Clueless!!!

Exactly what kind of stimulus did Speaker Nancy Pelosi have in mind? That's a question more Americans are asking now that details are trickling in about the controversial $825 billion "economic recovery" package. As it stands, more than 10 percent of the proposal $87 billion would allow states to expand their "family planning" services through Medicaid. The country's recession is crippling families, and the Democrats' solution is spending billions of dollars on contraception? On yesterday's "This Week" program on ABC, George Stephanopoulos pressed Speaker Pelosi for an explanation.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost... The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health... [is] to help the states meet their financial needs... [O]ne of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?
PELOSI: No apologies. No. We have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

In other words, children are a burden to the economy, and Pelosi believes it's the government's responsibility to eliminate them. More than anything, her comments underscore the shortsightedness of these liberal policies. All reports indicate that the global family is on the decline. Although America's birth rate isn't plunging like that of European countries, it has slowed. The reason we don't find ourselves in a "demographic winter" is largely because of the fertility rates of our immigrants, many of whom come from cultures that value life. Overall, the U.S. is hovering at its replacement level, which is hardly enough to finance the Baby Boomers' retirement. If Pelosi and her Congress continue to deemphasize the family, America will travel even farther down the deadly path of our European friends.

In the meantime, Congress continues to spend outside of its means, proving that the nation will need more children not less to help pay the bills for Social Security, Medicaid, and other government entitlements that Democrats hope to expand. Obviously, there's a practical danger in suggesting that babies are problems or "punishments" (as President Obama called them) instead of blessings that build bridges to the future.

Source: FRC, ABC

A Man of Faith

I am a sports fan, and a fan of men of character. Tony Dungy, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, has been that for me and for countless Americans who admire him not just for his victories on the field but in life. Living in the public eye isn't always easy, but coach Dungy has inspired millions through his response to personal tragedy and professional success alike. A role model first and coach second, Dungy will have a legacy of service that outlasts any football record or championship. For seven years in Indiana, he used his celebrity platform to promote adoption, prison ministry, family values, outreach to the poor, and simple Christian decency.

As his own pastor said, Dungy came to Indianapolis with the understanding that "faith would come before football" and he managed to exceed expectations in both. In his retirement, coach Dungy said, "I remember... saying that our goal was to win... but that we needed to win the right way, we needed to win with the right kind of players that... our young men and women in this community could look up to and say, 'I want to be like him, or him, or him.'"

As Coach Dungy leaves a league that he made better simply for being in it, I thank him for his impact. May this new chapter for the Dungy family be the start of something even greater for the Kingdom he has so admirably served.

Source: FRC

Ignorance is not an Excuse

"I should have been more careful." In his hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, that was how Secretary of Treasure-designate Timothy Geithner explained his failure to pay more than $34,000 in taxes. Geithner, one of the more controversial nominees to Obama's new Cabinet, apologized for the "unintentional" mistakes. Not surprisingly, several Republicans still have serious doubts about Geithner's ability to handle billions of our tax dollars. Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) was not one of them. She brushed aside Geithner's personal scandal and said it shouldn't "preclude his nomination." I disagree. This isn't Geithner's money he would be mismanaging. It's ours.

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is also under investigation for tax fraud. If Geithner is successfully confirmed and Rangel refuses to step aside, it would mean the two people most responsible for crafting U.S. tax policy will be suspected tax cheats. Both have cited ignorance about our tax law as an excuse. Surely, it's not asking too much that the leaders in charge of writing and enforcing America's tax policy know what they are doing.

A World of Difference

Americans watched on television as President Bush's jumbo jet soared out of sight Tuesday, and with him, a long record of protecting the unborn. Although the Obama administration is not even a week old, the new President has already set to work undoing years of pro life and pro-family policy.

Minutes after Obama took the oath of office, the transfer of power was made complete on the White House website. The page, once home to a host of family values, now welcomes an extreme collection of anti-life, anti-woman, and anti-family agendas. Under the caption "civil rights," Obama pledges to fight for nationwide civil unions, repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, homosexual adoption, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, expanded "hate crimes," and over 1,100 costly same-sex benefits. He promises to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as well as block a federal amendment to preserve marriage. In exchange for the support of groups like Planned Parenthood, the abortion business is also due for a rich payoff from the 44th president, including his support of abortion-on-demand, more funding for "family planning" programs, embryonic stem cell experiments, and tax-funded abortion.

This city may have changed overnight, but our values are enduring. We will continue to advance faith, family, and freedom in the next four years.

Source: FRC

Keeping Promises

After granting a 24-hour stay on the execution of the unborn, President Obama delivered yesterday on his promise of taxpayer funded promotion of abortion. Yesterday afternoon, the new administration inked the order overturning the "Mexico City policy" and freeing millions of federal dollars to international abortion groups. Of course, it was no accident that the new president postponed the act until the last possible minute on Friday, knowing the repeal would be buried in the weekend headlines. Issuing it now means that even the presidential blackberry will get more media coverage than his international abortion bailout. The end of "Mexico City" is nothing less than a tragedy for the world's poor.

Let The Games Begin

So much for a spirit of bipartisanship. While President-elect Obama pledged to make the government "open" and "transparent," House Democrats are making it virtually impossible for him to keep that promise. Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) kicked off the 111th Congress by stripping Republicans of any input in the legislative process. By a vote of 242 to 181, Democrats reversed a set of fairness rules that dated back to Newt Gingrich's Contract with America. As a result of the vote, House Republicans can no longer offer substantive alternatives, propose certain amendments to Democratic bills, or force a free and open debate.

This is a significant development given the big ticket items on Obama's agenda that will cost taxpayer's trillions of dollars and potentially chart a new cultural course for the country. By shutting down the opposition, Democrats will have a blank check to fast-track some of the most controversial policies of our day. Although minority leaders strongly protested the changes, they were powerless to stop them. As the GOP leadership wrote to Pelosi in an open letter yesterday, reverting to "undemocratic one-party rule" is especially dangerous now, as the government is experiencing an "unprecedented expansion of federal power and spending." Liberals may see this as reprisal for their unpleasant stint in the minority, but playing a game of political keep-away affects millions of Americans who deserve a voice in the legislative process.

Publicly, the Democrat's have tried to position themselves as uniters. This latest move by Speaker Pelosi would suggest their spirit of cooperation was nothing more than campaign rhetoric designed to dupe voters into handing over the keys to Congress to a party with no appetite for accountability. Contact Speaker Pelosi at (202) 225-4965 and remind her that Democrats were sent to Washington to represent popular interests not partisan ones.