Recent developments make it clear that the public at large and many members of Congress and their staff members do not have a clear understanding of what the Hyde Amendment is and what it has the power to enforce. Even doing research to support my comments was challenging, because much of what is written and available online is done from the perspective of the author or the author’s political leanings and not strictly accurate.
DEFINITION: The Hyde Amendment is a rider to the annual Labor/Health and Human Services (HHS)/Education appropriations bill which prevents Medicaid and any other programs under these departments from funding abortions, except in limited cases. It is named after Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL) who, as a freshman legislator, first offered the amendment.
The Hyde Amendment was first enacted in 1976 and has been reauthorized each year since, the latest being in the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009.
FALLACY:
Hyde is settled law.
Hyde would be in force regardless of any other bill enacted by the Congress such as the health care legislation.
There are also a lot of political and emotional statements that fall under the heading of fallacy, but let’s leave them out of it and stick to truth.
FACT:
The Hyde Amendment is a rider to an appropriations bill.
The Hyde Amendment is not a stand alone law.
Since statements 1 and 2 are correct, the Hyde Amendment does not govern other laws passed by Congress unless it is specifically referenced in such laws.
Since statements 1 and 2 are correct, the legislation passed by the House of Representatives (H.R.3962) was amended by H.AMDT.509, the Stupak Amendment to codify the Hyde Amendment as part of the bill.
This language was rejected by the Senate and not included in H.R. 3590, the bill approved by the Senate on December 24, 2009, by the House on March 21, 2010 and signed by the President on March 23, 2010.
Some sources to check:
Memorandum from National Right to Life – While this was written with reference to H.R. 3200, the bill originally introduced in the House of Representatives in July 2009, it still offers an accurate analysis of the scope of the Hyde Amendment.
One of the claims most often heard is that the Hyde Amendment denies needed treatment to the poor and is therefore discriminatory. Surprisingly a 1992 poll of people making $15,000 or less found that they opposed abortion by a ratio of 2 to 1. Given recent surveys that a majority now believe that abortion destroys life, I suspect this ratio would be higher if a survey were taken today.
Planned Parenthood, through their research arm have long promoted the concept that there is a cost benefit to providing abortion services in that it costs less than providing maternity benefits and subsequent child welfare services. How grotesque is that?
Another argument often heard is that women who are denied abortion services through Medicaid will go to illegal abortion providers; however, I found no statistical evidence to support that.
Has the Hyde Amendment been beneficial? I suppose that depends on your point of view. Prior to Hyde, the federal Medicaid program paid for about 300,000 abortions annually. In fiscal year 2004, that number was 159.
I have thought long and hard about the bills being considered by Congress. They seem to want to ram huge spending bills through without looking at the big picture.
Yes, we have need to address health care costs. But the first step to doing that is to examine factors that contribute to the costs. Congress seems bent on mandating huge changes that will be detrimental to our health care delivery system without addressing the issues that need consideration.
Yes, we have a need to replace lost jobs, but Congress doesn’t seem interested in why we are losing so many jobs. What factors are causing jobs to go out of the country and what makes it so difficult for people to find jobs in the same or other industries?
What about costs of education? And the quality of our schools? How are these issues affecting our economy? How do we improve the performance of teachers and students in what seems to be a failing system? How can we provide access to better schools for students in failing ones?
What is the effect of illegal immigration on the job market? On health care costs? On education? On other public services? On crime?
We need to know the answers to these questions before we can approach legislation. Sure, everyone has an opinion, but what are the facts? Here in Minnesota, studies have been done on the cost to schools, hospitals and public services related to illegal immigration. Yet the problem goes deeper than just those individuals. Often they do not pay taxes, so the state gets a double whammy … lost tax revenue as well as the cost of providing services. Clearly there is much to think about before we go legislating. Since Congress and the President seem so fond of commissions, how about one to study these issues and make some recommendations? We are running out of time.
I heard about a report detailing population trends in Minnesota and their effect on state and local tax revenues. It was interesting reading. The Tax Migration Study from the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota details significant out-migration of high wage earners and the reasons they left the state. It also includes information on where they move to. What was significant about the study was that we not only lost tax revenue, but the purchasing power represented by these people and its impact on the economy.
Some of the reasons people leave cannot be changed. No matter what Al Gore says, Minnesota is not going to be a tropical paradise any time soon. And it just costs more to build and operate homes in our climate.
Another factor was population density. Minnesota has only 62.2 people per square mile, a factor which many would applaud. Yet people leaving the state chose to move to area with 275% higher population density.
The study concludes that “Minnesota should work toward reducing the state and local tax burden via reductions in the income tax which would encourage both people and income to stay in Minnesota or move into the state.” Sounds like reasonable advice, but getting our legislature to agree may be difficult, to say the least. Current estimates show that Minnesota has a $1.6 billion shortfall for the current biennium, 70% of which is due to lower individual income tax collections.
I was going to write about many things, but got sidetracked by an article that ran this week in Denmark … EDITORIAL: Obama greater than Jesus
The more I thought about how I wanted to address this, the more I knew that nothing I could say would be better than the Word of the Lord, so here it is:
If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
I was intrigued by the description of Benjamin Merkle’s book – The White Horse King – and chose it to review for Thomas Nelson Publishers. I have always been interested in English history, but of a later period.
The White Horse King is the story of the Life of Alfred the Great – the only English king to be known by that designation. Alfred was born in 849 AD, the fifth son of the Anglo-Saxon king Aethelwulf. At the time of his birth, England was a collection of smaller kingdoms. Wessex, Alfred’s domain comprised the area in southern England adjacent to the English channel. It was a nation bisected by rivers, which made it a prime country for invasion by Vikings. Much of Alfred’s early life was spent in fighting against invasion. His experience prompted him to make sweeping changes in the way his land was defended. It caused him to build a navy for coastal defense. It caused him to build fortified cities from which the surrounding country could be defended and to establish a standing army which remained in the field for defense. These were just a few of the innovations which made Alfred a great king.
He also was concerned to establish literacy in his kingdom and provided for the education of his subjects. He translated or oversaw the translation of scripture. Alfred’s greatest accomplishment was that he trained an entire generation of English leaders, “men who understood wisdom, justice, righteouness and the true duties of a ruler”.
The White Horse King is a book of history rather than a historical novel. Yet it was an enjoyable read and I learned much about England prior to the Norman conquest. William the Conqueror is often credited with unifying England. It appears that honor really goes to Alfred the Great.
The Honorable Amy Klobuchar
The Honorable Al Franken
Senators:
I write you today on a matter of high concern to all citizens. As numerous public opinion polls and the great number of protests across the nation show, we do not support the actions of the Congress regarding health care. While no one would deny that reducing the cost of health care and making sure that people have access to quality care are important objectives, we strongly object to the way Congress has framed this issue.
There are many points in the proposed legislation to address, but first I want to address your obligation to us … the people you are supposed to represent. We didn’t send you to Congress to be our caretakers. We didn’t send you to do our thinking for us. We sent you to represent us. By definition, a representative is an agent of the one(s) sending them and has an obligation to faithfully present their point of view. For some time, Congress has failed to be representative of the people.
You, Senators, are in an enviable position. You have the opportunity to provide a shining example for your colleagues. You do not need to base your vote on getting a share of the money raised by the Democratic Campaign Committee for election. You are immune from the arm twisting that will be used against members standing for election in 2010. Further, neither of you can be threatened with losing committee chairmanships dependent on your vote. You should be under obligation only to the people who elected you. The question is: how will you respond to that?
I have read the text of HR 3200 and HR 3962 as well as that of the previously submitted Senate bill. I am now working my way through the Reid bill, although it is challenging and I do not expect to get through even 25% of it before your expected vote on Saturday. My first question to you is this: how can you maintain the public trust if you continue to vote on bills that you do not read? This legislation will make a seismic change in the way health care is delivered and paid for. It will put the federal government squarely between people and their health care providers. How can you possibly consider voting for any action on it until you have read it?
My first concern is the dishonesty of this legislation. Rather than introducing a bill and letting it go through the normal processes, the Senate leadership has produced this legislation as an amendment to a bill previously passed in the House. This is a clearly an end run around the legislative process. It may be business as usual in the Congress, but is it in the interests of the people?
While we are talking about dishonesty, let’s focus on another issue. Many provisions of this bill do not go into effect until 2013 … after your next election, Senator Klobuchar, after a presidential election and two rounds of House elections. Those provisions that go into effect immediately serve to glamorize the bill … making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It will allow politicians to use it as a credential while seeking re-election without the people experiencing what has been visited upon them. You owe us better than that.
The President and leaders of the House and Senate have been telling us for months about the hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud in the Medicare system. So how have they determined to rectify that situation? By cutting benefits and using that money to pay for other aspects of their health care plan. How about doing an audit and discovering where the money is being wasted and making needed changes? How about discovering who is defrauding Medicare and going after them for restitution? If you truly know that hundreds of billions of dollars are being lost to fraud and waste, isn’t it part of the obligation you own your constituents to put a stop to it?
Secondly, let’s consider the cost of this legislation. Depending on who you believe, we have a projected cost in the neighborhood of One Trillion Dollars. Yes, I know that the CBO score is more like $849 billion and they claim a deficit reduction of $130 billion over the first ten years of the program. But let’s talk truth … that is an accounting fallacy because the bill provides to ten years of revenue stream against 5 to 6 years of cost. Further, it does not include the “doctor fix”. If we compare estimated costs for other spending programs against actual (Medicare, for example), it is entirely reasonable to expect the real cost of this bill to be Five to Seven Trillion Dollars, which would all serve to increase the deficit.
Simply put, we cannot afford this legislation. At a time when revenues are down and probably will be for the next two years at least, the federal government should be practicing a little fiscal belt tightening, not spending money we don’t have.
Thirdly, there are serious concerns about the constitutionality of this legislation. Congress has chosen to ignore these issues and has devoted untold hours to legislation that is not wanted by the people, which we cannot pay for and that may in fact not even be legal. Your saying it is doesn’t make it so, and your ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away.
There are many, many things wrong with the approach to medical care defined in this bill. We are a nation of individuals and the one size fits all approach doesn’t work. In this case, a bloated giant of a bill that creates numerous new taxes, new agencies and new mandates will probably make the health care situation worse rather than better. We would do better to take some time to determine the most pressing needs and deal with them separately. A government takeover of health care serves no one.
At a time when we are struggling to pay our bills and put food on the table and when we don’t know from one day to the next whether we will even have a job, shouldn’t your focus be on what you can do to encourage job creation and buttress the economy? Here are some suggestions that might make all the difference in our struggling job market:
Extend the current individual tax cuts through 2012
Reduce the corporate income tax
Reduce or eliminate the capitol gains tax.
Offer investment incentives for small business.
Offer incentives for job creation by small business
STOP wasteful government spending … no more money to TARP, the Stimulus or other porkulus projects.
Senators, I urge you to consider the needs of your constituents and devote your energies to programs that will serve our needs. Please vote no on Senator Reid’s proposed legislation. Perhaps if you come up with effective solutions such as some of the ones suggested above, we will be able to pay for a health care bill in the future. But that time is not now.
You get a hint of where Richard Stearns is taking you from the question and answer posed on the jacket of the book. Stearns asks “What does God expect of us?” and says the book contains “the answer that changed my life and might just change the world”.
I seldom run across a book that I cannot read straight through, often in a matter of hours after getting it. This was one of those books. I started easily enough as Stearns took us through his early life, corporate achievement and the challenge to his faith that came through recruitment as the new President of World Vision. As he began talking about his early experiences with World Vision and how it changed his outlook, I found myself being convicted about how I have failed to care sufficiently for “the least of these”. Reading the rest of the book was slower going and it made me evaluate my calling in the church. If Stearns goal was to make us grow in our faith and faithfulness, he certainly did so in me.
The hole he describes in our gospel is often seen in our single mindedness as to how we go about fulfilling the Great Commission. We are called to go and make disciples, but we often have differing ideas about what that means. It is more than bringing people to saving faith. It is also helping to meet their immediate needs and teaching them so they can meet their own needs and those of others in the future. The whole gospel as advocated by Stearns saves lives materially in this world and eternally in the next.
Here’s how our Minnesota Representatives voted on HR 3962 – the Pelosi Health Industry Grab
Rep. Timothy Walz [D-MN1] – YES
Rep. John Kline [R-MN2] – NO
Rep. Erik Paulsen [R-MN3] – NO
Rep. Betty McCollum [D-MN4] – YES
Rep. Keith Ellison [D-MN5] – YES
Rep. Michele Bachmann [R-MN6] – NO
Rep. Collin Peterson [D-MN7] – NO
Rep. James Oberstar [D-MN8] -YES
Thanks to Collin Peterson of the 7th Minnesota Congressional District for standing up to Pelosi and voting for the interests of his district.
I’m disappointed in most of them, especially the rep for my area who indicated he would vote NO up to the time of the vote and then voted the party line. I am sure he will claim to have gotten some concession for his vote (as he has done in the past). It is not an argument that resonates with me. I always thought the word “representative” meant agent of the people. With the majority of the people being against this bill, his vote is a repudiation of his responsibility to us. What part of selling your vote is representative for the people of our district? Will you then pay us to vote for you?
The only good news is that it’s not over yet. The Senate has to vote on a bill and then that bill will have to be reconciled with the House bill. Then both will have to approve the new bill. Lots of opportunity to make our voices heard. As you might guess, I am not sitting silently on the sidelines.
I can’t believe it has been a month since I posted anything here. Of course, it has been an eventful month. Matthew Smith, a national recording artist did a concert at our church in July. And we had a booth at the Crow Wing County Fair. And just getting ready and getting over those events was enough to keep us running, but I have also been busy with political activism … I’m still a rabble rouser even if of a different flavor than in times past.
I’m working on some commentary on health care legislation, cap & trade and other concerns and will post it soon. In the meantime, catch up with me on Facebook if you don’t find me here.
Like most of my friends, I am so disappointed and disgusted with Congress that I don’t know where to start. In spite of massive objections and so many phone calls that it shut down the capital phone system, the house passed the egregious Waxman-Markey bill known as Cap and Trade. Many representatives who had presented themselves as being against the bill voted for it in the end in exchange for special consideration for their districts in some instances and in exchange for bribes in others. (I am here defining bribes as promise of funds from the Congressional war chests to help with reelection in the 2010 campaign.) In other words, our elected representatives voted in their best interest rather than in ours. And lied and continue to lie to us about the repercussions of this bill. We can only pray that the Senate will listen and not pass it.
Then there is the anti-majority hate bill, otherwise known as the Matthew Sheppard bill. It is hard to discern why Matthew Shepperd was killed but sexual orientation seems to be a motive more to those who are promoting this bill than to those who committed the crime. Regardless, many states passed laws that cover this type of crime. The law passed by the House and pending in the Senate creates a protected class that covers much more than just homosexuals. Application of parts of this bill restricts civil and religious rights of the majority of the population. Under this bill, you could be prosecuted for what you think and believe. NOT a good bill. What are they thinking?
Congress knows all this. They know bow much opposition there is to this bill. So, instead of dropping the bill, or trying to pass it over opposition, Harry Reid and Senate Democrats have attached the bill to a Defense Appropriations bill as an amendment. Can we all spell underhanded?
And then there is health insurance. The Senate and House leadership (Democrats) are writing bills and the house version was recently released. You might want to read the text of H.R. 3200. I would encourage you to do so. If you do, you will know more about the bill than your elected representative because, as we have learned of late, they don’t read the bills they pass. Indeed, Steny Hoyer thinks it is expecting far, far to much to ask that they do so. And what is being said in support of this bill is in direct contradiction to what the bill says.
There is so much other legislation being fast tracked that it makes ones head spin. I really believe the only cure for this Congressional madness is to fire them all. Fire each and every representative who voted for these horrible pieces of legislation and for the huge deficits under T.A.R.P. and all the other funding bills that have come down the pike in the last 6 months. I don’t care whose financial policies created the mess. Our government, President and Congress alike, are not helping … they are making things worse. They need to be fired for incompetency. Every Representative and Senator up for reelection in 2010 need to have their votes on these issues help up for scrutiny and they need to be fired.
Let’s get the Donald to teach us to say it … You’re FIRED!
I think it is critical for politicians of any party to stand for something. When the established parties use endorsements as payback, they deserve the defeat they get. I’m glad to see Governor Huckabee bucking the establishment to support a principled public servant in Florida.
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were. Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” John Donne (1572 – 1631)
When did we stop believing this? We believed it 50 years ago when college students from all over the country rallied and marched in support of blacks in the south. We believed it when we gathered to mourn our slain president and we believed it 5 years later when his brother was also assassinated. When did we start believing nothing was so important as us and our desires? When did we decide that it doesn’t matter what changes take place in society as long as it doesn’t affect ME?
I realized (again) in the last few days that I have a worldview so at odds with many that I wonder how we can communicate. You see, I believe Donne’s statement. I believe when any group of people is oppressed, it is my obligation to stand in support of them. If not, who will stand in support of me when I need it? I believe in mutual respect, even of those who do not agree with me.
And I believe we must demonstrate this is all areas of our lives, including our political affiliations. When Congress passes a bill that targets a specific group, we should not be silent because it “doesn’t affect me”. Such tactics are divisive and violate the intent of the fathers of our country. “We believe that all men are created equal …” Note, they did not say anything about some being more equal than others when it comes to shouldering the obligations of the nation. They did not say anyone should get a free ride. I believe they intended that we should have equal opportunity, but the results we achieved should be due to our own efforts and abilities.
Somewhere along the line we seem to have decided that created equal means we must legislate equality by the Robin Hood method … the only problem with that is that when government decides to level the playing field, the only winner is government. You can’t raise the economic standards of the poor by taking from those more well off and handing out freebies. All that does is create more generations of people who don’t have and will never have because you have stolen their incentive to get.
Like many people, I wondered why our president would go to Europe and apologize for “American arrogance”. I was also troubled when he declined to visit American graves in France because it might offend the Germans. What?
I got an e-mail today that made me go searching to verify information. The e-mail questioned why the president would make such a statement in view of the many American lives lost to keep Europe free. As I searched to verify the facts of the e-mail, I discovered some sobering information:
There are 24 permanent American burial grounds on foreign soil, mostly in Europe.
124,909 US war dead are buried in these cemeteries: 30,321 from World War I; 93,238 from World War II and 750 from The Mexican War
Of course this is only a portion of those who lost their lives in these wars. You can find information on these cemeteries at the website of the American Battle Monuments Commission. As I read through the information on the various sites, I was shocked to discover that there are many still listed as missing … unknown 65 years after the invasion of Europe in 1944.
The e-mail I got questioned why we are considered arrogant and what we have to apologize for. It ended with this: “How many French, Dutch, Italians, Belgians and British are buried on our soil after having defended us against our enemies?” Good Question!
This week I discovered how much people don’t know about their rights as citizens. I had two separate casual conversations which really opened my eyes.
I was talking with a young father about his concerns about the school his children attend. He was voicing his disapproval of policy changes currently before the school board. I asked him if he had written the school board members, or gone to their meeting. He said: “I can’t do that!” and was surprised that I thought he could. He just wasn’t aware that he had that right.
Then I was chatting with my hairdresser about children and asked her opinion of the proposed UN treaty on the rights of children. She had never heard of it. When I explained a little about it, she was appalled and wanted to know what she could do to stop it. Again, she was hesitant to write a Congress person about it. She wondered why she hadn’t seen anything about this in the news.
And then it hit me … we don’t see a lot of what happens in Congress in the news. Unless you are a real detective, it is hard to know what is going on in legislative circles. Even then, I often find it hard to get information on bills I know have been introduced. Bills such as the G.I.V.E. Act get passed without a ripple of interest. What we hear in the news and what is actually in the bill are worlds apart. Of course, most of our representatives don’t know what is in these bills either. They don’t read them. At most, they trust the legislative summaries to make their decisions. Or worse yet, they just vote the party line without ever trying to discern whether the bill is really in the interest of their constituents.
I think it is time to bring back civic classes in schools. We need to teach our citizens what government is about. Of course, once they discover that it is supposed to be of, for and by them, they might take it away from the people who currently wield power.
But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6, ESV)
I was intrigued by the description of Benjamin Merkle’s book – The White Horse King – and chose it to review for 
You get a hint of where Richard Stearns is taking you from the question and answer posed on the jacket of the book. Stearns asks “What does God expect of us?” and says the book contains “the answer that changed my life and might just change the world”. 
And what is being said in support of this bill is in direct contradiction to what the bill says.