As Senate negotiations continue on the government overhaul of America’s health care system, the issue of federal funding for abortion still remains. Despite President Obama’s assertions to the contrary, the health care takeover would expand federal funding for abortions under the Democrats’ current proposal. Chairman Max Baucus’ bill, recently approved by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, passed without language explicitly prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars to fund elective abortions. Conservative lawmakers have offered several amendments in markups of health care reform legislation to prevent coverage of abortion, but all were voted down in committee.
The only way to prevent the health care bill from using American taxpayer dollars to fund abortions, is for the Senate to add provisions explicitly prohibiting coverage and funding of abortion in the final version of the bill. Such prohibitions are absolutely necessary to protect taxpayers who are morally opposed to having the government use their hard earned money for the coverage of abortion procedures. I encourage my fellow Americans who believe in protecting the unborn to reach out to their Members of Congress in an effort to make their voices heard as Washington considers health care reform over the coming weeks.
Earlier this afternoon, Sen. DeMint joined with congressional colleagues from both sides of the aisle and several pro-life family groups, including Focus on the Family, to voice opposition to allowing taxpayer funding to pay for abortions in new health care legislation being pushed by President Obama and congressional Democrats.
Regardless of what President Obama has said on national television multiple times, it's becoming increasingly clear that any Democrat-sponsored health care reform bill will include taxpayer funding of abortions. Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, has refused to rule out this possibility and avoided answering direct questions on the subject.
Recently, Sen. DeMint was presented with the "Legislator of the Year" award by representatives of Concerned Women for America. Below are photos of the event:
In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. DeMint explains why he won't be voting to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as associate justice to the U.S. Supreme Court:
Sen. DeMint spoke in opposition to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S.909) on the Senate floor today. The bill was introduced to the National Defense Authorization bill as an amendment by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Also cosponsored by Sen Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), S.909 would broaden federal hate crimes law to include crimes influenced by the gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim.
Saying the measure would criminalize our thoughts and beliefs, DeMint referenced the portion of the bill that states "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to allow prosecution based solely upon an individual's expression of racial, religious, political, or other beliefs." DeMint said the use of the word "solely" makes it clear that the intent of the legislation is to enable the prosecution of speech if it is part of the broader prosecution of an action that could be perceived as a hate crime.
Yesterday the Senate voted to accept Sen. DeMint's amendment to the Legislative Appropriations bill that requires that the Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto, "In God We Trust" be displayed in the Capitol Visitors Center. After several months of fighting for the changes to be made, DeMint was able to convince his fellow senators to move ahead and insist the Architect of the Capitol to make the changes. Originally, a display in the CVC incorrectly stated that "E Pluribus Unum" was the national motto and the Pledge of Allegiance was nowhere to be seen.
"The Capitol Visitor Center is designed to tell the history and purpose of our nation's Capitol, but it fails to appropriately honor our religious heritage that has been critical to America’s success,” said Senator DeMint several months ago when he first drafted his amendment. “While the Architect of the Capitol has pledged to include some references to faith, more needs to be done. You cannot accurately tell the history of America or its Capitol by ignoring the religious heritage of our Founders and the generations since who relied on their faith for strength and guidance. The millions of visitors that will visit the CVC each year should get a true portrayal of the motivations and inspirations of those who have served in Congress since its establishment.
“The current CVC displays are left-leaning and in some cases distort our true history. Exhibits portray the federal government as the fulfillment of human ambition and the answer to all of society’s problems. This is a clear departure from acknowledging that Americans’ rights ‘are endowed by their Creator' and stem from ‘a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.’ Instead, the CVC’s most prominent display proclaims faith not in God, but in government."
Senator DeMint will offer an amendment to the budget resolution to put Congress on record about protecting small and home businesses from the burdensome and impractical requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008.
The CPSIA has threatened thousands of jobs and caused many small and home businesses to unnecessarily increase the costs of their products without providing substantial improvement in product safety. The legislation was drafted so broadly that it swept up small and family businesses that were never part of the problem. The law imposes burdensome testing requirements when more common-sense approaches could guarantee the same level of safety. Senator DeMint's amendment would take the first steps necessary to repair the damage inflicted by the CPSIA's unintended consequences in the following ways:
Delay the lead limits 6 months so that the CPSC and the public can address confusion surrounding the implementation
Exempt thrift stores and other second hand sellers: The Goodwill and the Salvation Army have never been a safety problem and in these hard economic times people need access to affordable goods now more than ever.
Exempt the sale of books and children’s motorcycles from the CPSIA. Books and bikes have never been a product safety concern.
Allow manufacturers to show that their products are within the lead limits by showing that all the components of their products are within the lead limit. If lead is not in the component it won’t be in the product. This is a common-sense approach that will save businesses thousands of dollars without compromising the safety of the product.
Prevents retroactive enforcement that would require otherwise safe products from having to be destroyed. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of safe products on the shelves and in warehouses today that should be sold. It just doesn't make sense to force businesses to destroy perfectly good products.
Most importantly, Senator DeMint's amendment protects the health and well-being of our children, by maintaining the lead limits currently in place and requiring that the overwhelming majority of all children’s products sold in the U.S., except the few exempted above, meet the new standards in the CPSIA.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) discusses the many flaws of the National Service Act being considered on the Senate floor, calling it "a well-intentioned mistake." The National Service Act would significantly expand AmeriCorps programs and boost their funding to $5.7 billion over the next five years at a time when our nation faces serious economic turmoil. Civil society is the only institution in America that still works because it is free from government interference. This bill distorts the motivation for vounteerism and will inevitably corrupt private charity.
The Heritage Foundation points out that this legislation is built on the failed efforts of Herbert Hoover and actually goes further: "As troublesome as such a 'stimulus' today might be to proponents of limited government, Serve America goes further. It uses Hoover's ideas minus the self-restraint, expanding Washington's involvement as a bureaucracy, making participating states and organizations permanently dependent on the government for their service activities. Even Hoover recognized that such a move would signal a belief in the death of real voluntary public service. He consequently called his bill what it really was: a government jobs program."
Today, the Obama Administration officially began the process of rescinding the Bush Administration’s regulation protecting the conscience rights of doctors to not perform abortions. President Obama’s decision to overturn this important regulation is yet another attack on America’s culture of life.
In the past three decades, Congress has set forth several statutes protecting provider conscience rights, most recently the Hyde-Weldon law passed in 2004, which I supported. Under this law, no federal, state, or local government agency or program receiving funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services may discriminate against a health care provider because the provider refuses to perform, pay for, provide coverage of, or make referrals for abortions. This protection covers health care professionals, hospitals, HMOs, health insurance plans, and “any other kind of health care facility, organization, or plan.”
Abortion advocates argue that if doctors and other health care professionals are not forced to support or perform abortions, access to health care services for women will be restricted. In reality, many health care providers will leave the industry all together if forced to violate their moral convictions, thereby reducing access to health care services across the board. In addition, without the conscience protection regulation, providers opposed to participating in abortion remain susceptible to intolerance and coercion from employers with conflicting beliefs and possible lawsuits from outside organizations.
Last week, the Office of Management and Budget announced they were reviewing a proposal to repeal the rule, and starting today, March 10, the American people have 30 days to voice their opinions on the matter...
