As the FRC team continues to pour over the text of the monstrous $3.5 trillion infrastructure package Democrats have assembled, we continue to find a liberal grab-bag of social policies. This package expands abortion in the following ways:
- It mandates abortion coverage in Obamacare plans in non-Medicaid expansion states (overriding pro-life laws in 11 of those 12 states);
- Provides taxpayer-funded abortions to 800,000 women of reproductive age who are currently not covered by Medicaid;
- Funds abortions via reinsurance and cost-sharing funding to insurers and the states;
- Appropriates billions of dollars in various healthcare programs without Hyde amendment protections against taxpayer funding for abortions; and
- Makes permanent several American Rescue Plan Act provisions without Hyde amendment protections.
As Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) told Tony Perkins on "Washington Watch" Thursday, "Democrats tried to use this markup as a way to force abortion into health insurance plans," apparently not realizing "that 60 percent of Americans agree with the Hyde Amendment" (which prevents our tax dollars from going to abortion). As Joyce noted, "[t]his is common sense legislation, and even in the past, Joe Biden agreed with it for most of his career in the Senate," and it's been "part of the budget for the past 40 years." What the Democrats are doing here, Joyce noted, was to try to "force abortion into health insurance plans."
But that's not all. The reconciliation text also mandates that the entire system of paid family leave be run in line with a radical social agenda on marriage and sexuality and degrades the sanctity of marriage and family, with language such as this:
"The Secretary shall conduct a robust program to analyze and prevent disparities on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, national origin, family composition, or living arrangements with respect to the benefits provided under this title and individuals' access to such benefits."
The bill breaks down the concept of family with this provision: "the term 'qualified family member' means, with respect to an employee -- '(I) a spouse (including a domestic partner in a civil union or other registered domestic partnership recognized by a State) and a spouse's parent.'"
The reconciliation text also funds training to promote this radical social agenda, funds grants to promote it, and mandates education and outreach regarding Obamacare be provided in line with an anti-science and bad-medicine ideology.
How are we to think about all this spending? President Biden's chief of staff is claiming this $3.5 trillion bill would "cost zero." How will Biden pay for it all? By increasing taxes.
As Joyce reminded us on Tony's program, we are "allowing inflation to continue to spiral out of control," in addition to "incurring debt and not taking the responsibility." And our children and grandchildren will be the ones to suffer from it.
