Obama's Sequester Plan: Dread on Arrival
Yesterday, the White House pulled one of the oldest stunts in the liberal handbook: if the facts don't work in your favor, just scare people with ridiculous claims about what cutting government spending will do. With an emergency medical first responder team as his backdrop, President Obama painted a bleak picture of the country after March 1, when the first wave of sequester cuts is scheduled to hit. "[First responders'] ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go..."
It wasn't exactly Joe Biden's "stop these cuts or there will be more rapes and murders," but President Armageddon, as the Wall Street Journal calls him, did his best sky-is-falling routine. It's an old ploy, Kim Strassel points out, designed to frighten people into supporting government spending. In reality, "voters should scoff at the idea that a $3.6 trillion government can't save one nickel of every dollar [it] spends."
Apart from frightening people, it seems the White House has no legitimate strategy for ending a "crisis" that, ironically, it helped create. While the President complains that these cuts "are not smart, they are not fair, they will hurt our economy, they will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls," he seems to forget that he's the one who invented the idea. But instead of showing leadership and offering up solutions for true reform, the President is trying to panic people. Veterans will go hungry, the administration claims, meat will spoil, poor people will be kicked out of their homes, schools won't have teachers, the mentally ill won't be treated. President Obama even argued that the cuts would "jeopardize our military readiness"--something he's never minded before, based on how he's imposed his radical social policy on our nation's troops.
"We agree the sequester is a bad way to cut spending," said Speaker John Boehner's office. "That's why we've twice passed a plan to replace it with common sense cuts and reforms that don't threaten our security, safety, and economy. A solution now requires the Senate--controlled by the President's party--to finally pass a plan of their own."
In the meantime, Speaker Boehner explains, these cataclysmic events are mostly for show. There are plenty of ways to replace the $87 billion in cuts without raising taxes or letting criminals on the loose. "The President got his higher taxes--$600 billion from higher earners, with no spending cuts--at the end of 2012. He also got higher taxes via ObamaCare... No one should be talking about raising taxes when the government is still paying people to play videogames, giving folks free cell phones, and buying $47,000 cigarette-smoking machines. Washington must get serious about its spending problem." Surely a government that gives food stamps to lottery winners can find a few ways to save.
Leaders Get State to the Point on Life, Marriage
In the two weeks since Jennifer Morbelli's botched abortion, state leaders are more committed than ever to protecting a woman's most basic right: safety. In Alabama, the legislature moved one step closer to passing a bill that could close more abortion clinics' doors. By a huge 73-23 margin, the Alabama House gave the green light to a common sense measure that would require a licensed doctor to be present at every abortion and have hospital admitting privileges. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, everyone should agree that women deserve to be treated in a safe and healthy environment.
A few states away, Arkansas upped the ante on abortion clinics by passing a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks, when babies can feel pain. After a gigantic victory in the House and Senate (where the legislation passed 25-7), the bill now heads to Gov. Mike Beebe (D)--who has the opportunity to make The Natural State an unnatural fit for abortion. If Gov. Beebe listens to his Arkansas's constituents and signs the bill, his would become the eighth state to ban abortions after five months.
Meanwhile, Kansas built on its solid pro-life reputation by debating a bill that would ban sex-selection abortion. No matter what the baby's gender, said state Sen. Garrett Love, "every life is precious." When the Senate votes today, it will have the opportunity to stop groups like Planned Parenthood, whose workers have been caught on tape specifically targeting little girls for extinction. And the good news doesn't end there!
Our good friend John Stemberger, who heads up the Florida Family Policy Council, put a nail in the coffin of a same-sex "marriage" bill that proponents were disguising as a domestic partner measure. After a heated debate and testimony from John and others, the sponsoring committee was forced to pull the bill for lack of votes. Congratulations to John and the thousands of Floridians who put pressure on the legislature to stop this legislation from undermining the 62% of voters who passed the state's marriage amendment!
Page Turner? BSA Fails to Woo SBC Leader
Before the rest of the world knew the Boy Scouts were considering a policy change, BSA executive Wayne Brock had already reached out to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). One of the Scouts' selling points for the new membership criteria has since turned out to be false. According to sources, the BSA reportedly told both the Mormon Church and Southern Baptist leaders that it had the support of the Catholic Church regarding its proposed policy change--a stance the Catholic Bishops have flatly denied. "He specifically asked the Southern Baptist Convention not to oppose this move," the SBC's Frank Page told Fox News. "Of course, I refused to make this concession."
The SBC wasn't silent then--and they refuse to be silent now. While the Boy Scouts deliberate over whether to allow open homosexuality in the Scouts, America's largest protestant denomination has given the BSA something else to think about. Yesterday, in a meeting of the SBC's executive committee, members passed a formal resolution calling on the Scouts to uphold their current policy. Anything less, insists the SBC, would "place the Boy Scouts organization at odds with a consistent biblical worldview on matters of human sexuality, making it an organization that would no longer complement, but rather contradict, our belief in God and His moral precepts that serve as the basis for our Christian faith."
The two-page document calls on the Scouts' 1,400 voting members to "stand strong on their moral convictions and vote to reject the proposed" changes. You can help by adding your voice to the millions of Scouts and Scouting families by signing our petition, which we will deliver to each of the roughly 290 Scout Councils across the nation. When you're done, please forward the link to your friends!
** Tune in to this afternoon's edition of "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins" on the American Family Radio network at 5:00 p.m. (ET), as we welcome on FRC's own David Christensen to talk about new conscience legislation. Later, freshman Congressman Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) will drop by to tell us what we can expect from the new members of Congress. For a station listing, to listen live, or to listen tomorrow morning, click over to TonyPerkins.com.
*** The President's Pre-K idea doesn't have a lot of fans--including FRC's own Cathy Ruse, who published a great piece Monday, "A Head Start on another Federal Failure." Click here to check it out!