Congressman Paul Broun is the Georgia Republican who suggested that evolution and the Big Bang Theory are “lies straight from the pit of hell.” That kind of talk might be unsettling coming from any member of Congress--but Broun serves on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Paul Broun is now running for the Georgia Senate seat about to vacated by fellow Republican Saxby Chambliss. It turns out Broun and Chambliss might have more in common than party affiliation and ties to Georgia. Both seem to use a similar standard for decision-making: What Would I Do?
Last month in an interview with Politico, Chambliss talked about his opposition to same-sex marriage. When asked whether his position could eventually shift, Chambliss responded: “I’m not gay. So I’m not going to marry one.” Translation: since the issue of same-sex marriage does not apply directly to the senator’s own life, there's no reason to examine it any further.
For Paul Broun, the subject was health insurance coverage for sex-change operations. The Obama administration recently withdrew a proposal that would cover such procedures under Medicare and Medicaid, but Broun still spoke out against the proposal at a recent town hall meeting.
“I don’t want to pay for a sex-change operation,” Broun said, according to the Barrow County News. "I'm not interested. I like being a boy."
Chambliss and Broun are hardly alone in this logic, with several of their current and former colleagues striking a similar tune at one point or another.
In 2009, former Arizona Senator Jon Kyl said that he was against private health insurance plans that include maternity care. “I don’t need maternity care, and so requiring that to be in my insurance policy is something that I don’t need and will make the policy more expensive,” he explained. In 2006, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe suggested that he was the wrong person to participate in a debate on same-sex marriage because of his own family situation. “I’m really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we’ve never had a divorce or any kind of homosexual relationship.”
Take a look at the Hardball Sideshow for the latest from Georgia Congressman Paul Broun, and get the lowdown on how Joe Biden inadvertently set off the far-right world of conspiracy.