‘One is reminded of the famous comment from President Obama’s first chief of staff: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste”…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Democrats reportedly tried to sneak abortion funding and paid parental-leave into the House’s coronavirus relief package, according to senior White House officials.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., attempted to include a loophole that would guarantee federal funding for abortion services, according to the Daily Caller.
She wanted a provision of $1 billion to reimburse laboratory claims, which would essentially allow Democrats to circumvent the Hyde Amendment in the future, officials explained. The Hyde Amendment ensures that federal taxpayer dollars do not fund abortions.
“A new mandatory funding stream that does not have Hyde protections would be unprecedented,” a White House official said. “Under the guise of protecting people, Speaker Pelosi is working to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent covering abortion—which is not only backwards, but goes against historical norms.”
Democrats eventually agreed to vote on the provision separately, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced he will not support it.
“The country is looking to the government to come together and meet these challenges, but the bill that we saw that just came forth last night at 11 p.m. comes up short,” he said on Thursday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blasted Pelosi for attempting to force Republicans to accept an “ideological wish list” stacked with “various areas of policy that are barely related, if at all, to the issue before us.”
“Unfortunately, it appears at this hour that the Speaker and House Democrats instead chose to produce an ideological wish list that was not tailored closely to the circumstances,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “One is reminded of the famous comment from President Obama’s first chief of staff: ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.’”