In November 2007, Biden proposed “I-VAWA,†or the International Violence Against Women Act, which gives more American taxpayer funding to anti-Western coalitions. More than 100 nongovernmental organizations worldwide were involved in I-VAWA, including such socialist-oriented groups as Amnesty International, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and others. Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA, exclaimed, “Violence devastates the lives of millions of women and girls and their families worldwide … [and] destabilizes communities, undermines economic development and breeds poverty and despair.†[6] Had Mr. Cox substituted “Marxism†for “violence,†he would have hit the nail on the head, rather than blunt and bend it.
Prior to renewal of VAWA, The Congressional Record , quotes Utah Republican U.S. Sen. Orin Hatch: “There is one final issue that has been raised recently, which we would like to take this opportunity to address, and that is the eligibility of men to receive benefits and services under the original Violence Against Women Act and under this reauthorizing legislation. … Men who have suffered these types of violent attacks are eligible under current law to apply for services and benefits that are funded under the original Act – and they will remain eligible under the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 … .†[7] Despite such assurances, male victims of domestic violence who seek redress or support may find themselves in state-sponsored classes that blame the man for the woman’s actions.
Renewal of VAWA should have been more troublesome than concerns raised by Leftists over the renewal of the Patriot Act. VAWA initiatives, which have cost taxpayers an average of nearly a billion dollars annually, have forced an authoritarian-style group-think on law enforcement officials and health-care providers. In practice, VAWA prescribes the lowest threshold of evidence and virtually ignores penalties for false charges and perjury. The ACLU caterwauls over the rights of terrorists but has no concern for injustices related to politically expedient statistics that involve men.
Many “irrefutable facts†cited as the basis for VAWA come from sources that are neither verified nor refuted, including anonymous respondents and confidential surveys. In “VAWA: Bad Research Leads to Bad Law,†columnist Wendy McElroy wrote: “Consider the ‘feminist’ issues of rape or domestic violence. Studies that address these areas are often released in combination with policy recommendations. Indeed, they sometimes appear to be little more than a springboard from which advocates can launch a campaign for more law. … [T]he current self-sustaining cycle tends to discourage contrary evidence and critical thinking about the data on which the laws rest.†[8]
U.S. Constitution Party presidential candidate Michael Peroutka stated in his 2004 acceptance speech that “government programs, including federal grants to states, actually reward state welfare and social service agencies with monetary incentives when they succeed in breaking up families and removing fathers from their own homes. You see, by destroying the good name of fatherhood, America’s enemies seek to destroy the authority and influence, not only of American dads, but also the memory and lasting influence of our Founding Fathers. [9]
Marshall Rockford Goodman is the author of Karla Marx: How feminism has seduced the West (Lulu Publishing 2008) ISBN: 978-0-557-00296-2.
1. “Why women should pay less tax,†authorship noted only as “The writers are economics professors respectively at Harvard University and the University of Bologna,†The Financial Times , April 18, 2007.
2. “Some are more equal than others,†Stephen Baskerville, Ph.D., WorldNetDaily.com, Oct. 9, 2007. http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58038
3. The Hillary Trap: Looking for Power in All the Wrong Places , Laura Ingraham (Hyperion 2000), Ch. 1, “The Sisterhood Trap,†p. 19.
4. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. congressional Web site: Home > Domestic Violence. http://biden.senate.gov/issues/issue/?id=975b0cf4-ce25-42cc-b63d-072fb81e8618
5. The Dirty Dozen: How 12 Supreme Court cases radically expanded government and eroded freedom , Robert A. Levy and William Mellor (Sentinel 2008).
6. “Biden/Lugar Introduce the International Violence Against Women Act,†Nov. 1, 2007, press release. http://biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=286561
7. U.S. Sen. Orin Hatch, Congressional Record, pages 10191-92, Oct. 11, 2000.
8. “VAWA: Bad Research Leads to Bad Law,†Wendy McElroy, July 21, 2005. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C2933%2C163023%2C00.html
9. “Michael Anthony Peroutka Accepts Constitution Party Nomination for President of these United States,†Michael Anthony Peroutka, June 25, 2004. http://www.constitutionparty.com/news.php?aid=107
Author of "Karla Marx: How feminism has seduced the West". Read excerpts from the book at http://www.lulu.com/content/3766590 | More from Marshall Rockford Goodman
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