A Republic, Madam, If You Can Keep It...
Ben Franklin was approached by a grand Philadelphia lady as the Constitutional Convention ended this day in 1787. Have you given us a monarchy or a republic, she asked the oldest of the Founding Fathers. "A republic, Madam, if you can keep it," he said. And we can see a twinkle in his eye. Wise old Ben Franklin knew that republics were not easy to keep. But he also knew that Americans had sacrificed greatly to achieve their Independence.Some 25,000 Americans died in the Revolutionary War. We tend to think of it today as all fife and drums playing "Yankee Doodle," a powdered wig and white stocking affair. It was a bloody and brutal contest. B ritish troops and Hessian mercenaries raped their way across New Jersey. They stabbed a Continental Army chaplain thirteen times and left him dying in the road. General Washington led us in war and he led us in peace. Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention for five long, hot months in that spring and summer of 1787. The debates on the floor grew testy, but never violent. Several times, it seemed the convention would break up. Big states and little states clashed. The delegates wrangled over slavery. It was not a friendly affair.
When the great George Mason of Virginia, Gen. Washington's neighbor and fellow Episcopal vestryman at Pohick Church refused to sign the Constitution, Washington ended a friendship of thirty years. Ronald Reagan revered the U.S. Constitution. He quoted the Founding Fathers more than any of his four predecessors in the White House (and more than any of his four successors, too.) Reagan often said: Ours is the only Constitution in the world that begins with "We the People."
President Obama almost never quotes the Founding Fathers. He seems annoyed that anything would question his authority. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi reacted with amazed incredulity when someone asked if the Obama administration bill to seize control of one-sixth of the U.S. economy was constitutional. It was as if the Constitution was the last thing she thought of. (That may be one reason why she is former Speaker of the House.) The Constitution requires that the President "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
Many have argued this president has completely ignored the Constitution and the limits it places on him. Remember it was President Obama who openly declared he would not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act because he disagreed with it. He is threatening to nullify our immigration laws. He has even unilaterally and materially altered his own "signature" achievement: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. By some counts, forty-two times! Ronald Reagan also said that freedom is ever only one generation away from being lost. It is our duty to share with young Americans our deep belief in our U.S. Constitution.
It is only by abiding by the Constitution and by teaching the rising generation to cherish our liberties as we do that we can hope to survive these tumultuous times. As Founder Thomas Jefferson put it: "It is in the manners and spirit of the people that a republic is preserved in vigor." Let us preserve, protect, and defend our Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
ObamaScare: Plans Still Hiding Elective Abortion?
I wrote yesterday about the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a non-partisan government watchdog, groundbreaking report which confirmed what FRC has been saying since ObamaCare passed, that ObamaCare healthcare plans include elective abortion and federal taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize the elective abortion coverage. HHS responded to the GAO report saying, they “will work with stakeholders, including states and issuers, so they fully understand and comply with the federal law prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortions.”
This problem needs to be fixed immediately; the government should not be funding elective abortions in health care plans! HHS has known about this issue for a long time. Members of Congress, including Rep. Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Rep. Harris (R-Md.), asked former HHS Secretary Sebelius to provide a list to Congress of the plans that include elective abortion coverage three times but never received an answer.
Senators Cruz and Lee also addressed the issue of abortion transparency to Secretary Burwell before she was confirmed and asked to be provided with a list of plans that include abortion coverage as well. Individuals should not have to purchase a plan in order to find out if it includes elective abortion. GAO spoke with 18 issuers offering plans on the state exchanges and found that 11 of those issuers do not notify individuals whether a specific plan includes abortion coverage until after they actually purchase the plan. So much for transparency!
Another one of ObamaCare’s broken promises. HHS can’t paper over the problem. Congress should change ObamaCare to provide transparency and remove abortion funding so when individuals buy exchange plans beginning November 15th, they can actually make an informed decision. There have been many broken promises associated with ObamaCare. This is one broken promise that we cannot let go. The Senate must pass H.R. 7/S. 946 the “No Taxpayer Funding of Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act” sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
To Be Continued…
The House voted Wednesday afternoon 319-108 to pass the continuing resolution (“CR”) with 55 Democrats and 53 Republicans voting against the bill. The CR will avert a government shutdown October 1st by funding federal agencies at the current fiscal year 2014 spending levels till December 11th.
Last week, we wrote about the CR and that conservatives were fighting to keep the stop gap funding measure as “clean” as possible, meaning free of any extraneous provisions not directly tied to funding the government to expedite its passage. But that was before the President requested from Congress new authorities to train and equip Syrian rebels in Saudi Arabia to fight ISIS, setting up a whole new debate over the President’s proposal and whether to include it on the CR.
A considerable number of members objected to combining the two measures and called for additional debate, leading the House to separate the measures. Before voting on final passage of the CR, the House passed an amendment 273-156 to adopt the President’s proposal to arm the Syrian rebels.
Even with the President’s proposal being considered separately, efforts to keep the measure clean did not prevent a number of anomalies from making their way onto the CR, including a temporary reauthorization of the Export Import Bank and an extra $88 million to address the Ebola virus in Africa.
Looking forward, the Senate needs to pass the CR with the Syrian amendment. Appropriators are signaling final passage will likely tee up a vote in December on a much broader spending bill containing all the appropriations bills -- a package known as an “omnibus.”
Conservatives rightly pushed for a longer CR out of fear that an omnibus package during the Lame Duck will be a tempting target for policy changes that they’ll oppose. A similar situation was taken advantage of in 2010 to repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” But for many, the desire to return to their districts to campaign before midterms proved too great.
Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
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