The budget Congressional Republicans unveiled this week rightfully outrages any self-respecting conservative for plenty of reasons, but one of the worst is that it continues to give tax dollars to Planned Parenthood, the abortion chain infamously implicated in several horrifying federal crimes.
Advertisement - story continues below
In response to pro-lifers’ warranted outrage that the GOP has once again punted on their promise to defund PP, despite now controlling every branch of government they said they needed to get it done, House Speaker Paul Ryan is trying to smooth things over. The results are… not very compelling, to say the least.
The Washington Examiner has the scoop:
Stop the censors, sign up to get today's top stories delivered right to your inbox
Ryan said during his weekly press conference that the reason was due to tactics: Spending bills need 60 votes to pass the Senate, and a defunding measure would be problematic.
However, the House is expected to take up an Obamacare repeal bill that would need only 51 votes for passage, a smaller hurdle. The bill, which will use the procedural move called reconciliation, includes a measure defunding Planned Parenthood for one year.
Advertisement - story continues below
“The reconciliation bill advances the pro-life cause even further,” Ryan said.
How pathetic is this excuse? Let us count the ways.
First, as I covered in March, the current healthcare bill doesn’t really defund Planned Parenthood. It only pauses the flow of tax dollars for one year…after which we’ll have to go through this whole song and dance again if we want to pause PP’s funding for another year.
Advertisement - story continues below
Second, the pro-GOP-establishment National Right to Life Committee admits that the bill in its latest form only applies to “about 85% of federal PP funding.” Why in the world is it not 100%? How does that qualify as advancing the pro-life cause “even further”?
Third, telling pro-lifers that we only get the defunding Ryan promised if we also take his convoluted mess of an Obamacare pseduo-replacement is nothing less than a slap in the face to every pro-lifer who worked their tails off to put him, Donald Trump, and their fellow Republicans in power. Not only is it entirely unnecessary to make good policy and bad policy a package deal, but it is still far from certain that Ryancare can even get enacted at all.
Fourth, and most importantly, this is yet another case of Republicans allowing Democrat threats of filibusters and government shutdowns to dictate their every move. If we accept Ryan’s excuse, we will be enshrining a future where Republicans never deliver more than watered-down imitations of their campaign promises, because real policies can never make it through the Senate’s shackles. The only hope we have of real, significant, lasting change is if Republicans find some spines and stand up to the Democrats — change the filibuster rules, call their bluffs, make it crystal clear that obstruction won’t work anymore.
Abortion is not just another political issue, and Planned Parenthood is not just another wasteful steward of taxpayer’ money. This is about murdering children. If that’s not worth going to the mat, what is?
Advertisement - story continues below
The answer would be obvious to any real leader…instead, we have Paul Ryan.
