The Dems are shuting down the government over federal abortion funding

Accoding to Harry Reid, there is an agreement on the amount of budget cuts and on all the policy issues save one: funding for title 10 health centers. In English rather than government-speak, this means that the issue that will shut down the government is whether or not federal funds can be used for abortions. Of course, the Democrats are trying to distort the actual facts; for example, Representative Lousie Slaughter (D-NY) actually says that the Republicans are trying to kill women. (We need Sarah Palin to come forward and call this accusation of killng a blood libel.)

The truth is that the Democrats seem to have lost their minds. For nearly forty years, federal policy has been to prohibit the use of federal funds to pay for abortions. This is not a ban on abortions. it is not a restriction of abortions. Indeed, it is just a policy that says that those Americans who are strongly opposed to abortion will not have to pay taxes so that fetuses can be aborted.

Anyone who has a memory of the debate regarding Obamacare will remember that there were a few Democrats led by former congressman Bart Stupak who got president Obama to issue an executive order banning the use of federal money to pay for abortions in exchange for their votes for Obamacare. At the time, Republicans said that the Executive Order would not actually work to stop the federal funding of abortion; in response, the media mocked them. Well now here is the proof that those Republicans were correct. If the obama Executive Order really stops federal funding of abortion, then the policy rider in the current funding dispute will have no effect other than to reinforce the already existing Executive Order. It would not make sense for the Democrats to shut down the government just to avoid a redundant policy provision. But the Democrats, instead, are fighting to their last breath to avoid the policy rider. That clearly means that the Democrats know that the Obama Executive Order is not worth the teleprompter it was written on.

The only fair reading of the situation is that the Democrats are shutting down the government to make sure that federal funds are available for abortion. They are dong this even though for forty years Democrats agreed to this policy. It is a true disgrace!