Spending Bill Passes

By now, you already know that congress has passed a trillion-dollar-plus spending package that will raise the national debt so high that our grandchildren's grandchildren will be working three jobs o pay for it. What you may not have heard, and what the media has not been reporting, may startle you...

The omnibus spending bill would lift the 13-year-long ban on directly paying for abortions in the nation's capital. The legislation, which President Barack Obama is expected to sign, also contains funding for Planned Parenthood and the UNFPA.

The Senate passed the bill, which funds several federal government departments, by a 57-35 vote, with Democrats backing the measure and most Republicans opposing it.

Passage of the measure today was no surprise given that Democrats won a filibuster battle on a narrow 60-34 vote that saw Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Richard Shelby of Alabama side with Democrats to move ahead to a vote on the bill.

Those same three Republicans voted for the bill and three Democrats, pro-abortion Sens. Evan Bayh of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, all voted against it for other reasons.

Shelby voted for the bill even though he signed a letter along with 35 other Republicans saying they would filibuster it because of the abortion funding. Collins and Cochran did not sign the letter.

Democrats held open the vote to allow ailing pro-abortion Sen. Robert Byrd to come to the Senate to vote and for pro-abortion Sen. Joseph Lieberman to walk from synagogue to support it.

Several pro-life organizations called on members of the Senate to oppose the bill because it overturned the Dornan Amendment that has prohibited taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council called the bill "a Christmas gift to Planned Parenthood" and "supporters of coercive abortion."

“This appropriations bill guts a longstanding prohibition on using public funds to pay for abortions in the District of Columbia," Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life complained in a statement to LifeNews.com.

"The bill also provides millions of dollars for international 'family planning' that could be directed to organizations that pay for and promote abortions. A majority of Americans do not support the use of their tax dollars to pay for abortions," she said.

The bill also appropriates $648.5 million for international family planning funding, an increase of $103 million from Fiscal Year 2009, without the constraints of the Mexico City Policy to prevent these dollars from being provided to organizations that promote and perform abortions.

The bill also increases funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has an admittedly pro-abortion agenda and has been criticized for working hand-in-hand with Chinese population control officials, to $55 million, a $5 million increase from FY09.

Perkins' group also said that the bill cuts abstinence education funding.

The Senate, today, passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill which doesn't include money for the military, the money for which will be subject to another vote and is expected to be $626 billion.

The bill also:

--permits detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to be transferred to the United States to stand trial but not to be released.

-- voids a long-standing ban on the funding of abortion by the District of Columbia

-- phases out a D.C. school voucher program and opens the door for the city to permit medical marijuana.

-- lifts a nationwide ban on the use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs which allows addicts to exchange needles used for injecting drugs.

-- gives federal workers pay increases averaging 2 percent, with those in high costs areas getting slightly higher increases.