WASHINGTON — Restrict abortion or cut spending? The Republicans’ “Pledge for America” says the new majority will do both. But negotiations over the federal budget threaten to force the GOP, including its 87 House freshmen, to choose between them.
It is a lesson in congressional reality that has Republicans struggling with how to vote — and what to do — when a divided government pits pledge against pledge.
“That’s a problem — and I mean, a real problem,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee’s budget and spending task force.
How would he vote on a budget that cuts spending but lacks the promised abortion restrictions? Jordan winces.
“We haven’t seen the finished product,” he said.
The House last month passed its version of the budget that would fund the government through September. The measure would cut spending by $61 billion and prohibit federal dollars from going to Planned Parenthood as long as the organization performs abortions. It also reinstates restrictions, lifted by President Barack Obama, on government money for any organization that funds abortions in foreign countries.
The abortion restrictions have almost no chance of being included in the spending plan that the Democrat-dominated Senate ultimately passes. That could be weeks from now, despite a March 18 deadline that carries with it the threat of a partial government shutdown.
A compromise that could pass both the House and Senate will contain at least a good portion of the cuts that now-GOP freshmen promised during the campaign and say their constituents demand. Slashing federal spending, they insist, is their No. 1 priority.
Restricting federal money for abortion providers comes a close second or third, as much a part of the GOP’s campaign “Pledge” as spending cuts and repealing Obama’s health care overhaul.
Some social conservatives are uncomfortable even talking about how they would vote should a newly negotiated budget pass the Senate and come to the House without the anti-abortion provisions.
If they vote against the new version, they also would say no to spending cuts they demanded. If they vote for it, they would ditch, for now, the party’s anti-abortion promises.
“There’s no reason to be divided. These are twin objectives,” said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who said he would vote against any budget that doesn’t “preserve life.” He predicted many Republican freshmen would vote with him.
