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Lesson Not Learned: Biden's New Budget Once Again Leaves Out the Hyde Amendment

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  March 30, 2022 1:15 PM

President Joe Biden created quite the showdown with the budget proposal he offered last year. Among other progressive wish list items and woke ridiculousness, it purposefully excluded the Hyde Amendment, a budget rider that has passed each year with bipartisan support since 1976 as a way to protect taxpayers from funding elective abortions. Ultimately, Democrats were forced to acknowledge that Hyde was here to stay. Just earlier this month, the omnibus passed for 2022 included the pro-life protections. And yet a mere few weeks later, the budget proposal from Biden once again purposefully excludes Hyde.

Excluding Hyde does not only affect the issue of "the status quo," as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, raised. Forcing taxpayers to fund abortions is unpopular with the American people, as even the far-left outlet Slate acknowledged in 2019, citing several polls.

Polls since then also confirm that Hyde is popular. An annual Marist/Knights of Columbus poll that was most recently released in January showed that a majority of Americans, at 58 percent, oppose using tax dollars to fund abortion in the United States.

In tweeting about the budget proposal, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who chairs the Republican Study Committee (RSC), reminded that over 200 members have signed onto a letter to oppose any bill without Hyde.

Rep. Banks commented further on what this says about Biden in a statement for Townhall.

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"Fortunately Biden’s budget is dead on arrival, thanks in part to the over 200 Members of Congress have signed the Republican Study Committee’s pledge to oppose any bill that doesn’t include Hyde protections," he said. "But as Biden himself once said, 'show me your budget and I’ll tell you your values.' Well, I can tell Joe Biden that he doesn’t value the 60,000 unborn lives Hyde saves every year, taxpayer’s conscience rights, or the opinions of the majority of Americans who oppose taxpayer funding for abortions."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, also weighed in with a statement emphasizing the lifesaving power behind Hyde. 

"The Biden budget is anything but 'moderate.' The most pro-abortion administration in history continues to double down on a deeply unpopular agenda that failed to pass Congress in Democrats’ most recent attempt. For more than four decades, the Hyde family of pro-life policies has kept American taxpayers out of the abortion business, with the Hyde Amendment itself saving 2.5 million lives," she said. "Once a supporter of policies that protect the lives of the unborn and their mothers, President Biden today caters to the most extreme voices within his party, throwing longstanding, bipartisan consensus out the window to fulfill a campaign promise to the radical abortion lobby. We thank our congressional allies for making Hyde principles non-negotiable and stopping the radical Biden-Pelosi-Schumer abortion agenda thus far. We urge pro-life members to keep up the fight and reject any budget that omits vital pro-life protections."

It's a boneheaded move from Biden. Not only are Republicans unified in opposing any budget without Hyde, but there's still bipartisan support for it. Last September, Sen. Joe Manchin, said that Hyde "has to be included" and spending bills without it are "dead on arrival."

House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has touted her Catholic faith before while opposing Hyde, have passed the repeal of the pro-life protection before. Such repeals have not passed the 50-50 Senate, though.

Biden, back when he was Sen. Biden from Delaware, not only bragged about his support for Hyde in fundraising letters, he also supported stricter versions of the Hyde Amendment. He ultimately abandoned that stance in June 2019, while running in what was then still a crowded Democratic primary, just a day after his campaign claimed he supported it. Kamala Harris, then his rival and now the vice president, was one of the toughest critics of his previous support.

This past support is well documented, as I've covered before. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) mentioned during a breakout session last October about Biden's failed Build Back Better Act, where Townhall was in attendance, also brought it up, offering "I agree with Joe Biden!"

Predictably, the pro-abortion groups are thrilled. They're sure to be in for a real disappointment in the long run, though.