Republicans and Democrats in Congress are taking very different positions on how to handle the impasse the two parties have over the budget — with Republicans wanting to vote for a pro-life bill Democrats oppose.
House Speaker John Boehner announced this afternoon that Republicans in the House will vote for a new short-term continuing resolution that would fund the federal goverent for a week. It is a bill that contains pro-life language reinstating the ban on taxpayer funding of abortions in the nation’s capital. However, Democrats oppose the measure and President Barack Obama says he does not support it becaue of the pro-life language.
Meanwhile, a senior White House official confirmed today that military service men and woman would be required to work but would not receive paychecks if the government shuts down Saturday without the Houe bill in place to fund the government for another week while the parties work out their differences.
That upsets Brian Burch, President of CatholicVote, who told LifeNews today that Obama and Democrats are willing to make members of the military sacrifice because they are too concerned with protecting abortion funding.
“Military families will suffer because of the rigid pro-abortion ideology of President Obama and Senate Democrats,” he said. “Our military men and women are fighting three wars overseas but now risk delaying their paychecks because President Obama and Senate Democrats would rather shut down the federal government than defund Planned Parenthood. Their priorities are simply shameful.”
Burch pointed out how Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid recently said “not only no, but hell no” to any budget passing the Senate that would cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood and complained that 41 Democrats also promised to filibuster any budget bill that ended funding for Planned Parenthood.
In an interview with NPR, Reid complained that Speaker Boehner’s plan to stop a government shutdown, the short-term CR bill with the pro-life provision, will “fund the Defense Department for the rest of the year when everybody else is funded for one week.”
“A series of damaging undercover videos recently exposed Planned Parenthood staff aiding and abetting alleged sex traffickers in exploiting underage girls. The abortion giant is under criminal investigation in Kansas, and has been accused of mishandling over $1 billion in taxpayer-funded government grants,” Burch said. “But this hasn’t stopped Senate Democrats from holding out to preserve funding for this scandal-plagued organization.”
“Senate Democrats are willing to put the squeeze on military families in order to protect funding for Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider. The political games and rigid pro-abortion obstructionism must stop. Catholic voters have had enough,” said Burch.
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family research Council, agrees with the pro-life Catholic leader.
“Majority Leader Harry Reid is once again showing the Senate Democrats’ disdain toward the military. In the midst of three wars, Senator Reid is willing to use the military as a political ploy. The Republicans are prudent in their efforts to ensure that the men and women who are willing to sacrifice everything are compensated and well-equipped,” Perkins said. “At the same time, it is not surprising that Senator Reid and the President can’t agree with the Republicans on a budget because the Democrats could not agree on a budget when they controlled both Houses of Congress.”
“It’s a shame that Senator Reid says he is now willing to accept cuts in the continuing resolution but for the sake of preserving direct taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia, he is going to advance a government shutdown,” he told LifeNews.com. “While Senator Reid might see the military and unborn children as merely political pawns, the American people have more respect for both. The President should clarify if he opposes the newest budget offering for the same reasons as Senator Reid.”
