Sep
23
The Wall and the Womb: Two Failures in the Current Spending Bill
“I want to know, where is the money for Border Security and the WALL in this ridiculous Spending Bill, and where will it come from after the Midterms? Dems are obstructing Law Enforcement and Border Security. REPUBLICANS MUST FINALLY GET TOUGH!” — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), September 20, 2018
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed (93-7) a short-term spending bill — technically, a Continuing Resolution (CR) — to keep the government running through Dec. 7. However, echoing Sen. David Perdue (R-GA), President Trump has already expressed his disappointment on at least one major issue — namely, lack of funding for the border Wall (see tweet above). The bill only authorized $1.6 billion (in 2019) toward the Wall, as opposed to the $5 billion the administration requested and which a House committee had already approved. That’s roughly one-third.
Of course, the President still maintains that Mexico will, in effect, pay for the wall. And I believe it can be done. But, Mexico has made it clear that it won’t be signing any checks for the effort. The Wall will “pay for itself” (or largely so) over several years, but Congress needs to pony up in the meantime.
So, Trump is understandably frustrated. As Damian Paletta and John Wagner observed in their Washington Post article, GOP leaders don’t think they have the votes and are delaying a fight over this issue until after the midterms. But, as reflected in the tweet, Trump is looking for assurances that they will be able to deliver post-midterms.
“If Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, or even if they keep control but lose a number of seats, the new Congress will not be sworn in until early January. This will put enormous pressure on lawmakers from both parties during the lame duck session of Congress that runs between the midterm elections and early 2019, as they will be jostling for power.”
The stopgap CR returns to the House this week, and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not the President will sign it, despite the inadequacies.
One of the Senators who refused to sign the short-term bill was Mike Lee (R-UT), but it had nothing to do with the Wall. Well, to be fair, he might not have liked that, either. But, what I read & saw Lee worked up about was the bill’s failure to defund Planned Parenthood or “protect those who don’t want their taxpayer dollars going to abortion-related activities.” Sen. Lee’s impassioned comments from the Senate floor included the following:
“Republicans in this Congress have undertaken such efforts on behalf of certain priorities. In particular, the tax relief and spending increases that are poised to yield [the] budget deficit of nearly $1 trillion dollars this year. But no such legislative process has been achieved advancing the right to life nor the plight of those denied it.
For the second straight year of unified Republican governance, unified pro-life governance, Congress’ annual spending bills will include no new reforms protecting unborn children or getting federal taxpayers out of the abortion business.
(Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
The House version of this Health and Human Services spending bill included multiple reforms. It denied taxpayer funds to the largest abortion provider in the country, Planned Parenthood; it eliminated Title X family planning grants, which cross-subsidize abortion providers; it prohibited federal funding of research on aborted fetal tissue; it included the Conscience Protection Act protecting pro-life people and groups from funding discrimination. None of these modest, common sense spending reforms survived the House/Senate negotiations. None of them. None was made a priority by the people in power to set priorities….
Under this bill, neither the unborn nor taxpayers are any more protected from the abortion industry than they were under president Obama and a unified Democratic Congress. I understand that fighting on contentious issues comes with a cost. I understand that it’s not easy, but other things come with a cost, too. It’s not just this that comes with a cost. So too does not fighting on them, especially in the rare moments when we could win.
This bill represents a significant opportunity missed, and missed at a time when we can’t be sure how many more we will be given going forward, how many more opportunities like this that we might have.
Some causes, Mr. President, are worth fighting for even in defeat – the God-given equal rights and dignity of all human beings being paramount among them. The arc of history may, as I hope, bend toward life, but only if we bend it, Mr. President. I oppose this legislation…”
He’s right. This is an opportunity to make real progress in saving innocent human lives — or, at the very least, eliminating taxpayer funding for their destruction. This opportunity may shortly be lost, and this majority pro-life Congress needs to quickly reassess its responsibility on this front.
These two issues are quite different, and I’m not equating them. But, they are each as incredibly important as they are controversial, and I pray that our leaders in Washington do the right thing!
