Living in sin? No benefits for you!

Dave Agema

State legislators are assholes.

Not all of them, of course. Just all of them on the Republican side of the Michigan House of Representatives.

The House voted yesterday to prohibit government entities from providing health care benefits to unmarried partners of their employees and to prohibit unions from including them in collective bargaining agreements.

The same creepy jackass who wanted to prevent foster kids from having new clothes is behind this effort. Dave Agema (R-Grandville) – who boasts on a website that he’s an NRA member and CCW permit holder who believes family is the most important unit of American society – sponsored House Bills 4770 and 4771 which were approved by a vote of 64-44.

I listened to Rick Pluta’s call-in interview show this morning on public radio with State House Speaker Jase Bolger (R) and House Minority Leader Rick Hammel (D), hoping the issue would be discussed and explained by these two august legislative leaders. Pluta did his usual fine job but I had to listen to 45 minutes of talking points on other issues before a caller from Ann Arbor asked if the lawmakers supported gay marriage, which provided Pluta with his opening.

He referenced yesterday’s vote and Bolger jumped in to assert that it was to bring universities and governments in compliance with the Constitution (which voters amended in 2004 to codify marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution). They were trying to stop an “end run” around the Constitution, he explained, and then he said something about “unaffectioned roommates” that I didn’t understand, and that was it. Under two minutes. No challenge. No rebuttal. No follow up. Time to move on to a question about affirmative action.

Dave and Barb Agema

Bolger, Agema and their ilk aren’t just taking a swipe at homosexuals and lesbians here, although that’s part of it. They’re imposing their morality and views on every person in this state who, for whatever reason, has decided to share his or her life with another without embracing the institution of marriage (which gay people can’t do in Michigan even if they want to) or conforming to the expectations of a loving and devoted husband and churchgoer from Grandville.

If this were strictly a cost issue, then we should ask how much it costs to provide full benefits for life beginning at age 55 to each and every person who serves just six years in the state legislature. Now that’s a sweet deal if you ask me.