The professional left is planning a tag-team hunger strike to agitate for a confirmation vote on Loretta Lynch’s nomination for U.S. Attorney General. Senate Democrats are again balking at the latest peace-offering from Republicans to clear a path for a vote on Lynch. It is important to remember that this entire fight comes down to abortion.
The Senate is currently considering legislation to further crack down on human sex trafficking. Senate Democrats, unbelievably, have blocked action on the bill because it prohibits federal money from paying for abortion.
This restriction on abortion funding, known in Washington as the “Hyde Amendment” has been a part of federal law for decades. It generally applies to money appropriated out of the U.S. Treasury. The Senate Human Trafficking bill would also prohibit abortions funded out of the fines and penalties collected from criminals guilty of human trafficking.
That is the hill the Senate Democrats, and now the professional Left, have chosen to fight on. They want the feds to be able to use the fines imposed on criminals to pay for abortions. In their political philosophy, these fines are “non-taxpayer dollars” and should be free to flow to abortion clinics.
The Senate Democrats are driven by a new left-wing philosophy that is more akin to a religion than politics. It is a party driven by a constant search for heretics, both in and out of political office.
Were Senate Democrats to accept long-standing federal policy concerning abortion funding, the Human Trafficking bill would clear the Senate and the chamber could quickly move to the Lynch nomination. Already, five GOP Senators have announced their surrender on the Lynch nomination and say they will support her, so she would likely be confirmed.
Because the word “abortion” is involved, Republicans in Washington would rather not have a public debate on the Senate Democrat’s radical position. As a result, the public is largely unaware that the Lynch nomination is only being held up because Democrats are pushing to loosen the restriction on federal funding of abortion.
A vote on Loretta Lynch is hostage to the Senate Democrats’ abortion demands, not intransigence from Republicans. The GOP has very substantive reasons to oppose Lynch, as she has endorsed President Obama’s extra-constitutional executive orders and directives. Sadly, the Republicans will likely demur from that topic as well.
Debates in Washington are rarely what they appear to the public. This is especially true when the D.C. Republicans cede the public debate to Democrats and the professional left. The fight over a Lynch confirmation vote is about abortion. The Republicans will shortly lose both fights.
You can’t win a fight you don’t engage.