Funding America’s Zika response is turning out to be peskier than the mosquitos Congress is fighting! With Hill leaders chomping at the bit to get back to their districts and campaign, the House and Senate are trying to race through crises like the virus and end-of-year spending. But, if there’s anything we know about a divided Congress, nothing is easy. And the latest clash over the federal budget is no exception. Once again, members are so busy trying to keep their jobs that they’re neglecting to do them.

Now, with time about to expire on the government’s funding bill, leaders have just two weeks to do what was designed to take months of open debate. (Stop me if you’ve heard this before…) The September 30th deadline is already triggering alarm bells for most conservatives who don’t want a repeat of the last several years of short-term budget resolutions. But that’s exactly the conundrum leaders find themselves in after dragging their feet on the most basic of constitutional duties.

In a drama that’s becoming as synonymous with Congress as inefficiency, the chambers can either move 12 contentious appropriations bills through the process the way the system intended or yield authority to the obstructionist party. All bets are on the latter, after [Monday’s] meeting between President Obama, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). As much as Speaker Ryan has pushed and worked toward a return to regular order, Senate Democrats have made that virtually impossible by blocking just about every spending bill — including Zika’s. Caught between a national election and saving his majority, it seems even Speaker Ryan is preparing to hold his nose and schedule a vote on yet another makeshift funding bill.

But the biggest problem isn’t that the bill is another piecemeal attempt at legislating, but that it would expire in the thick of the lame-duck session. With few exceptions, lame-duck Congresses have been horrible for conservatives and the nation. In these extra sessions, we usually see passage (with little Republican Senate opposition) of liberal ideas such as higher government spending, radical social policies (remember “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?”), and large tax increases by a Congress that no longer feels accountable to the voting public. It’s better for the nation if the so-called troubles that “only Congress can fix” (usually because they created them!) wait until new members and possibly a new president are sworn in.

Meanwhile, there’s no shortage of subplots in the latest installment of continuing resolution (CR) drama. There’s the usual tension between “hard-line” conservatives and the not-so-conservative “moderates,” who continue to be at odds over the shoddy way Congress is budgeting. But there’s also a new wrinkle, thanks to a familiar face in the CRs of Congresses past: Planned Parenthood. In typical liberal fashion, the Left is claiming that House leaders are trying to hijack the virus-fighting bill to defund Planned Parenthood — which is not only a lie, but a distraction from the real business at hand. As Speaker Ryan made abundantly clear, “There is no Planned Parenthood [provision] in this bill, and to put an earmark for Planned Parenthood is something we won’t do.”

So why are Democrats spinning these stories in the press? Because apparently, Cecile Richards’s group isn’t satisfied by the half-billion dollars it rakes in a year from taxpayers. Now, it desperately wants to hone in on the funding headed to vaccine research too! If congressional liberals truly cared about helping the infected, they’d focus on the issue at hand instead of turning a health care emergency into another opportunity to direct money to the world’s richest abortion business. Surely we can all agree that America should be targeting mosquitoes — not babies — in the fight against Zika! Contact your member of Congress and urge him or her to hold the line on Planned Parenthood in the CR!

Originally published here.

Spoiled Sports: NCAA Pulls Tourneys out of NC

North Carolina hasn’t bowed to the cultural bullies yet — but that hasn’t stopped the NCAA from trying! Months after the state legislature passed H.B. 2, liberals are still trying to punish Governor Pat McCrory (R-N.C.) for listening to voters and enacting a common sense law that protects businesses from being punished by the government. Now, the country’s leading association for college sports is hoping to make it hurt by moving seven championships out of the state — affecting everything from men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and tennis to lacrosse, golf and baseball. What’s worse, the announcement comes less than two months away from a pivotal election — not just in the White House, but the North Carolina governor’s mansion.

NCAA officials complained that the law isn’t inclusive. But what could be more inclusive than letting businesses and private organizations set their own policies on bathrooms, showers and locker rooms? That’s what H.B. 2 does: respects the opinions of everyone, instead of forcing the government’s on non-conformers. “It’s so absurd it’s almost comical,” said North Carolina Republican Party spokeswoman Kami Mueller. “Under the NCAA’s logic, colleges should make cheerleaders and football players share bathrooms, showers, and hotel rooms. This decision is an assault to female athletes across the nation. If you are unwilling to have women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, how do you have a women’s team? I wish the NCAA was this concerned about the women who were raped at Baylor.”

If the NCAA had been paying attention, it would realize that despite a flash of opposition from Hollywood and a handful of entertainers, North Carolina leaders like Governor McCrory and Lt. Governor Dan Forest (R) have stood firm, which has only brought more attention to the Left’s lunacy. After weathering the storm — and picking up millions of allies — North Carolina isn’t about to flinch just because a sports league beholden to the Left’s cultural bullies are packing up and leaving town. Lt. Governor Forest tackled the subject during the Friday session of Values Voter Summit, insisting that H.B. 2 was a “reasonable accommodation.”

Now that North Carolina is a battleground state in November, he said, the Democratic Party is hoping to create “a third rail” out of the restroom issue to benefit Hillary Clinton and the Democrats facing him and McCrory in a tough election battle. There’s just one problem. At home, the law has been enormously popular. Despite the media’s account, absolutely nothing in North Carolina’s bill would have given businesses the right to deny services to anyone. What it did deny was the access of grown men to the showers and restrooms of young girls — an idea that 70 percent of the state thought was “unreasonable and unsafe.” Forest also added that one of the leading advocates of the ordinance that sparked the firestorm — Chad Sevearance, president of the Charlotte Business Guild — was a registered sex offender who’s been accused of showing young men pornography. His involvement, Forest pointed out, proved “it wasn’t a reach” to say the law would benefit would-be molesters and voyeurs.

International corporations and organizations shouldn’t be dictating what North Carolina’s policy is — not when 334 local business owners support the law. There is also the hypocrisy aspect of the NCAA’s fanned outrage as they are actually taking their show on the road to China. In reality the NCAA and its president, Mark Emmert, have become puppets of the “Progressive” left that believes dissenting views should be punished. Contact the association and voice your frustrations here.

Originally published here.

Working the Knights’ Shift at West Point

Considering the Army’s football record, it’s no wonder the team is resorting to prayer. West Point’s Black Knights haven’t had a winning season since 2010, so you can’t blame them for thanking God when they won two weeks ago. Unfortunately, not everyone was as enthusiastic about the prayer as the players and Coach Jeff Monken, who was taken completely off guard by the news that the video of the celebration had been taken off Facebook because of one ridiculous complaint. In the days since the decision, the reaction to the prayer has been blown so out of proportion that even West Point Superintendent Lt. General Robert Caslen cast doubt on the religious liberty his cadets have signed up to defend.

Asked by the Washington Post what he thought about the prayer, General Caslen said, “Maybe 90 percent of the people who were out there supported the prayer. But, when you look at it from a legal basis and from a legal standpoint, and then you look at it from a leadership standpoint, there were some concerns, and I think they’re valid concerns.” The whole reason these young men are at West Point is to defend the Constitution and the freedoms that everybody has. Imagine their surprise to learn that the military doesn’t have the same constitutional rights as the civilians they’re protecting.

As our own Lt. General Jerry Boykin points out, this is just one more example of the growing track record in the Obama military to eradicate the practice of Christianity for our service men and women. “Instead of building young men into much-needed leaders in the U.S. Army, officials at West Point are more concerned with listening to endless complaining of those who want our warriors to be stripped of their most precious armor — their faith.” Join General Boykin is calling on the West Point superintendent to assure coaches and cadets at the U.S. Military Academy that they are free to practice their faith. Sign FRC’s petition here!

Originally published here.