Money for Nothing

The Idaho Values Alliance reports that Larry Craig’s absence is having a consequence:

According to Idaho Chooses Life, the senate yesterday defeated an amendment to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) proposed by Sen. Wayne Allard, an amendment that would have required that the CHIP program continue to cover preborn children. Democrats are determined to remove that provision from the legislation.

The vote was 50-49, meaning that if Sen. Craig had been present, the vote would instead have been a tie, putting the tie-breaker in the hands of Vice-President Cheney who certainly would have voted for life.

As it stands, President Bush is likely to veto the Democrat’s version of CHIP, since it will allow federal tax funding for abortions in 17 states. As David Ripley of Idaho Chooses Life observes, if the Democratic version goes into effect, this program, designed to provide health care for children, will instead be used to kill them.

Thanks, Senator Craig for making Idaho half a state as far as the US Senate goes. I did a little bit of calculating. Senator Craig at this points looks like he won’t work for Idaho at all in doing his duty in the US Senate (no, issuing press releases from Boise doesn’t count and is really not important.)

A US Senator makes $165,200 a year. If you calculate that out, that’s $13, 766.66 a month. The Senator ought to leave office if he WON’T represent Idaho during his remaining weeks. If he won’t, then he should have the decency to return the salary’s he’s being paid for work he’s not doing.