Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, March 10, 2010
Flip This House
The only significance of March 18 to most Americans is that it’s the morning after their St. Patrick’s Day parties. To House and Senate Democrats, it holds a different meaning. One week from tomorrow is the deadline that President Obama handed down for final action on the Senate-passed health care bill. Fox News breaks down why the White House is “so invested” in March 18. “…[If the House passes the Senate plan, it] would give Senate Democrats a full week, starting March 22, to move a so-called ‘fixes bill’ (incorporating Obama’s changes to the Senate bill) through the chamber under reconciliation procedures requiring only a 51-vote majority.” If Democrats miss the window, they risk throwing away a 16-month legislative battle with absolutely nothing to show for it but unpopularity. After the Easter recess, the parties start moving into the campaign season when most Democrats will want to put some distance between a health care vote and their re-election.
Make no mistake. The success or failure of this bill hinges on taxpayer-funding of abortion. Every hour there seems to be a new solution to the bipartisan opposition on abortion. While reconciliation only requires 51 votes, the Stupak language received 45 votes in the Senate. If the pro-life House members believe they can vote for the Senate bill (which includes taxpayer-funded abortion) and then count on the upper chamber to use the reconciliation process to strip out that funding, they’re denying reality.
The only way to protect taxpayers from becoming complicit in the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade is by calling on the Senate to act first. Under the rules, the Senate could reenroll the health care bill without the controversial abortion funding. The House could then vote on an abortion-free bill without any strings attached. Contact your leaders today and tell them not to agree to any deal that includes government-funded abortion. For the latest on the debate, don’t miss FRC’s health care webcast on Tuesday, March 16 in partnership with the American Family Association (AFA). So far, the line-up includes Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), Doug Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee, Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List, and Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life. Register for the live stream today by clicking on our events page.
For Richer or (More Likely) Poorer
When same-sex weddings kicked off in D.C. yesterday, the city wasn’t seeing anything but dollar signs. In an absurd article in today’s Washington Post, reporters tried to argue that counterfeit marriage could be the economic salvation of the city’s economy. In a region with 12% unemployment, local officials claim that redefining marriage “will create 700 jobs and contribute $52.2 million over three years to the local economy.”
Not so fast, says FRC. The last census counted 3,678 same-sex partner homes in D.C. Assuming that number has stayed roughly the same, then the 150 who applied for marriage licenses yesterday would amount to a whopping four percent of the local homosexual population–hardly the stuff of economic recovery. For the Post‘s $52.2 million projection to come true, all 3,678 of those D.C. couples would have to get married and spend over $14,000 per wedding. (I don’t know about you, but my wife and I spent a LOT less!) These “marriages” (which have yet to meet financial expectations in other states) may make a fast buck in the short term, but they will do nothing but drain the economy down the road. Consider the massive health care expenses incurred by taxpayers every year to cope with the diseases spread by homosexual behavior. According to the Kaiser Foundation, federal funding grew to more than $18 billion in 2004 to deal with the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Over half of all U.S. infections are in men having sex with men! That means taxpayers spend roughly $10 billion a year treating the diseases caused by a behavior celebrated in same-sex “marriage.” So much for economic development!
Meanwhile, the bigger question is: where has Congress been on all of this? So far both the House and Senate, which are responsible for D.C. oversight, have refused to address the city’s direct assault on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). By sitting on their hands, they’re now complicit with a movement that could roll back the definition of marriage in states where voters have won the battle to enshrine marriage in their constitutions. We expected better from Congress. And as voters, we deserve better.
Education’s “Remote” Control
In one of his first public appearances since the controversy over his appointment, “safe schools czar” Kevin Jennings came out of hiding to address a group of teachers yesterday at the National Press Club. Later, when CNS News pressed him about the Hill’s campaign to fire him, Jennings refused to answer. He did, however, respond to a question about the role of the federal government in promoting homosexuality. “The federal government is not allowed to dictate any curriculum of any kind about any subject, whether it’s history, math, science, health, education, so forth and so on, because Congress has laid out very clear rules that they want curriculum decisions made at the state and local level… [T]he federal government doesn’t [dictate] in any area,” he said.
Does Jennings really expect us to believe that the Department of Education, an agency with a budget of roughly $48 billion, has limited authority? As FRC pointed out in a recent Washington Times op-ed, that doesn’t include the additional $33 billion that President Obama requested in the so-called “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.” With those purse strings–and a massive web of federal bureaucracy–it’s difficult to swallow Jennings’s claim that Washington has little influence on our children’s classrooms. On the contrary, it has too much! And so does Jennings. Log on to our website to learn more about this czar’s checkered past and to lend your voice to the 54 congressmen who are calling for his removal.
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