Posted on 09/24/2015 6:18:03 AM PDT by xzins
Senator Ted Cruz made a powerful case against the Republican Party’s Capitol Hill “leadership” in an op-ed in yesterday’s POLITICO, “President Barack Obama fights relentlessly for his liberal priorities. Like the Terminator, he never gives up, he never stops. And Republican leadership responds to every challenge by surrendering at the outset.”
(You can read the entire piece through this link)
Mitch McConnellBefore you say, “What’s the big deal we conservatives have been saying that for years,” that’s not the key point to which we wish to draw your attention, although it is a good one.
The observation that we found powerful – and completely ignored by the establishment media – was Ted Cruz’s point about who would actually be responsible for the shutdown if Republicans pass a Continuing Resolution that defunded Planned Parenthood and Obama vetoed it.
It wouldn’t be Republicans, it would be Obama.
As Senator Cruz outlined in a proposed strategy to beat President Obama and defund Planned Parenthood, “On the upcoming continuing resolution, we should fund the entire federal government, but we should decline to fund Planned Parenthood… “
Cruz went on to explain that many establishment Republicans fear we could never win this fight. The premise of that belief is that Obama will never, ever give in, so it must be Republicans who ultimately surrender.
But, if we cannot win on these issues, with the facts overwhelmingly in our favor, then what possibly can we win?
Nothing? Ever? Asked Senator Cruz.
Pro-life conservatives can win said Senator Cruz if we take the case to the American people. Show the Planned Parenthood videos. Stand united.
If Obama follows through on his threat to veto funding for the federal government, Senator Cruz said Republicans should force him to defend that radical position. After all, Planned Parenthood is a private organization, not even part of the government.
And that, suggested Cruz, is worth repeating, over and over and over again.
Republicans can win if they explain that President Obama’s position is, if Congress doesn’t give a half-billion dollars to a politically-favored private organization currently under criminal investigation, then he, not Republicans, will shut down the entire government.
And if Obama forces a shutdown, it’s worth remembering that during the last government slowdown, operations associated with roughly 80 percent of government spending continued, including pay for military personnel, national security, Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries and everything else federal law deems “essential.”
And Ted Cruz is right – if the Republican “leadership” actually tried to win, they would vote on one bill after another that funded specific programs of the federal government, while defunding Planned Parenthood in the same bill.
Fund it all, and let Democrats explain why they are filibustering funding for vital services in order to give $500 million to a private organization that is under criminal investigation.
So why wouldn’t the Republican “leadership” fight to defund Planned Parenthood, as Senator Cruz suggested?
Our explanation is pretty simple: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, while talking a good game to pro-life conservatives for the thirty years he’s been in the Senate, isn’t really pro-life at all.
Or, as Ken Cuccinelli, President of Senate Conservatives Action put it, McConnell wants you to think he's surrendering because his hands are tied, but it's really because he supports funding for the abortion industry – and he always has.
Here are the facts about his pro-abortion record that Mitch McConnell doesn't want you to know:
(1) In 1992, McConnell voted to allow taxpayer-funded research using body parts from aborted babies.
Roll Call Vote #263, 10/2/92
This policy, which was vetoed by President George H. W. Bush but later signed into law by President Bill Clinton, had the effect of making abortion even more profitable for Planned Parenthood.
(2) Also in 1992, McConnell voted to overturn the so-called "Reagan Rule" that prohibited Planned Parenthood from using taxpayer dollars for pro-abortion counseling.
Roll Call Vote #254, 10/1/92
McConnell's vote in that case was to override President Bush's veto, but the House sustained it. Then, in 1993, President Clinton overturned the "Reagan Rule" by Executive Order on the first day of his administration.
(3) In 1997, McConnell again voted against a targeted ban on federal funding for research on body parts from abortions.
Roll Call Vote #215, 9/4/97
That time, McConnell was one of 14 liberal Republicans who voted to allow taxpayer-funded research on body parts from abortions.
In the those three examples, McConnell crossed the then-current Republican president and many of his Republican colleagues in the Senate to open the door for taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and for research on body parts from aborted babies.
(4) McConnell has voted for at least 15 bills that provided funding for Planned Parenthood dating back to 1998.
This is important because it shows how long Senator McConnell has tolerated this funding and refused to do anything meaningful to stop it.
Senator McConnell says defunding Planned Parenthood has to wait until Republicans control the White House, but at least six of his past votes to fund it were when Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and White House.
Here's the bottom line said Cuccinelli: Senator McConnell isn't 100% pro-life. He has repeatedly voted to force American taxpayers to fund Planned Parenthood, its pro-abortion counseling, and research on the babies it aborts.
If you've seen the chilling undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials and wonder how this could happen, Senator McConnell's support for these policies has a lot to do with it, and that’s why he is going to help Obama and ignore Ted Cruz’s realistic plan to beat Obama and defund Planned Parenthood.
From the Article:
(2) Also in 1992, McConnell voted to overturn the so-called “Reagan Rule” that prohibited Planned Parenthood from using taxpayer dollars for pro-abortion counseling.
Roll Call Vote #254, 10/1/92
McConnell’s vote in that case was to override President Bush’s veto, but the House sustained it. Then, in 1993, President Clinton overturned the “Reagan Rule” by Executive Order on the first day of his administration.
Because Uniparty Rules.
We could send Carson to cut off his doodads but he would come back empty handed.
We should have, more than ten days before the end of the fiscal year, send funding bills to Obama for everything except HHS. Then Obama could either have vetoed those bills and taken the blame; or signed them, in which case most of FedGov doesn’t get shut down; or done nothing, in which case they would become law after ten days. At that point, once the rest of FedGov is funded, we could have a showdown over Obamacare and Planned Parenthood, and far fewer people would object to shutting down just HHS, not to mention that it would be clear that Obama was shutting down medicare/medicaid.
The problem is that the GOP leadership doesn’t want to win. They want to lose and use their annual defeat to try to motivate voters. We need President Cruz to give us victories, because Boehner and McConnell will not do that for conservatives.
It certainly quacks like a duck...
Or worse yet, he really doesn’t care about the abortion issue, or is pro abortion.
What PP does would make Hitler’s angel of death proud.
Mcconnel was not a conservative on anything. Those who say Mcconnel is a coward don’t understand him at all. He’s quite brave in defending what he truly believes in, which is Left wing ideology
Interesting, but I don’t think it answers the question of why McConnell won’t stand up to the Dems on any other issue, either. Whatever that reason is, probably rules all the issues.
The article above points out that McConnell has consistently voted in favor of abortion over the years.
It is so bad that he once voted to override a veto by GHW Bush of an abortion bill.
That is blatant. No republican from Kentucky would EVER get in trouble with Kentucky voters for voting to end abortions. There is no excuse for trying to override your own party’s president who didn’t want to fund abortions.
That is about as blatant and clear an example of actual support for abortion that one will ever see.
See #11. If you’re a committed supporter of abortion, then at heart you’re a liberal.
Off with his head.
{If you’re a committed supporter of abortion, then at heart you’re a liberal.}
...and a murderer.
{If you’re a committed supporter of abortion, then at heart you’re a liberal.}
...and a murderer.
Shame on you, KY.
There are only two candidates that have what it takes to be in the White House, Trump= to get rid of the dead wood, make deals to get manufacturing jobs back to America, build a wall and export the illegal immigrants that are draining the money out of America, to build a strong Military, to take care of our Vets, to fix the inter structure of America, to help Americans get a health care program that everyone can afford, to get rid of the trillions of dollar of debt we have...
Cruz: good speaker, knows the Constitution of what we can and cannot do, will support Trump on Making America Great Again, can be the go between from House to Senate....
And after 4 or 8 years, Cruz can go in as POTUS and continue the program that he and Trump have built...
Good all around America First thinking....
Tis a shame they're so gutless, and so powerful at the same time.
If the GOP doesn't get rid of them, and soon, in favor of fighters for what's supposed to be the GOP conservativecauses (on paper), I would not be surprised if they lose the power they so much want to keep.
Shame on these two. Horrible, spineless and cretinous.
McConnell and Boehner DO FIGHT. But their enemy is the conservatives who who blindly listen to their “rules” and their power.
It is all about the Benjamnins and votes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.