It seems like only last week that Democrats were excoriating
Joe Biden for his support of the Hyde Amendment. Actually, it really was only
last week. That’s why many observers are somewhat surprised that House
Democrats just passed a bill that keeps the Hyde Amendment alive for another
year.
Last week, the pro-abortion left viciously attacked
Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden for his continued support of the Hyde
Amendment, a series of laws that prohibit using taxpayer funds for abortion. The
backlash against Biden’s deviation from the leftist norm was so swift and severe
that the candidate reversed himself quickly from a position that he had held
for nearly a half-century.
“Circumstances have changed,” Biden
told his supporters.
Now, a few days later, CNN
reports that the Democrat-controlled House is scheduled to vote on a major
spending today that will include the Hyde Amendment. Rep. Ayanna Pressley
(D-Mass.) introduced an amendment to remove the Hyde Amendment language from the
bill, but the House leadership denied her a vote after the House Rules
Committee determined that Pressley’s amendment decided it violated rules.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) has urged his
caucus to support the minibus spending bill, which includes funding for a wide
range of federal departments and services. Democrats say that they don’t see a
way to remove the Hyde Amendment language at the moment.
Biden’s reversal was “probably a rational decision for him
to make,” Hoyer said, but added, “We have to deal with the legislative process
here in the Congress.”
The Democratic conundrum on the Hyde Amendment is similar to
the Republican problem on defunding Planned Parenthood and Obamacare or passing
funding for the wall. Democrats control only one house of Congress while
legislation must pass through the Senate and cross the president’s desk before
it becomes law. If House Democrats pass a bill without the Hyde Amendment, it
would be DOA in Mitch McConnell’s Senate.
The standoff would set up a confrontation over spending of
the sort that has resulted in brinksmanship or government shutdowns in the past.
Such standoffs usually reflect poorly on both parties and tend to be unwinnable.
Added to tactical concern is the fact that Democrats are out
of the mainstream when it comes to federal funding for abortion, just as
Republicans are on defunding
Planned Parenthood and building
a wall. Slate
cites a bevy of polls that show that most Americans don’t want abortion to be a
service funded by taxpayers.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did signal that the Hyde
Amendment is definitely a target for Democrats should they win enough votes. “I
wish we never had a Hyde amendment,” Pelosi said, “but it is the law of the
land right now and I don't see that there is an opportunity to get rid of it
with the current occupant of the White House and some in the United States
Senate.”
The bottom line is that Democrats really don’t want the Hyde
Amendment, but, having seen Republican frustrations with trying to force
controversial items through Congress, they know that it is much easier to stop
a piece of legislation than to pass one. Democrats don’t want to be viewed as
obstructing a necessary spending bill just prior to the election. If
Republicans blocked the bill without the Hyde Amendment, Democrats would be
forced into a lose-lose situation of either publicly surrendering or shutting
the government down and then publicly surrendering while fighting for an
unpopular position.
Democrats aren’t necessarily being hypocritical on the Hyde
Amendment. Instead, they are being pragmatic and acting strategically. They
haven’t changed their core principles of supporting abortion and spending more
taxpayer money, but they do realize that it would be counterproductive to their
cause to push the issue now.
Originally published on The
Resurgent
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