Posted on 04/26/2017 5:29:18 AM PDT by Kaslin
When Donald Trump stood in the lobby of Trump Tower on June 16, 2015 and announced he was running for president, he told all who listened to "mark" his words.
"I would do various things very quickly," Trump said.
"I would repeal and replace the big lie, Obamacare," he said.
"I will build a great, great wall on our southern border," he said. "And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
"Mark my words," he said.
Fifteen months later -- after he won the Republican nomination and less than two months before his general election showdown -- Trump released a letter to pro-life leaders.
"As we head into the final stretch of the campaign, the help of leaders like you is essential to ensure that pro-life voters know where I stand, and also know where my opponent, Hillary Clinton, stands," Trump wrote.
"I am committed," Trump said, "to: ... Defunding Planned Parenthood as long as they continue to perform abortions, and re-allocating their funding to community health centers that provide comprehensive health care for women."
In his Inaugural Address, Trump did not back away from his pledge to secure the border.
"We will bring back our borders," he vowed.
Three days later, he used executive authority to reinstA week after Trump's inauguration, Vice President Mike Pence told the March for Life that Trump would keep his pro-life promises -- with the help of the newly elected, Republican-majority, pro-life Congress.
"Life is winning again in America," Pence said.
"That is evident in the election of pro-life majorities in the Congress of the United States of America," he said. "But it is no more evident, in any way, than in the historic election of a president who stands for a stronger America, a more prosperous America, and a president who, I proudly say, stands for the right to life -- President Donald Trump."
"I like to say that over there at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we are in the promise-keeping business," said Pence.
"That's why on Monday, President Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy to prevent foreign aid from funding organizations that promote or perform abortions worldwide," said Pence. "That's why this administration will work with the Congress to end taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion providers, and we will devote those resources to health care services for women across America."
In 2011, after Republicans won back control of the House in the 2010 election, then-Rep. Pence introduced an amendment that would, as Pence put it, "deny any and all funding to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates for the rest of the fiscal year."
"I rise tonight because I also believe it's morally wrong to take the taxpayer dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use it to fund organizations that provide and promote abortion -- like Planned Parenthood of America," Pence said when his amendment was considered on the House floor.
The House passed Pence's 2011 amendment, including it in the first funding bill approved by the then-new House Republican majority. But then-House Speaker John Boehner subsequently cut a spending deal with the Democrats in the Senate and the White House that did not include Pence's amendment to defund Planned Parenthood.
According to the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office determined that Planned Parenthood Federation of America affiliates received $400.56 million in Medicaid reimbursements in both federal and state dollars in 2012. Planned Parenthood affiliates, according to GAO, also spent $64.35 million in federal Title X funding in 2012.
When the House Republican leaders this year put together their weak and redistributionist reconciliation bill to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, it included language that would have denied Medicaid money to Planned Parenthood -- for just one year. But it would not have denied Title X money to Planned Parenthood -- because reconciliation bills do not deal with discretionary spending like that doled out under Title X.
When principled House conservatives opposed that Obamacare bill, the Republican leadership did not bring it up for a vote.
Now, Congress faces an April 28 deadline to pass a new government funding bill.
There is currently no talk that it will include language to prohibit funding of Planned Parenthood.
But there is talk that it will not include the language that President Trump has requested to provide $1.4 billion to begin his project to build "a great, great wall on our southern border."
The Republican House can pass and send to the Republican Senate a bill that funds the border wall but not Planned Parenthood. Or they can pass one that funds Planned Parenthood but not the border wall.
The former course of action would fulfill the campaign promises that got their president elected. The latter would appease congressional Democrats and the liberal press.
So, which will it be?ate the Mexico City policy, which denies federal funding to organizations that provide or promote abortions abroad.
But he needed congressional action to defund Planned Parenthood at home, and a congressional appropriation to begin building the wall he said would ultimately be funded by Mexico.
I voted for Trump and donated to his campaign but I find many of his statements to be downright confusing, if not contradictory. Its becoming problematic for him and the country. He needs work on his messaging bigly. Consistency matters as it bolsters one’s credibility.
No reason to give Dems that kind of power regarding their base. We should absolutely use the time to get the wall in if PP is in. Or let President Veto it.
Excuse me, but the article makes it clear the problem is with Congress, specifically the House, and not with President Trump. He has done everything a president can do to keep his promises, but is facing fierce opposition from not only the vast Leftist network of Congressional Democrats and their media mouthpieces, but the judge-shopped courts AND plenty of selfish, cowardly Republicans. How many people here who complain as you do take the time to pick up a phone and call Republicans in Congress?
Thank you. That needed to be said and I don’t think I would have been as polite.
Excellent.
“Choose you this day whom you will serve…..” Joshua 24:15
If your congressman chooses to support Planned Parenthood with your tax dollars rather than building a wall to protect our countries border, consider him unfit for your vote next year.
Outstanding question, and bless you sir for asking it. You are a national treasure.
“Because you want your wall right this minute”
You make good points but keep in mind that the democrats are the ones out of line threatening to filibuster the spending bill over the wall.
Cave to them now and you might as well put them in charge of congress. They are in the minority. They should sit down and STFU.
The wall gets funded. Planned parenthood doesn’t. Elections have consequences.
Of course they will.
They’re Republicans after all.
This is not about Democrats.
It’s about the integrity of Republicans.
“We can’t have government shutdown when we are facing down both Korea and Iran. I can’t believe there are Americans out there who can’t figure that one out.”
Nonsense.
All and everything having to do with National Security would not “shut down”. All of that would be fully funded.
Sure looks that way.
I agree. That said, defunding PP is far more important. Let the dems shut down the government over providing tax money to an abortion provider and see how that goes over with the serfs who elect them!
It just sickens me they are funding baby killers and not one inch of the wall.
Ryan is a backstabbing snake. What a betrayal. F-em, f-em all.
I hate that and it takes lots of effort too — ahhh!!
Yep, that’s our GOPe for you—completely divorced from those who vote them into office.
Yep, that’s our GOPe for you—completely divorced from those who vote them into office.
I think thats why many of us are here - Remember Cromnibus? These people need to be hanged its time for Jefferson’s remedy until we do they aren’t going to take the voters seriously - we are the ruled masses - no longer are we the people - we belong to them - its sick. I thought president Trump was going to fight and rally against this - i still hope so but the signals coming out of the whitehouse are all about compromise - we did not elect a compromiser - Remember the first Bush? His nickname in college was “Give Half” look what that got us.
Your post is a great example of how neocon foreign policy undermines conservatism at home.
We can’t fight hard for the wall because of Iran and North Korea? Sure. That makes perfect sense. We can’t stop a real invasion of America happening right now that will soon give us a permanent socialist leaning Democrat electoral majority because of two ramshackle third world countries on the other side of the world.
This is Bush era big government, open borders neoconservatism reborn. It’s amazing how quick so many conservatives go into this mode when the liberal media hypes up third world counties as somehow being a military threat to the US.
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