May old acquaintance be forgot — especially if that old acquaintance is Planned Parenthood! That’s exactly how pro-lifers are hoping to ring in the New Year — by cashing out of their forced partnership with the country’s largest abortion business. That’s the fright before Christmas for Cecile Richards’s group, which is already in full panic mode about the incoming Trump administration and what it means for its lucrative, half-billion-dollar deal with the government. After sinking unprecedented capital into Hillary Clinton’s failed election bid, the group is scrambling to cope with the election aftermath no one saw coming.

In [yesterday’s] Washington Post, the press picks up on the nervous vibe at America’s abortion headquarters. The distress signals started almost immediately, as the organization jumped out of the November 9th gate with urgent appeals for money to its base. That seemed to work, as donations made mockingly in the name of Vice President-elect (and lifelong advocate for the unborn) Mike Pence came rolling in — to the tune of 70,000 gifts in the first couple of weeks. Now, Planned Parenthood is crying poor on a broader scale, appealing to its friends in the media to get the word out that the $1 billion-plus organization may be forced to rely “only” on its hefty corporate support, wealthy private donors, and let’s not forget its biggest moneymaker — abortion — of which it performs a whopping 323,999 a year (and banks anywhere from $500-$2,000 a procedure, depending on how far along the mother is).

“Obviously we are doing everything we can through advocacy and everything else to make sure we can continue to serve patients,” Planned Parenthood spokesman Erica Sackin bemoaned. “But at the end of the day, this is a fight of a scale that we haven’t seen before and we need to be realistic about how much is at stake.” According to Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), that’s everything. As President-elect Trump and Republican leadership have promised, a bill that guts Obamacare and defunds Planned Parenthood is “one of the first orders on the agenda” when Congress gavels back into session next month. “It is time that taxpayers are taken off the hook for supporting an organization that supports the killing of innocent children,” argued Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.).

And supporting the killing of innocent children is only part of the story. Let’s not forget: This is also an organization that was just referred for criminal prosecution for its gruesome baby-parts-for-profits scheme. That should make severing ties with the group not only a financial imperative but a moral one too. Perhaps losing 40 percent of its budget — which is the plush economic cushion taxpayers have unwillingly given Richards’s group — will force the lawless group to do some soul-searching.

In the meantime, we all have a job to do. Electing a pro-life president was the first part. Now it’s up to Americans to put the pressure on Congress to hold up its end of the bargain and vote yes on a budget that hollows out Obamacare and pulls the financial rug out from Planned Parenthood. The House and Senate already proved they could do it last year by sending a proposal to the president’s desk. This time around, Republicans have to vote yes on the budget resolution in January — or there won’t be a reconciliation bill to finish up the process.

That’s where you come in! Your senators need to hear from you! Please call them at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to vote for the budget when they return January 3rd. After you’ve called, you can also email them by following this link. Change is in the air in Washington. But if Congress doesn’t take advantage of the mandate of the 2016 election, America will be stuck with the same old Obama status quo in 2017.

Originally published here.

Sorry, Charlie! Libs Are Allergic to These Peanuts

Snoopy wasn’t the only one in the doghouse at Christmas — so was Texas teacher Dedra Shannon! At Patterson Middle School in Killeen, Shannon did what most of her colleagues do at Christmas: she decorated her classroom. The only problem is, she used a poster of “Charlie Brown’s Christmas.” What’s so controversial about that? Well, the scene also happens to include the Luke 2:11 Bible verse, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord,” along with Linus’s famous line, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”

Two days later, the principal ordered her to take the poster down, arguing that it was a violation of the so-called separation of church and state. Shannon was stunned. “People want us to be tolerant of everything, but they don’t tolerate Christianity!” she told Fox News’s Todd Starnes. “Throughout the school there are talks about diversity. Well, you aren’t being very diverse if you aren’t allowing Christians to put up something that refers to a Christian holiday!” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton agrees — so much so that he’s calling on the school district to reverse its decision. “No school official in Texas can silence a biblical reference to Christmas,” he said. “This is an attack on religious liberty and a violation of the First Amendment and state law.”

As the Dallas Morning News explains, Paxton “is referring to the Merry Christmas Law that Texas legislators passed in 2013. It removes legal risks from exchanging holiday greetings in classrooms and protects symbols such as Christmas trees, menorahs or Nativity scenes — that is, as long as more than one religion is represented and a secular symbol such as a snowman is displayed.” Unfortunately, administrators didn’t just ignore Paxton’s request — they dug in deeper. In a defiant statement back, the Killeen Independent School District announced, “Our employees are free to celebrate the Christmas and Holiday season in the manner of their choosing… However, employees are not permitted to impose their personal beliefs on students.”

Passing by a poster is not “imposing beliefs” on anyone! How many messages do Americans walk by every day that are contrary to their personal values? There wouldn’t be enough attorneys in the world to litigate those internal conflicts. It’s called free speech. And despite what Killeen officials believe, teachers are entitled to it too. Asked for comment by Todd Starnes, the district wrote back, “The Killeen Independent School District celebrates and embraces the diverse cultures and values of our students and employees. We remain proud of our diversity and the community which we serve.” If this is diversity, then the school could use a lesson in vocabulary!

Originally published here.

The Rex Files

By all accounts, Rex Tillerson is a successful businessman. But can the ExxonMobil CEO be an effective diplomat too? Now that Donald Trump has officially tapped him for the most-watched seat in the cabinet, Secretary of State, there are plenty of questions on people’s minds about how Tillerson can overcome a record of controversial social policy to take over the agency in charge of presenting America to the world: the U.S. State Department. One thing’s for sure — the heat on Trump’s pick has turned up a notch since the president-elect made it official [Monday] night. Among the many concerns: Tillerson is linked to a liberal social agenda. Can Tillerson be expected to reverse the damage done by the Obama administration’s cultural bullying? And does he have the necessary skill set to draw a hard line against other nations when the time comes?

Joining me on “Washington Watch” to talk over some of Tillerson’s troubling decisions at the helm of ExxonMobil — and what his support of Planned Parenthood and the LGBT agenda might mean for his new post at State — was Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who’s raised his own flags about cozy relationship between Tillerson and Russian President Vladamir Putin. “I do have some legitimate, I think, concerns about Mr. Tillerson,” Senator McCain told me. And he’s not alone. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.) has also voiced surprise and concern about the choice. “I believe after Ukraine, he opposed sanctions that were put on Russia. He has a very close relationship with Vladamir Putin, by the way. He was given an award by Vladamir Putin — I was sanctioned by Vladamir Putin… I will meet with Mr. Tillerson, I am sure, and we will have debate about it. But honestly, Vladamir Putin is a thug, a murderer, and a killer… This guy is the classic KGB. The list of his atrocities goes on and on…”

In a nod to ExxonMobil’s track record for LGBT activism and Planned Parenthood support, McCain asked, “What about the issue of morality?” That’s important too. “Mainly the [concerns] center around the relationship with Russia — also some of the policies he was instrumental in [passing] at the Boy Scouts… Some of his policies there are questionable.”

As we discussed later in the interview, Tillerson isn’t your prototypical Secretary of State. He comes from corporate America — and I would be the first to support someone with that kind of background in a government leadership position. But there are business deals, and then there are some negotiations — as with Iran, North Korea, Russia, and other explosive hot spots — that deals won’t fix. After eight years of the weakest foreign policy in generations under Barack Obama, America needs a top diplomat that won’t set out to export radical social policy or acquiesce to the global consensus but who will stand on solid unbending principle when that time comes. Is Tillerson that man? We’ll see.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.