State Senator (D) From Pence's IN District Dishonestly Goes After Pence's Bill That'll Cut Federal Money to Planned Parenthood

Democratic State Senator and former Planned Parenthood public policy director Sue Errington recently went after US Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) and his plan to stop giving any federal money to Planned Parenthood, in an op-ed. FYI, Errington's state district 26 resides in Pence's federal 6th district:.

Why would Congressman Mike Pence suggest it is good public health policy to take birth control away from low-income women in this country? Yet that would be the result of the bill he promoted in last Sunday's Star Press. He wants to ban Planned Parenthood -- the country's leading provider of birth control services -- from the Title X program.

Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. It is designed to provide access to contraceptive services, supplies and information to all who want and need them. By law, priority is given to persons from low-income families. From the program's beginning in 1970, Planned Parenthood, with clinics throughout the country, has been an important part of the program. It's estimated that one out of four American women has visited a Planned Parenthood center for health care at least once in her life. Why would Congressman Pence want to remove this pillar from our country's family planning infrastructure?

He says it's because he wants to ensure that no federal funds are used to subsidize abortion. That assurance is already in the law through the Hyde amendment, which prohibits the use of federal dollars for abortion. Not a dime of Title X funding supports abortion. It is used, rather, to assist low-income persons with the cost of basic reproductive health care -- Pap tests, pregnancy tests, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and birth control.

Her whole premise for this story is wrong. Actually, it's so wrong that there's no way that this is just made a honest mistake. One can only come to the conclusion that, not surprisingly, she is lying in order to promote her own liberal agenda.

Pence is not calling for Planned Parenthood to be "banned" or closed. He's proposing that federal taxpayer money should no longer be given to Planned Parenthood.

Given the dire straights that the government is in, this isn't an outrageous proposal. Cuts need to be made, and this should be an easy cut to make.

Most Americans don't want their money to go to funding abortions and Planned Parenthood, and the women's clinic receives enough money from other sources that they really don't need our tax money to stay afloat. They'll be just fine without it.

Also, she says that the Hyde Amendment already stops Planned Parenthood from directly using federal money for abortions. While this is true, Pence argues that any money given to them does indirectly pay for it. He says that they will use the money that they get from the government for other programs, but in doing so, that will free up money that they have received from other sources that would've paid for those other programs, otherwise, and use it to pay for abortions.

Since Pence is probably running for governor or an outside chance of running for president in 2012, she is might be trying to position herself for a campaign to replace him as Indiana's 6th District representative in the US House. Still, why would she be so blatantly dishonest? That won't make the conservative 6th think highly of her.

Also, it could be that she's trying to protect her former employer. Either way, she needs to stop being so dishonest.

Senator Errington couldn't be reached for comment.

VA Gov. McDonnell: Obama's Wrong, We Need More Spending Cuts Not More Spending

Virginia Governor McDonnell went on Fox, today, and responded to reports that Obama will call for more stimulus spending during his State of the Union Address on Tuesday. Not surprisingly he disagrees with President Obama:

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell delivered last year's GOP response to the State of the Union. McDonnell spoke to Fox News on Saturday about what he hopes the president will focus on as he prepares to address the nation Tuesday.

McDonnell recommends Obama make spending cuts a priority. Citing budget cuts made in his own state, the governor said reduced spending in Virginia has "had a huge impact." While acknowledging that finding places to cut funding isn't easy and that "tough choices" are involved, the changes made under McDonnell have resulted in a huge surplus for the state.

Chief among the governor's priorities for Virginia has been job creation. McDonnell said Virginia is currently ranked "third in the country" when it comes to new jobs in large part "because of the time and investment" that's been put into "job creating programs."

Amid reports that President Obama's Tuesday address will call for increased spending in infrastructure and education, McDonnell predicts the president's message won't be "well received" by Americans. Instead, the governor suggests President Obama focus on fiscal cuts and "reduction of the national debt." McDonnell thinks these themes, combined with an emphasis on incentives for growing small business will help the president strike the right tone.

If polls are any indication, McDonnell is absolutely right. The American people won’t like hearing the president say that he wants to spend more. It’ll kill whatever momentum that he had gained in winning back the independents and will make him look, again, like a far-left ideologue. His approval numbers would probably fall a bit, too.

Update:

I was trying to get the video embedded, but I can't find an embeddable one, right now, since Fox disables the ability to embed their video. So, here's the link to see it, for now. I'll keep looking for one that can be embedded and embed it, if I can.

Boehner Makes Bill Banning Federally-Funded Abortions A Priority

In the spirit of making even more spending cuts, Speaker Boehner announced that he will put forth a bill written by Rep. Smith (R-NJ) that will cut all federal funding of abortions:

Calling it a top priority of the Republican agenda, House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday gave a top designation to a bill introduced by New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith that would ban the use of any federal funds from being used for abortions.

The "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," given the numerical designation H.R. 3 to emphasize its prominence, would make permanent in existing law any language that bans abortion. It also would provide medical workers with "conscientious protections" that allow them to refuse to participate in abortion procedures against their will.

The legislation will "ensure that the taxpayers -- through huge majorities clearly show do not want their money being used to pay for abortions -- no longer are coerced into using taxpayer funding to subsidize the killing of an unborn child and the warping of his or her mother," Smith said in a press conference with Boehner on Capitol Hill

"Our members feel very strongly about the sanctity of human life. We listened to the American people. We made a commitment to the American people under the Pledge to America and we're continuing to fulfill our commitment," Boehner said.

Separately, Reps. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., and Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., are introducing a bill to prohibit any money from the new health care law from going to fund abortions.

Again, this is appealing to the base. Even some that are pro-choice are against federal taxpayer money going to the procedure. So, this would be easily palatable by the majority of Americans. Democrats will, of course, ferverently oppose the bill, but given the current political climate and the winds of change blowing towads reducing the deficits, they’ll have a hard time defending it.

However, with the Democrats in the Senate and Obama in the White House, the chance of this passing is minimal, unless it is included in some sort of compromise down the line. Abortion is one of the main tenents of the Democratic party, and they’ll be hard-pressed to do anything that would upset the pro-choice lobby.

House Republicans to Introduce Bill That Will Cut Spending By $2.5T Over 10 Years

Now that the Republcans have passed the ObamaCare repeal in the House, they are moving onto the next promise: massively cutting spending and bringing down the deficit. This new bill will be introduced by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH):

A number of the House GOP’s leading conservative members on Thursday will announce legislation that would cut $2.5 trillion over 10 years, which will be by far the most ambitious and far-reaching proposal by the new majority to cut federal government spending….

Jordan’s “Spending Reduction Act” would eliminate such things as the U.S. Agency for International Development and its $1.39 billion annual budget, the $445 million annual subsidy for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the $1.5 billion annual subsidy for Amtrak, $2.5 billion in high speed rail grants, the $150 million subsidy for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, and it would cut in half to $7.5 billion the federal travel budget.

But the program eliminations and reductions would account for only $330 billion of the $2.5 trillion in cuts. The bulk of the cuts would come from returning non-defense discretionary spending – which is currently $670 billion out of a $3.8 trillion budget for the 2011 fiscal year – to the 2006 level of $496.7 billion, through 2021.

Going back to 2006 levels would reduce spending by $2.3 trillion over ten years. It is a significantly more drastic cut than the one proposed by House Republican leadership in the Pledge to America last fall, which proposed moving non-defense, non-mandatory spending for the current fiscal year back to 2008 levels, which was $522.3 billion. Jordan’s proposal includes the recommendation from the Pledge for the current fiscal year, which ends in September.

The proposal would cut the federal work force by 15 percent and freeze automatic pay raises for government employees for five years.

This will definitely be popular with the most Americans, especially the base. Defunding NPR, PBS, and Amtrak are easy targets, even though the left will give a very spirited defense. In the end, I think that their days of receiving money from the federal government are over.
If you break down the bill, it will come to about $250,000 in cuts a year, and that is only one-sixth of this year’s deficit. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great start, but it is still just a start. Only cuts to the entitlement programs will make a long-term impact on the deficit. Only when they take on entitlements will there be any chance for long-term solvency.

The bill will, also, not be very popular with Democrats because it will cut the legs out from under what is left of the Stimulus money and funding for ObamaCare:

And don’t expect cheers from the White House in any case. Jordan’s bill ends the stimulus program and sends its remaining $45 billion back towards deficit reduction, which means the end of $6 billion earmarked for states already in budgetary crises. Another $16 billion meant to bolster Medicaid will make that situation even worse, since it will transfer more costs to the states (or more accurately, keep the states from transferring costs to the federal government) and set back the ObamaCare rollout. Expect Democrats to ramp up attacks on spending cuts using the same anecdotal strategy they attempted with the ObamaCare repeal vote this week.

Still, this is an excellent start to the new Republican majority in the US House. Let’s hope that it continues.

Republicans in the Senate should follow suit, as well. Sen. Jim DeMint has expressed an interest in introducing a similar bill in the Senate soon.