If party loyalty can’t be used to defund foes engaged in evil on the taxpayer’s dime, what good is it?
Where is lockstep Republican unity and devotion to Donald Trump when we need it?
There’s a time and place in partisan politics for a big-tent approach to letting legislators vote their consciences or their districts (which are often not the same things), and there’s a time and place for demanding that people stand with the party’s principles and priorities. One of the unfortunate features of the Trump years has been the extent to which Trump and his most vocal proxies in the worlds of media and activism have cowed Republicans into backing Trump on bad policies or the president’s personal priorities. But there’s a fight now brewing on Capitol Hill that really does call for the president to demand loyalty, for his lieutenants to enforce it, and for his party to demonstrate it: the chance for Congress to finally defund Planned Parenthood.
It is one thing for the Republican Party to accommodate members who are pro-choice, in the sense that they do not wish to make abortion illegal. But actively sending taxpayer money to the nation’s largest abortion mill is quite another thing. Immoral choices should not be subsidized by the taxes of people who object to them. Given the massive federal debt, it’s no time to pretend that taxpayer money is a luxury that can be spread around everywhere. Planned Parenthood does little in the way of legitimate medical work outside of abortion and has instead become a major player in the gender-transition business. Moreover, even for those Republicans who don’t care all that much about the moral issues, the group is for all intents and purposes an arm of the Democratic Party. Trump’s second term should send a message that Democratic and progressive groups no longer have a permanent entitlement to taxpayer financing that is immune to the outcomes of elections.
Republican-run states have been trying for years to get out of the business of subsidizing Planned Parenthood against their will. The Supreme Court is currently considering a case to decide whether the Medicaid program will let them do that, given that half of the money in Medicaid is put up by Uncle Sam. But Congress can cut off the funding at the source, and Republicans crafting the next budget reconciliation bill — which can pass the Senate with just 51 votes, if it makes it through the House — are looking at defunding abortion providers in Medicaid, including Planned Parenthood. Speaker Mike Johnson is pledging to pro-life groups that the bill “is going to redirect funds away from ‘big abortion.’” The problem: some moderate House Republicans, reportedly including Representatives Mike Lawler, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Jen Kiggans, are said to be balking. Lawler is said to be considering a run for governor of New York, a long shot, which would almost certainly demand that he deflect charges of being insufficiently enthusiastic about abortion, a topic that is likely to feature in 100 percent of Kathy Hochul’s general election ads.
Our own Audrey Fahlberg asked Trump yesterday about those reports:
“I don’t know yet. I have to see because you’re just telling me that for the first time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, responding to a question from National Review about his reaction to the moderate lawmakers’ reported opposition to the proposal. “We’ll work something out.”
Hopefully, Trump’s “We’ll work something out” means that he will turn the screws on enough dissenters to secure their votes. I’d love to see even half of the MAGA energy that was directed at twisting arms to get Pete Hegseth confirmed as secretary of defense put into securing a very long-standing grassroots conservative priority. If party loyalty can’t be used to defund partisan foes engaged in evil on the taxpayer’s dime, what good is it?