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Rep McKeon- To Heck With Defense, Ban Same-Sex Marriage In The Military

Which is more important, the budget for the military for the next year or the personal religious beliefs of one Representative. Well, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon of California knows the answer to that- he is more concerned about his own personal religious beliefs than he is about the military budget. Simply put, he wants to impose his religious beliefs on others, thus stifling the religious freedoms of chaplains in the military, than allowing the military to have a budget for next year.

McKeon has stated that he would rather have no Defense Authorization Bill this year than strip out language that would ban military chaplains from conducting same-sex marriages and put suspected terrorists into military custody. In other words, he wants theocracy and tyranny.

McKeon made these comments on a C-SPAN Newsmakers interview with Politico’s Charles Hodkinson and John Donnelly of Congressional Quarterly. When asked if he wanted those to remain, he stated yes, and also said “I’d like to see the Senate move on the bill. We passed the bill months ago. We’re waiting on the Senate.” Both provisions are not likely to make it out of the Senate.

Politico notes that:

The House passed its version of the legislation in May. It contains a provision added on the floor that would leave military trials as the only trial option for many terrorism suspects. The White House blasted the legislation in a seven-page memo that POLITICO obtained back in June. Human rights and civil liberties groups also have opposed the idea.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is holding up consideration of the Senate’s version of the bill on behalf of the White House and some Democratic senators who object to a bipartisan compromise on handling detainees worked out by the Senate Armed Services Committee when it approved the bill in June.

The bill would limit the ability of the Obama Administration to release Guantanamo prisoners abroad or to bring them to the United States for trial. The bill in the Senate requires that the Pentagon create procedures for long-term detentions of those captured on terrorism charges without trial. Republicans want this done now because they feel that they have the polling on their side given that Americans are wary of civilian trials for suspected terrorists despite the fact that not a single terrorist brought to trial in a civilian court has not been convicted.

However, it was his stance on same-sex marriage officiated by chaplains that McKeon shows that he has no respect for the freedoms and liberties of the United State’s citizens. With regards to that he said “I feel very strongly about that. I’m hopeful that the Senate will look at those votes and understand our feelings on that issue.” Of course, McKeon really has no position to talk about this since what he is pushing is the limitation of the rights and freedom to worship of others.

He did, however, later back down over being uncompromising on the issues saying that it is a give and take process.