Matthew Sheppard

The Hate Crimes Bill is attached to The Defense Authorization Bill. The Defense Authorization Bill passed the House today, by a 389-22 vote. It goes to the Senate then to President Obama. President Obama, along with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates do not want to waste money on programs we don’t need. Each Raptor costs approximately $140 million dollars. The House bill includes an additional $1.75 billion for the Raptors.

But here’s the real kicker: President Obama has threatened to veto any bill that comes to his desk with funding for the F-22 Raptors.

So, assuming all goes as planned, our Democratic-controlled Congress will pass the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill but attach it to the Defense Authorization Bill and President Obama will veto it and go down in history as soft on defense and soft on crime. And soft on gay rights.

The obvious question is, with friends like these…