Tuesday, August 05, 2014

House GOP Blocks Resolution Congratulating Pope Francis


This blog has noted before that the steal from the poor to give to the rich agenda of today's Republican Party is the antithesis of Christ's Gospel message.  Indeed, Pope Francis has even remarked on the dangers of a vulture capitalism so loved by the GOP and the growing wealth disparities in America.   The ultimate hypocrisy, of course, is that the GOP claims to honor Christian values and to be the protector "family values."  A family of jackals of hyenas perhaps, but not decent families not consumed by greed and hatred of others.  So how has the House GOP retaliated in response to Pope Francis' chiding?  The "god fearing Republicans" have killed a resolution that would have congratulated Francis on his March 2013 election and recognize "his inspirational statements and actions."  Here are highlights from the National Catholic Reporter (a non-Vatican controlled outlet):
[D]espite the almost universal popularity of Pope Francis, the House of Representatives was unable to muster enough bipartisan support to pass a resolution lauding Francis' election -- nearly 18 months ago.

The bill, H.Res. 440, seems straightforward, as it aims to congratulate Francis on his March 2013 election and recognize "his inspirational statements and actions."

The main obstacle, however, is that Francis may be viewed as "too liberal" by many political conservatives, a belief that has also unsettled many Catholic conservatives.

An unnamed Republican backer of the legislation told The Hill newspaper last week that the pope is "sounding like [President Barack] Obama" because he "talks about equality" and he has blasted "trickle-down economics," a favorite theory of many conservatives and "politically charged," as the GOP official said.

Even though the bill has New York Rep. Peter King, a reliably conservative Republican, as a chief co-sponsor (along with Democrat John Larson of Connecticut, also a Catholic), it has failed to catch on with the GOP. The resolution has 223 co-sponsors altogether, but just 20 are Republicans.

[N]early half of all simple resolutions introduced in the last two years were passed, so it's notable that one praising Pope Francis couldn't even make it out of committee in this Congress.
 The ugliness of today's GOP becomes worse by the day. 

1 comment:

Angelo Ventura said...

These vultures aren't Christians, period.