Our troops have waited eight years for a leader who puts America’s mission first. Yesterday, they got one. In what may end up being the single most important military decision of his presidency, Donald Trump announced that the days of politically correct warfighting are over. After a tumultuous 13 months, the new commander-in-chief completely upended his predecessor’s transgender policy, rescuing our troops from the grip of the Obama years and restoring a sense of true pride to a military devastated by two terms of social engineering.

In a series of tweets that exploded across social media, the president was clear: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”

It was exactly the kind of fearless decision-making Americans elected him for. “I want a very, very strong military,” Trump has said. And he proved it — in one of the gutsiest moves of his young administration. While others (including 23 House Republicans) wilted under the Left’s pressure, this commander-in-chief strode right into the fire and did what he knew was right. That’s leadership. Now, thanks to President Trump, the military can finally focus its efforts on fighting something other than the culture wars.

For conservatives, who were re-energized by the outpouring of support from the American people, it was an encouraging moment. Spurred on by FRC and movement leaders, an army of House members, led by Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and the House Freedom Caucus, were ready to do whatever it took to stop the boost in Pentagon funding until this issue was addressed. Now they — like us — stand cheering the White House’s bold leadership.

“President Trump’s decision today to rescind Obama’s transgender military policy has the best interests of the military in mind, and I thank him for taking this decisive action,” Vicky applauded. “Our military is the most effective, efficient, and well-funded fighting force in the world, and as the president notes, we cannot burden our armed forces with the tremendous costs and disruptions that transgender in the military would entail. With the challenges we are facing across the globe, we are asking the American people to invest their hard-earned money in national defense. Each dollar needs to be spent to address threats facing our nation. The costs incurred by funding transgender surgeries and the required additional care it demands should not be the focus of our military resources.”

Missisippi’s Steve Palazzo (R) chimed in, “@realDonaldTrump showed strong leadership today and made the right decision for our military. Security of our nation must come first.” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) was next. “Given the readiness crisis our military faces, I agree with @POTUS that every resource provided to DOD should go to national security needs.” Obviously, the American people agree. Although polling already showed that only 23 percent of the country agreed with the transgender policy, they backed up that consensus Wednesday morning, lighting up Trump’s Twitter feed with more than 12,000 likes within 10 minutes of his announcement.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees the error of Obama’s ways. Liberals came unglued at the news, threatening lawsuits and protests. In the end, though, the opinion that matters is the military’s — and top officials had been blunt about their concerns from the beginning. From the service chiefs to Pentagon leaders, no one could explain how this policy made our military more capable of performing its mission. On the contrary, it only seemed to cripple readiness, retention, and recruitment — while also opening up the troops to even higher rates of suicide and sexual assault.

“Talk to any service member today,” Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin explained, “and you will find that a majority of them will express great frustration with the amount of time that they spend in these [LGBT] trainings at the expense of preparing for war.” Defense Secretary James Mattis agreed, saying as recently as this week that “service members [are] spending too much time on senseless training that is really a waste of time.” Then, of course, there was the enormous waste of taxpayer dollars — as much as $3.7 billion in transgender “treatments” and lost deployment time. In a Defense Department outraged by $28 million in Afghan uniforms, imagine the backlash for a policy that would have cost 132 times more!

When Obama left office with a 15 percent military approval rating, most people probably wondered why this policy was open for discussion at all. After years of running our troops into the ground, it’s no wonder the American people finally stood up and said enough. Now, seven months into his administration, President Trump is rewarding voters by checking another box on his list of promises. “We are going to get away from political correctness,” he vowed. And there’s no better time than now. Our deepest thanks to the commander-in-chief for putting the military’s focus back where it belongs.

Originally published here.

Texas Drills Down on Privacy

The week isn’t getting any better for sexual anarchists, who not only saw their unpopular military agenda go down in flames but yesterday watched as Texas took another step to protecting privacy. After sailing through committee, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) were thrilled to see S.B. 3 jump its second hurdle — passing the Senate by a 21-10 vote.

For Texans, who’ve insisted this issue is a priority, it was another sigh of relief on the long road to a common sense policy. Like most Americans, the Lone Star State agrees that men shouldn’t be allowed to use girls’ restrooms, showers, or locker rooms. Sixty-nine percent, to be exact (and that includes 56 percent of Democrats!). “[Even] when Texans are told that some businesses believe legislation prohibiting men from using women’s bathrooms ‘might look discriminatory and could hurt businesses,’ opinions do not change substantially as 68 percent still support the proposed law to prohibit men from entering a public women’s shower, locker room or restroom,” said pollsters for the University of Texas/Texas Tribune.

That’s good news for conservatives, who’ve watched a number of corporate heavyweights ignore the facts and jump on the anarchists’ bandwagon. Squaring off against household names like Google hasn’t been easy, but leaders are determined to do what’s right for Texas — not kowtow to CEOs who won’t even adopt the liberal policies they’re advocating. Still, “Lt. Governor Dan Patrick led the charge in … making [the privacy issue] more salient to Republicans,” said Jim Henson, who heads up the Texas Politics Project at UT. “It worked. Whatever their attitudes are, when we ask if it’s important for the Legislature to act, the number of Republicans who thought so increased 13 points from February to June — and 31 points among Tea Party Republicans [to 70 percent].”

That will be important ammunition heading into a contentious debate in the Texas House, where Speaker Joe Straus has not only openly derided the bill but claimed it would lead to more suicides. “I’m disgusted by all of this,” he said before the special session began. “Tell [Lt. Gov. Patrick] I don’t want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands.” If that’s the case, FRC’s Peter Sprigg points out, then he should support S.B. 3. Research is clear that people who have gender-reassignment surgery are 19 times more likely to take their own lives than the national average. At the very least, Texans hope the speaker will step aside and let the debate run its course. After all, his obstruction is part of what forced Gov. Abbott to call legislators back to work in the first place.

If you live in the state, take the time to contact your Texas legislators and urge them to support privacy over political correctness!

Originally published here.

Better Care Has Seen Better Days…

After weeks of anticipation, the Senate GOP finally won the right to debate its health care repeal. There was just one problem: No one was quite sure which bill they were debating. As the night wore on, it turned out to be several.

By the narrowest of margins (51-50), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) squeaked through a motion to proceed — no thanks to liberal defectors Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME). That may have been the easy part, as the Senate moved to a series of proposals all meant to topple the major pieces of Obamacare. Although leaders have the ability to bring it up again, McConnell’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) failed for now, 43-57, sending the chamber to debates over Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) and Rob Portman’s (R-OH) plans, which also flopped.

Day Two kicked off Wednesday morning with another version of repeal: the 2015 budget reconciliation bill. In the absence of a replacement plan, FRC has been a fan of this strategy from the beginning. It guts the majority of Obama’s failed law and hollows out 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s funding — two of voters’ biggest priorities heading into last November. What’s more, Congress has passed the measure before.

Unfortunately for conservatives, the bill hit a snag heading into the afternoon. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) offered the measure, but leaders postponed the vote at the last minute in a dispute over the pro-life language. Daily News explains, “The amendment includes additions to the original template, though: a ban on government-subsidized plans to cover abortion, which was included in both the House-passed American Health Care Act and the Senate’s failed Better Care Reconciliation Act; and a tweak to the 2015 Planned Parenthood language since the parliamentarian had ruled the language used previously would require 60 votes. According to a Democratic memo, the amendment would lower the federal payment threshold in the provision from $1 million to $350,000 in order to broaden the number of entities for which funding would be restricted.”

It’s just another bump on the rocky road to repeal for Senate Republicans, who are desperate to put something on the president’s desk that makes good on seven years of promises. “Obamacare is torturing the American People. The Democrats have fooled the people long enough. Repeal or Repeal & Replace! I have pen in hand,” President Trump invited. To that end, FRC will continue to support our friends in the Senate who are fighting to undo this devastating law before it undoes America!

Originally published here.

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