GOP Demands 'No Viagra for Sex Offenders'

Tom Coburn drops slew of amendments to derail health care bill
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 24, 2010 4:46 AM CDT
GOP Demands 'No Viagra for Sex Offenders'
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, during a news conference on healthcare on Capitol Hiill in Washington, Thursday, March 18, 2010.   (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Suddenly, Republican Tom Coburn has a lot of ideas about health care, and he’s demanding Congress vote on all of them, in a last-ditch attempt to derail the reconciliation bill. Coburn has proposed a slate of hard-to-vote-against amendments; if any of them pass, the bill will have to go back to the House for approval. They include:

  • No erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders: This amendment would also ban federal funding for abortion drugs.
  • Bureaucratic cap and trade: For every bureaucrat hired as a result of the law, one must be fired.
  • Implement Republican ideas President Obama has endorsed: Specifically those on reducing fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid.
  • Ensure nondiscrimination for providers refusing to perform abortions.
  • Exempt Class I medical devices from new taxation: Class I devices include band-aids, surgical gowns and wheelchairs.
Check Politico for the complete, detailed run-down. (More Tom Coburn stories.)

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