Posted on 07/18/2023 12:50:59 PM PDT by Twotone
If Senate Republicans are truly the pro-life champions they claim to be, they have no choice but to back Sen. Tommy Tuberville as he fends off the Biden administration’s abortion extremism.
So far, they are failing at their task. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Thune have gone after Tuberville for his recent comments and decision to stonewall certain high-profile promotions until the Biden administration stops subsidizing service members’ abortions with taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, their ally Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and a few other unnamed senators joined the dogpile on the “radical conservative populism” that pro-life legislators like Tuberville apparently tout.
“I’m concerned. I think that they are allowing for an exposure of vulnerability from a national security perspective and wish he would figure out another way to make his point,” Murkowski told the Washington Examiner.
The only other way to “make his point” would be if GOP leadership in the Senate find a way to bypass the Democrat majority to pass the National Defense Authorization Act with a ban on the taxpayer-funded abortion Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has pledged to continue offering to service members and their families.
Passing the NDAA with an abortion prohibition is not an impossible feat considering President Joe Biden, Democrats, and Republicans all seem keen on keeping our struggling military funded. But it is a difficult task because — Democrats’ slim majority in the Senate aside — it requires convincing establishment Republicans who openly hate their voters to comply with their constituents’ wishes. Partisan Plotting
Despite severe pushback from the Biden administration and corporate media, the NDAA passed the Republican-led House last week equipped with amendments that prohibit Americans’ hard-earned dollars from funding abortions and irreversible mutilative surgeries for gender dysphoric individuals in the military.
Under normal circumstances, the universal urgency about passing such key legislation means Senate Republicans have the leverage to demand a vote on the House GOP’s key abortion amendment and appease the majority of Americans who oppose using taxpayer dollars to end life in the womb.
None of the staunch military-industrial complex supporters in Senate GOP leadership seem interested in defending their colleague Tuberville from false narratives, much less interested in courting the votes of any Democrat senators who might be willing to sacrifice the regime’s abortion agenda to fund the military. Yet, even if Senate Republicans do get a vote on the amendment, it won’t be enough to end the DOD’s illegal abortion scheme.
The congressional veterans on the right side of the aisle may vote in favor of ending the Biden regime’s taxpayer-funded abortion project, but they know that without any extra shoving, an amendment like the one that passed the House was doomed to die in the Senate from the start.
In a way, this is a victory for establishment Republicans who will likely win good scores from pro-life organizations but don’t have to suffer the political consequences of risking their relationships with Democrats, the Biden administration, or top brass.
But it wouldn’t be a victory for their voters and the majority of the American people. The Ultimatum
There is only one path Republicans can take to appease the millions of voters who say taxpayer-funded abortion is illegal and unwanted in this country, and that is supporting Tuberville’s stonewalling until the administration complies.
GOP senators have access to the procedural tools they need to force the DOD’s hand on this issue, as evidenced by Tuberville’s nearly half-a-year hold on what could end up being hundreds of military promotions.
“Where are the rest of the senators in calling out the administration as it attempts to force taxpayers to pay for abortions for military members?” CEO and President of Concerned Women for America Penny Nance wrote for The Hill. “Instead of blocking and tackling for coach [Tuberville] while he’s being pummeled by the left, his fellow Republicans are not even on the field; some even seem to be playing for the opposing team. They should take a page from coach’s playbook and muster up the courage to challenge Biden’s lawlessness on abortion.”
Unfortunately, instead of calling out the Biden administration’s lawlessness, some Republican senators opposed a resolution authored by Tuberville that would stop the Biden administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs from handing out abortions. They have also repeatedly failed to support key pro-life legislation that would have finally brought the U.S. up to speed with the type of restrictions other civilized countries enacted years ago.
There’s no doubt that the Biden administration’s recent actions when it comes to the military are horrific, unpopular, and exacerbating the nation’s recruitment and readiness crisis. As Sen. Mike Lee explained in a Twitter thread over the weekend, Biden’s DOD is more willing to pay to end life in the womb than to subsidize bereavement for service members or continue writing paychecks to the families of service members imprisoned overseas.
Senate Republicans’ actions, or inaction, when it comes to pushing back against the DOD’s abortion agenda are even more egregious because they deny the overwhelming majority of voters who oppose taxpayer-funded abortion a chance to hold the Biden regime accountable for its extralegal abortion promotion.
us long time Bama fans applauding the Auburn coach LOL
“Fail a majority of Americans on abortion again”
America has a strong pro-abortion majority, and the GOP knows it.
Hell has officially frozen over. LOL
Most of the Republican Senators are GOPe. In other words, apprentice DemocRATS. Proud associates of the DC UniParty.
Abortion, social security reform and a few other topics are wonderful to talk about but few politicians want to see them come to a vote. They can talk all they want, but nobody wants to be on the receiving end of blowback from the losing side. Talk gets votes. But once the topic is law those extra few votes that got you over the line last time are no longer motivated to come out the next time. Their one topic is, after all now the law.
I respectfully disagree. Most Americans don't support abortion as the Dims push it (i.e. post birth "abortion", or partial birth abortion in which the living baby is pulled out feet first until only the head is inside and the skull punctured with a sharp suction tube to literally suck the brains out which fortunately means the aid no longer has to hold the baby's arms and legs still for the "doctor", and most don't support abortion after the first trimester anyway, etc.). But most pro-lifers support exclusions in pro-life laws such as life of the mother, etc.
When the question is asked in those terms, almost everybody sides with the pro-lifers.
Its simple and the GOP should say so to the Dims and Biden.
In order for the DOD to have Biden’s abortion permissive policy he needs to seek and obtain repeal of the Hyde Amendment. He doesn’t because he knows it won’t get repealed by Cogress.
That is all the GOP should have to say to the Dims.
Oh of course a majority doesn’t support a “head still in” abortion, and neither do most Democrats.
But Democrats have done a fantastic job at provoking GOP politicians into either making, or seeming to make, “no abortion” arguments, and, unfortunately, that position is opposed by huge majorities.
Like a lot of our problems, the current “vote against what you hate most” political system does not lend itself to 75% majorities.
Most people will vote AGAINST any pre-13 week bans. Most people will vote FOR a post-viability ban. But in our system, neither of those are on offer.
The late Rush L explained this a long time ago. The male GOP Senators support “moderate” abortion because their wives tell them to. The female GOP Senators support “moderate” abortion because their friends tell them to.
Which is exactly what Americans outside of the conservative religious blocs want: abortion to save the life of the mother, in cases of rape and incest, and when I think I need one.
It is very unfortunate that some Republicans can’t seem to pick their mountains to climb more carefully, when we have so much at stake and so many more relevant mountains to climb right now.
SCOTUS settled this. States decide.
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.