March 11, 2017

GOP Gives Trump Feud for Thought

Getting it done isn’t as nearly as important as getting it right. That’s the message conservatives are trying to communicate to House leaders on the biggest order of business in seven years: repealing Obamacare.

Getting it done isn’t as nearly as important as getting it right. That’s the message conservatives are trying to communicate to House leaders on the biggest order of business in seven years: repealing Obamacare. Like us, they know that this debate is about a whole lot more than the health care system — it’s about the future of conservative governance. After more than 60 votes to nix the worst mistake of the Obama years, the dress rehearsals are over. In all likelihood, leaders will get one crack at this law — and they can’t afford to miss.

But after poring over the bill offered by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), that fear is very much alive in the House Freedom Caucus, Republican Study Committee, and among conservative senators. Leaders have been trying to put out fires from all sides of the GOP spectrum, as members push back on text that they worry is too close to the law they’re trying to replace. “What we have to do is have the intestinal fortitude to do what’s right by the American people,” Freedom Caucus Chair Mark Meadows (R-NC) told me Thursday on “Washington Watch,” “[and] truly do what’s right for them — even if it means we get sent home. If we have that same commitment to get it right and make sure that we drive down health care costs and insurance premiums. Ultimately … that’s how your listeners are going to judge if we were successful — a year from now, two years from now, three years than now. If their premiums continue to go up, they will say this is nothing more than what we had before; it didn’t change a thing.”

While the White House is open to suggestions, House leaders seem to be taking more of a take-it-or-leave-it approach to the legislation. “This [bill] is the chance, and the best and only chance we’re going to get,” Speaker Ryan told reporters. If that’s the case, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) says, then don’t rush it. “To my friends in the House: pause, start over,” he tweeted. “Get it right, don’t get it fast.” While the bill moved on two tracks through marathon mark-ups lasting more than 44 hours in the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees, leaders like Meadows appreciate that President Trump is taking time to listen to their concerns.

“Let me tell you, it was so refreshing to have a conversation with a president of the United States who’s a business guy and who wants to do the right thing by the American people, and who understands that we’ve got to lower costs,” Mark told me. “In the end, we’re hopeful that we’ll go a step further than we are right now to really repeal [Obamacare] and then put a replacement plan in there that may not be the ideal thing that we want but certainly isn’t a new entitlement that’s going to drive costs up.”

For his part, Trump is trying to be upbeat despite the inner-party tension. “Despite what you hear in the press, health care is coming along great,” he said. “We are talking to many groups, and it will end in a beautiful picture.” Fortunately, pro-lifers are included in those groups! Thursday, the White House invited FRC and a handful of other organizations to the table to talk through some possible abortion issues in the legislation with Vice President Mike Pence. Although the bill does pull the plug on the majority of Planned Parenthood’s funding, there are definite landmines with regard to the abortion subsidies and using refundable tax credits and health savings accounts.

In multiple conversations with the administration, our team reiterated the importance of specific pro-life protections — which, unfortunately, conservatives could lose under the strict Senate budget rules. There’s been some speculation that the administration might try to fix any abortion problems with an executive order. I can say without hesitation that such an offer is a non-starter. For those that may need a refresher on the history of how Obamacare became law, it was an executive order promised to pro-life Democratic like Bart Stupak. Pro-life Democrats fell for that stunt seven years ago when the whole bill hung in the balance, and it resulted in the greatest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion since 1973. As America found out — too late — Obama’s executive order “banning” abortion funds in health care wasn’t worth the White House letterhead it was printed on. While I can’t speak for everyone, I feel pretty confident that pro-life leaders inside and outside of Congress won’t fall for that again.

As a movement, we’re thrilled with the Trump administration’s commitment to the unborn. But these problems have to be addressed up front before any measure becomes law, or we will be unequivocally opposed. A regulatory fix or executive order would be a major step back from the pro-life riders and victories already won in Congress. As a matter of principle, pro-lifers cannot accept a law that funds abortion with the promise to deal with it later. Regardless of the GOP’s good intentions, FRC will fight any bill that funds abortion — something that should come as no surprise to the administration or Congress. And for those who say such an approach jeopardizes the repeal of Obamacare, there’s a better and proven way. FRC worked with House leadership in 2015 to craft a reconciliation bill that gutted Obamacare and defunded 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. That measure passed the House and Senate. The same bill could be advanced today, followed by a separate bill with the replace portion, and all the concerns about abortion funding and government expansion would be clearly addressed.

Originally published here.

Get out of Jail Fee

Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis more than paid the price for her beliefs after spending six days in jail, but the ACLU still wasn’t satisfied. The ultra-liberal groups thought she should pay the real cost too — a whopping $231,000 in attorneys’ fees. Davis, who became the surprise face of the religious liberty debate when she asked that her name be removed from a same-sex marriage license, was finally vindicated last year when Gov. Matt Bevin (R-KY) signed a law giving clerks the accommodation she asked for. Like millions of Americans, he agrees that Christians should be able to live out their faith — at home or work — without worrying about behind hauled away in handcuffs.

We celebrated with Kim, certain that her nightmare was finally over. Not so fast, said the ACLU, which was determined to exact even more for Davis’s First Amendment rights. Fortunately, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward Atkins realized the ridiculousness of its claim and ruled against the group. “The plaintiffs are not ‘prevailing parties’ … and are therefore not entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees,” he wrote. Liberty Counsel, which has represented Kim from the beginning, saw the ACLU’s push for what it was. “The ACLU and others still want to punish Kim Davis for daring to take a stand for religious liberty,” said Horatio Mihet, “but today the court recognized that the ACLU does not deserve to get paid for its bullying.”

The ACLU said it was entitled to the money because it had to “go through the expense of that litigation to secure a basic right that should not have been denied eligible couples in the first place.” Of course, that basic right was never denied. Kim simply referred couples to another clerk in her office. But then, the truth has never been the Left’s strong suit. Still, as Mihet pointed out, Kim is the real winner here. “[She] never violated her conscience, and she still has her job and her freedom — that is a win for Kim and for all Americans who want to perform public service without being forced to compromise their religious liberties.”

Originally published here.


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

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