For years, a central pillar of the Republican platform has
been defunding Planned Parenthood. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) gave the party
another chance to follow through on its commitment to strip federal money from
the abortion provider yesterday, but the GOP failed once again to rise to the
occasion.
Sen. Paul offered an amendment
to a “minibus appropriations package for Defense, Labor, Health and Human
Services, and Education” that would have stripped federal funding from Planned Parenthood
and other organizations that provide abortions. In a press
release on his website, Sen. Paul said yesterday that Republican leadership
was blocking a vote on the amendment. Later
in the day, Paul
took to the Senate floor to accuse Republicans of blocking his amendment,
which is already included in the House version of the bill.
“Planned Parenthood ends the lives of 320,000 babies each
year,” Paul said. “That’s about 900 babies every day. Planned Parenthood receives
over $400 million of taxpayer money. The government, with a wink and a nod, tells us that Planned Parenthood doesn’t spend
the money on abortion, but everybody knows that the taxpayer is really cross-subsidizing
Planned Parenthood’s abortion mills.”
Last week, before Paul was able to add his amendment to the
limited spaces on the “amendment tree” of the bill, the Washington
Examiner reported that Republicans who were worried that the controversial amendment
would kill the funding bill placed another amend
the ent in the last slot that
changed funding of a government program by $1.
“Its only purpose was
to block Paul,” a Senate insider said.
After Paul attacked the Republican Senate leadership on the floor of the Senate, Republicans relented and
allowed a vote on the amendment. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska, joined Democrats to defeat the amendment by a vote
of 45-48. Four Republicans (Corker, Cruz, Fischer, and McCain) and three
Democrats (Hirono, Murray, and Schatz) did not vote.
With midterm prospects looking bleak, the vote may mark the
last opportunity for Republicans to
defund Planned Parenthood, but even if the amendment had passed defunding the
group would have been a long shot. If the amendment had been added to the bill,
Democrats would likely have filibustered the spending package since Republicans
would have lacked the votes for cloture.
If Republicans really wanted to defund Planned Parenthood,
it would be necessary to insert the measure in a budget reconciliation bill
that cannot be filibustered. Even then, if
Republican leaders cannot pressure Collins and Murkowski
to stick with their GOP colleagues, the two rogue senators would be enough to
defeat the measure since Democrats always vote in a bloc to protect the abortionists.
In the end, the appropriations bill passed with bipartisan
support in an 85-7
vote. The various departments of the federal government will get their
money. So will Planned Parenthood.
Originally published
on The
Resurgent
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