Billions will be spent on government services, but little if any of the money will go to family-friendly causes.
Both the House and Senate have passed an omnibus spending bill totaling more than $1.1 trillion. Family advocates are concerned because it contains more lenient policies on money for abortion services, but pulls funding from family-friendly programs like abstinence education.
Max Pappas, vice president of public policy for Freedom Works, said it increases federal spending by 25 percent.
"A staggering increase," he said, "especially at a time when the economy is struggling and every taxpayer out there is trying to find a way to save money."
Along with the $2 trillion in the Department of Defense bill, which is expected to pass, this makes the debt ceiling about $14 trillion – a 55 percent increase since 2007.
"If there was such a thing as a thousand-dollar bill," Pappas said, "the stack you would need to reach a trillion dollars would reach into outer space."
U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran said the bill is full of problems.
"There is no ban in this bill on the funding of abortions in the District of Columbia," the Kansas Republican said. "It phases out the voucher system in the D.C. school districts and increases family planning money internationally by 20 percent."
That's $648.5 million going to fund international abortions.
The spending bill also cuts funding for abstinence-education programs.
Valerie Huber, executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, said the measure creates a new funding stream for teen pregnancy prevention and moves the oversight of that program to the secretary of Health and Human Services, a highly political office.
"While they're creating a new teen pregnancy prevention program," she said, "they're creating a new office of adolescent health, and there is not one penny devoted to primary prevention or risk avoidance for teens."
Contact: Kim Trobee
Source: CitizenLink
Publish Date: December 14, 2009
Link to this article.
Send this article to a friend.
