A band of tea party conservatives say they won’t back legislation financing government agencies unless the bill blocks federal payments to Planned Parenthood. Mainline Republican congressional leaders are desperate to avoid government shutdowns this year. But they may not have a choice. A partial shutdown will occur Oct. 1 unless lawmakers provide money to keep government functioning.
Is this the beginning of a Republican civil war over abortion? With time running out, GOP leaders haven’t said how they will handle conservatives’ demands while also rounding up enough votes to prevent a shutdown.
Conservative and Republican revulsion for Planned Parenthood and abortion was reignited this summer by secretly recorded videos showing organization officials offhandedly discussing how they sometimes provide tissue from aborted fetuses for medical researchers.
Keeping conservatives happy and prompting large numbers of them to vote in next year’s presidential and congressional elections is good for the GOP. Conservatives are among the party’s most loyal and numerous voters.
Advancing a bill that finances government agencies but blocks Planned Parenthood’s money is seen by the tea party as one way to do that.
Such a bill probably would pass the GOP-run House. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., acknowledges that he lacks the votes to prevail in his chamber and says President Barack Obama would veto it anyway.
That makes GOP leaders reluctant to force a doomed standoff with Obama that could result in a shutdown and alienate pivotal independent voters. The public mostly blamed Republicans in 2013 when a partial shutdown lasted 16 days after they tried dismantling Obama’s health care law in exchange for keeping agencies open.
“Having charged up the hill once and been shot down, why would you want to do that again?” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., an ally of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. “I’m pretty convinced we’re not going to shut down the government.”
Tea party conservatives don’t seem convinced, though. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., has collected 31 signatures from conservative lawmakers pledging to oppose any bill funding government if it includes money for Planned Parenthood.
Congressional leaders’ immediate problem is Mulvaney. If his group of 31 holds and Republican leadership still want to pass a bill preventing a shutdown and funding Planned Parenthood, that means the GOP mainliners would need Democratic votes.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
If America continues killing its babies, God is going to “shut it down” and we will never recover. If it takes a few “Good Men – and Women” to stop this madness by shutting down the entire Government, SHUT ‘ER DOWN!
Would be nice if you had even a tiny, little, dinky, shred of evidence that your god exists. Let alone that he is the only god out of the hundreds, or more, that man has created during the eons. And read the definition of the word proof before going off the deep end and telling us a book written by men or proof you have to be a true believer to see is actual proof.
How about you look towards doing something to better the lives of the numerous living children out there first? It’s amazing how much you Christians care so much about what is done to a child that isn’t born yet, but nothing is done to help those children once they are born. Not everyone has the means to support a child and not every woman should be a mother. But obviously Christians feel that innocent children should suffer.
Not that I really support abortion myself, I’d personally go with adoption. However I do not feel anyone else has a right to dictate the decisions another makes. That is between her and whatever deity she believes in. You have absolutely no right to judge any person who seeks the assistance of Planned Parenthood. That is something only your God can do, assuming that your God even truly exists.
You are so right Christians I don’t think so just a bunch of nut cases take care of the children that are already born stop taking money away from welfare programs that help these children
Stop the eggs from fertilizing then there are no babies to kill It is the unwanted babies who will suffer all of societies ills. Poverty or abuse. That is the best outcome. Don’t create a baby in the first place.
In communist China the government passed a law that all children conceived above the allowable number must be aborted . Now the Tea party wants to pass a law that in the United States no unwanted children can be aborted . Perhaps both of these laws will be the government forcing their will on the people . The opposite of freedom
Oh, so THAT’S why the Democrats overwhelmingly took control of the Senate in 2014! Oh wait. . .
The public mostly blamed Republicans in 2013 when a partial shutdown lasted 16 days after they tried dismantling Obama’s health care law in exchange for keeping agencies open.
Oh, so that’s why the Democrats overwhelmingly took the Senate in 2014! Oh wait. . .
Now, don’t bother the tea party religious nutcases with actual facts. They do not want to hear them and will not listen to them. Too busy trying to force their beliefs down our throats. The little fact that our founders went to some effort to try to keep religion and the state separate is completely lost on them.
If you will notice. I have competed the asterisk marked areas. Is this your way of censoring you comments