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raphael warnock
2 Baptist Pastors and US Senators Vote for More Killing of Palestinians in Gaza
The vote showed the hypocrisy of the two senators who are pastors of the Christian denomination.
Feb 20, 2024
The February 12, 2024 U.S. Senate vote on $14 billion to Israel shows the depravity of most of the members of the legislative body.
In particular it showed the hypocrisy of the two senators who are pastors of a Christian denominations as well as the shallowness of the few senators who called for a cease-fire and then voted for money to kill more Palestinians. Only three Senators who caucus with the Democrats voted against the funding—Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Senator Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) voted for $14 billion for Israel. He is a Baptist preacher from Georgia. For 19 years Warnock was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, Martin Luther King Jr.’s former congregation. He is the fifth and youngest person to serve as Ebenezer’s senior pastor since its founding, and he has continued with the position while serving in the Senate.
Would Martin Luther King, Jr. be proud of Ebenezer Church Senior Pastor Warnock? I think not!
Warnock was elected with the help of volunteers who came to Georgia from all over the country… and by funds from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that wanted desperately for the Democrats to be in charge of the Senate so that Israel super-supporter Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would become the Senate majority leader. Schumer ties President Joe Biden as the strongest supporter for the state of Israel in the U.S. government. They both have protected the criminal actions of the state of Israel for decades, throughout Biden’s 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president, and now three years as president and Schumer’s 25 years in the Senate.
A small group of us caught Senator Warnock outside the door of the private entrance to his office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on February 12, less than 15 hours before the early morning vote on $14 billion to Israel to continue the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza.
In our appeal to his Christian values, we pleaded with him as a pastor, the only pastor in the Senate, to not vote for money for Israel to continue the killing in Gaza. He shook the hands of each in our group, our red-stained hands from our daily protests, symbolizing the blood on the hands of those protecting Israeli crimes in Gaza and the West Bank. Warnock thanked us for our comments but would not say he would call for a cease-fire, and he didn’t say he was voting for the money to Israel and why.
But, as an aside, Warnock mentioned that he was not the only pastor in the Senate. We asked who the other one was?
Warnock replied, “James Lankford,” to which our group gave a collective groan. Lankford is from Oklahoma and is known as an ultra-conservative and is a strong supporter of Israel. He said that Israel is fighting “morally” while Hamas is not. Lankford was for 15 years the director of student ministry for the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma.
During the 2022 Georgia run-off election, Warnock’s 2018 sermon in which he condemned Israel for directing fire at unarmed Palestinian protesters near Israel’s separation fence with the occupied Gaza Strip was dug up by opponent former Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
As an African-American church leader, Warnock certainly knew of Israeli apartheid actions in Gaza and the West Bank. In 2019, he signed a statement published on the website of the National Council of Churches which compared Israeli control of the West Bank to “previous oppressive regimes” such as “apartheid South Africa” and said that the “ever-present physical walls that wall in Palestinians” are “reminiscent of the Berlin Wall.”
The statement was signed by several Christian faith leaders who traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories in late February and early March of 2019 as part of a joint delegation including representatives of “historic Black denominations of the National Council of Churches” as well as “heads of South African church denominations of the South African Council of Churches.”
Despite his comments that challenged the Israeli apartheid treatment of Palestinians and Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza, Warnock interestingly received campaign donations from the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) and began parroting its agenda, which includes supporting unconditional aid for Israel; condemning the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement; and strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship. All of this to get another Democratic Senator so that Chuck Schumer would become the Senate majority leader.
15 hours after our conversation with Pastor Warnock, at 5:00 am in the morning of February 13, the two Christian pastors in the U.S. Senate voted for $14 billion for Israel to continue the killing of massive numbers of Palestinians.
Would Martin Luther King, Jr. be proud of Ebenezer Church Senior Pastor Warnock? I think not!
As Warnock is a pastor in the footsteps and in the church of Martin Luther King Jr., one is quite sure that MLK in heaven is not pleased with Pastor Warnock’s vote for more military funding for Israel and for Ukraine.
One hopes that MLK comes to Warnock in his dreams to give him counsel for any future votes, votes that one would hope would reflect an abhorrence to genocide instead of bowing to Israeli political pressure.
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Georgia Medicaid Debacle Bolsters Progressive Case Against Work Requirements
"While state politicians continue playing games with people's lives, Georgians are dying because they can't afford the healthcare they need," said Sen. Raphael Warnock.
Dec 26, 2023
An effort by the Republican-led Georgia government to partially expand Medicaid is falling well short of enrollment expectations, a failure that could stem from the program's burdensome work requirements and other administrative barriers that are abundant in a for-profit system that doesn't guarantee healthcare to all as a right.
Politico reported Tuesday that just 1,800 people enrolled during the program's first four months—leaving the state on pace to miss Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's target of 31,000 enrollees within the first year.
"Critics blame the paltry expansion on an overly complex program with too many hurdles for people to clear," the outlet noted.
Brendan Duke, senior director for economic policy at the Center for American Progress, wrote in response to Politico's reporting that "a large part of progressive opposition to work requirements in safety net programs isn’t principle—it's about the paperwork that prevents working people from enrolling in programs they qualify for."
"Great example with Georgia and Medicaid here," Duke added. "Work requirement supporters will ask, 'Why do you oppose work reqs if the vast majority of people would still qualify?' Some of the problem is you're denying support to people who can't find a job. But some of it is you're functionally denying support to people with a job!"
As Georgia began rolling out its Pathways to Coverage program earlier this year following a legal fight with the Biden administration, researchers at Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families (CCF) argued that the state's insistence on a work requirement would likely box many people out, including workers with irregular hours and parents who lack access to childcare.
The work requirements in Georgia's program do not include an exemption for caregiving or high childcare costs, the CCF experts noted. As such, they warned, "many parents will likely remain uninsured under the Pathways program especially parents of babies and toddlers who are preschool age."
Georgia, which has one of the highest uninsured rates in the U.S., is currently the only state with a Medicaid work requirement in effect—though it's not the first to ever implement one.
In 2018, with the approval of the Trump administration, Arkansas put in place work mandates for Medicaid with disastrous results. Before the policy was blocked in federal court, more than 18,000 people in the state were thrown off Medicaid in just seven months for failing to adhere to the requirements.
The Arkansas policy did not boost employment, an outcome consistent with research showing that work requirements are only effective at stripping people of benefits.
"Pathways to Coverage has cost Georgia more money and covers far fewer people than if the state simply joined 40 other states in expanding Medicaid."
In 2021, the Biden administration rescinded Trump-approved waivers that had allowed Georgia and other states to add work requirements to their Medicaid programs. Georgia challenged the decision in court and prevailed last year, thanks to its argument that the experiment would lead to more people receiving coverage than if the program were blocked.
Kemp has suggested that around 345,000 Georgians could be eligible for the expanded Medicaid program, but the state expects that just around 64,000 will eventually enroll in the program.
That's just 14% of the people who would be covered if Georgia joined nearly every other U.S. state in fully expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, CCF researchers estimated earlier this year.
In addition to covering fewer people than full Medicaid expansion, Georgia's experiment is also expected to cost the state far more.
Leah Chan, senior health analyst at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, told a local Georgia newspaper earlier this year that Pathways to Coverage will cost roughly $2,420 per enrollee. Full Medicaid expansion, by contrast, would run the state just $496 per enrollee, as the federal government pays much of the cost.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) told Politico that "Pathways to Coverage has cost Georgia more money and covers far fewer people than if the state simply joined 40 other states in expanding Medicaid."
"While state politicians continue playing games with people's lives," he added, "Georgians are dying because they can't afford the healthcare they need."
Heightened scrutiny of Georgia's Medicaid experiment comes as states across the U.S. are rapidly conducting eligibility checks and kicking people off Medicaid en masse following the end of pandemic-era protections. Georgia is one of nine Republican-led states that collectively account for 60% of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program disenrollments this year.
An overwhelming majority of the disenrollments nationwide have been for procedural reasons, such as a paperwork error.
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Schumer and Warnock Lead Call for DOJ to Probe Expulsion of Tennessee Democrats
Senate Democrats are asking U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to "use all available legal authorities" to determine whether the U.S. Constitution or federal civil rights laws were violated and "take all steps necessary to uphold the democratic integrity of our nation's legislative bodies."
Apr 12, 2023
U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday sent a letter urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the recent expulsion of two Tennessee Democratic lawmakers to determine whether the widely condemned move was unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful.
Tennessee House Republicans have been roundly denounced since voting last Thursday to expel state Reps. Justin Jones (D-52) and Justin Pearson (D-86), with critics arguing that the removal of the Black progressive lawmakers—the state's first partisan expulsion since 1866—exemplifies the GOP's growing antagonism toward democracy.
A week before they were ousted and their combined 150,000 constituents were deprived of elected representation, Jones and Pearson had joined protesters in disrupting a floor session to demand gun control in the wake of last month's deadly school shooting in Nashville. State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-13), who is white, also participated in the demonstration but was spared the same fate by one vote.
Wednesday's letter, the first formal effort by U.S. senators to respond to the expulsions, asks U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to "use all available legal authorities" to determine whether the U.S. Constitution or federal civil rights laws were violated and "take all steps necessary to uphold the democratic integrity of our nation's legislative bodies."
The letter, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), was co-signed by Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy (Conn.), Alex Padilla (Calif.), and Brian Schatz (Hawaii).
As The Washington Postreported:
The senators argue that the removals may have violated Jones' and Pearson's First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly, the rights of citizens of Memphis and Nashville to be represented by the legislators of their choice, and rights the pair have under the 14th Amendment or civil rights statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race.
[...]
The letter cites the Supreme Court's unanimous 1966 ruling in Bond v. Floyd as a potential precedent to draw from in arguing that the expulsions in Tennessee were unlawful. In that case, the high court found that the Georgia House of Representatives' refusal to seat a Black lawmaker, Julian Bond, over his stance on the Vietnam War was unconstitutional.
In their letter, Senate Democrats praised Jones and Pearson for "courageously participating in nonviolent demonstrations" that "challenged procedural rules."
"We do not believe that breaking decorum is alone sufficient cause for employing the most draconian of consequences to duly elected lawmakers," the senators wrote. "This is undemocratic, un-American, and unacceptable, and the U.S. Department of Justice should investigate whether it was also unlawful or unconstitutional."
Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus of law at Harvard University, told the Post that "there are some who would try to distinguish Georgia's exclusion of Bond for his speeches about the war outside the legislative chamber from Tennessee's repressive and vindictive expulsion of two duly elected members for their robust expressions of views in the well of the chamber in alleged violation of its rules of decorum."
"But to me, that is a distinction without a difference," added Tribe. The legal scholar is far from alone in opposing Tennesee Republicans' retaliatory act.
"We cannot allow states to cite minor procedural violations as pretextual excuses to remove democratically elected representatives."
A USA Today/Ipsos survey conducted Friday through Sunday found that three-fourths of U.S. adults—including 62% of Republicans—believe Americans, including lawmakers, have the right to peacefully protest in state houses.
Reporting on the poll Tuesday, USA Today noted that "a 51% majority call the expulsions an anti-democratic abuse of power, compared with 42% who view them as an appropriate way to discipline lawmakers."
Moreover, "in the wake of school shootings, two-thirds say state legislatures should enact stricter controls on gun purchases," the newspaper pointed out.
Stronger gun laws, after all, are precisely what Jones, Pearson, and Johnson, along with hundreds of concerned citizens, were calling for during the March 30 protest in the Tennessee State Capitol.
Alluding to the March 27 shooting at Nashville Covenant School that left three adults and three children dead, the Senate Democrats wrote Wednesday that this "tragedy shattered hearts across our country and galvanized Americans—particularly young Americans in Tennessee—to peacefully demand their legislators act."
"These deeply moving expressions of democratic participation follow America's long tradition of peaceful, nonviolent protest, perfected during the struggles and triumphs of the civil rights movement," the letter says.
"Silencing legislators on the basis of their views or their participation in protected speech or protest is antithetical to American democracy and values," the letter continues. "We cannot allow states to cite minor procedural violations as pretextual excuses to remove democratically elected representatives, especially when these expulsions may have been at least partially on the basis of race. Allowing such behavior sets a dangerous—and undemocratic—precedent."
"We are deeply concerned that without immediate action by the U.S. Department of Justice, anti-democratic actors will only be emboldened, and we will see more troubling and more frequent incidents meant to unravel our democratic fabric," the senators concluded. "Thank you for your work to protect our democracy."
Jones and Pearson were reappointed to the Tennessee Legislature by the Nashville Metropolitan Council and the Shelby County Board of Commissioners on Monday and Wednesday, respectively.
There are lingering fears, however, that the Tennessee GOP, which has defended and fundraised off the expulsions, could engage in further retaliation against Jones and Pearson. Attorneys for both men have warned the state's Republican lawmakers against doing so.
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