Johnson subjects military funding to partisan politics, despite pledging otherwise

How times have changed for the Republican Party.

It was once the party of law and order. Now Donald Trump, its top candidate for president, is facing his third recent indictment, this time for fomenting the overthrow of the very government he purportedly wants to lead.

It was once the party of business, but now another of its presidential candidates, Ron DeSantis, is noted for slapping down Disney, his state’s biggest employer.

It was once known for its support of the armed forces, but now Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has thrown the chain of command into disarray while he puts a hold on promotions as he tries to get military policies to conform to his sense of morality.

The small-government, low-tax days of the GOP seem to be over, replaced in the House of Representatives by issues favored by a small but vocal MAGA crowd. They pick culture battles that have little meaning, but serve to arouse party members as those issues play in a constant loop on Fox News.

That change in tradition can be found in South Dakota’s own congressional delegation in the person of Dusty Johnson. In his column praising the military funding bill, Johnson said: “In recent years, we’ve seen a political ideology pushed on the military from COVID-19 to abortion. I want to be clear — I will always prioritize the mission of military readiness over partisan politics.”

While Johnson wants to be clear, he has a little trouble being truthful. In the same column he lists as one of the features of the bill a ban on using taxpayer dollars to fund “distractions to military readiness, like critical race theory and drag shows.” A Johnson news release praising the House passage of the NDAA notes it also ends “woke” training for “progressive climate change initiatives.”

That must be a heck of a drag show if it gets in the way of military readiness. And no one wants to see our armed forces stumble over critical race theory on their way into battle.

Anyone who read Johnson’s statement about political ideology would think that he was against mixing an issue like abortion with military funding. But there it is in his column, noting that the bill “prohibits taxpayer dollars to be used in allowing military members access to abortion services.”

That’s part of what has Tuberville in such a knot that he’s using his power as a senator to hold up high-level promotions until there’s a change in the military’s abortion leave policy. That policy, instituted after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, supports the travel of service members for “non-covered reproductive health care.”

Like all employers, the military has to provide benefits to attract employees. One of those benefits is a recognition that members of the armed forces don’t often get to choose where they live and some of those postings can be without the kind of medical care that they need. The military provides paid time off and reimburses travel costs for health care that a service member or dependent can’t get at their duty station.

Let’s hope that Tuberville and the House-passed NDAA can address abortion without somehow sinking a pretty decent health care perk for military personnel.

And let’s hope that Johnson wakes up to the fact that it’s hypocritical to blast playing politics with military funding all the while pushing the far-right talking points that are in the House version of the funding bill.