Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday that Republicans in the House may more forcefully press their position in the battle over funding the federal government. His comments lead some conservative commenters to believe that Speaker Ryan may be willing to force Obama to shut down the federal government over Planned Parenthood funding or at least veto a bill that de-funds the abortion company.
“This is the legislative branch, and the power of the purse rests within the legislative branch. And we fully expect that we are going to exercise that power,” Ryan said yesterday when asked about some of the more controversial parts of the federal budget.
One of the controversial parts is whether the federal government will continue sending half a billion in taxpayer funds to the nation’s biggest abortion business, which has been caught selling aborted babies and their body parts.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately
Ryan’s new comments come after a weekend interview, during which Ryan said the Planned Parenthood abortion business should not get “one red cent: of taxpayer funding.
Joel Gehrke of National Review interpreted Ryan’s new comments to mean that he may be willing to force President Barack Obama to shut down the government and make good on his threat to veto any funding bill that de-funds Planned Parenthood.
That statement marks a break with Ryan’s predecessor, John Boehner, who developed a habit of pledging not to pass funding bills that would risk a government shutdown by provoking a presidential veto. The new, firmer stance could potentially put Ryan at odds with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who has also sworn to avoid government shutdowns. But it could also help Ryan mollify the conservative backbenchers who have accused GOP leaders of preemptively surrendering to Obama.
Republicans could make high-profile demands, such as the defunding of Planned Parenthood, or they could pursue any number of lesser known policy goals contained in the GOP appropriations bills Senate Democrats successfully filibustered earlier this year. Some Republican lawmakers hope to bundle those bills into an omnibus spending package in December — just as they did last year when Democrats still controlled the upper chamber.
And a conservative writer at Hot Air agrees that Ryan may be more forceful on the Planned Parenthood funding issue.
The government runs out of money on December 11th and the most pro-abortion president in history has vowed not to sign any bills that make funding the government contingent upon defunding Planned Parenthood. Surely this is the moment for a Republican Speaker to crap away any leverage he might have by vowing to prevent a shutdown at all costs, right? Not this time.
In theory, a clean process here might solve Ryan’s political problem. If he lets conservatives amend the funding bill to attach a rider defunding Planned Parenthood and brings it to a vote, maybe they’ll reward him by voting for a clean bill once the Senate shoots down the first one. But then, maybe not. One of the main knocks on Boehner was that he wasn’t willing to play chicken with Obama by tolerating a shutdown apart from the brief one in 2013. If conservatives think they can win a political fight with O over PP and the sting videos, why not demand that Ryan force a shutdown and see how that shakes out? Is it because they … don’t think they would win that battle? Or is it because they know as well as Ryan does that a shutdown in the middle of a presidential campaign could be a big problem for the nominee next fall?
The fact of the matter is that, under President Obama, it’s virtually impossible to de-fund Planned Parenthood, as he will veto any de-funding bill and would move to reinstate funding administratively even if the government is shut down. But many pro-life advocates want to see a bill de-funding Planned Parenthood get to Obama’s desk to force him to veto it.
One such bill has already passed the House and is on the way to the Senate.
The expose’ videos catching Planned Parenthood officials selling the body parts of aborted babies have shocked the nation. Here is a list of the eleven videos:
- In the first video: Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on baby-crushing: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
- In the second video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter joked, “I want a Lamborghini” as she negotiated the best price for baby parts.
- In the third video: Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee who worked inside a Planned Parenthood clinic, detailed first-hand the unspeakable atrocities and how she fainted in horror over handling baby legs.
- In the fourth video: Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Savita Ginde stated, “We don’t want to do just a flat-fee (per baby) of like, $200. A per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” She also laughed while looking at a plate of fetal kidneys that were “good to go.”
- In the fifth video: Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood-Gulf Coast in Houston boasted of Planned Parenthood’s skill in obtaining “intact fetal cadavers” and how her “research” department “contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
- In the sixth video: Holly O’Donnell described technicians taking fetal parts without patient consent: “There were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.”
- In the seventh and perhaps most disturbing video: Holly O’Donnell described the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘You want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
- In the eighth video: StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits Planned Parenthood sells “a lot of” fully intact aborted babies.
- The ninth video: catches a Planned Parenthood medical director discussing how the abortion company sells fully intact aborted babies — including one who “just fell out” of the womb.
- The 10th video: catches the nation’s biggest abortion business selling specific body parts — including the heart, eyes and “gonads” of unborn babies.The video also shows the shocking ways in which Planned Parenthood officials admit that they are breaking federal law by selling aborted baby body parts for profit.
- The 11th video: shows the abortion doctor for Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas, Amna Dermish, describing a partial-birth abortion procedure to terminate living, late-term unborn babies which she hopes will yield intact fetal heads for brain harvesting.
- Unreleased Videos: Unreleased videos from CMP show Deb Vanderhei of Planned Parenthood caught on tape talking about how Planned Parenthood abortion business affiliates may “want to increase revenue [from selling baby parts] but we can’t stop them…” Another video has a woman talking about the “financial incentives” of selling aborted baby body parts.
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