20 Dec 2004
Conservatives welcome 'new day' (USATODAY.com)

Note the agenda proposed here:

  • Abortion limits. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., will reintroduce a bill that would require those who perform abortions after 20 weeks to tell mothers that their fetus feels pain and to offer it anesthesia. The Bush administration has not declared a position but argued during last year's successful effort to ban late-term or "partial birth" abortions that fetuses feel pain. "This was a very clear election cycle. ... The country has shifted. You've got a pro-life electorate," Brownback says.
  • Gay marriage. Congress failed last year to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman. But since 11 states approved initiatives against gay marriage, conservatives say they have momentum. Deborah Pryce of Ohio, who chairs the House Republican Conference, predicts the amendment, which Bush supports, will be voted on again.
  • Spending. Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., will resubmit a long-shot balanced budget constitutional amendment that would oblige the government to spend no more than it takes in. The House passed the measure in 1997, but the Senate was one vote short at a time when it also had 55 Republicans. If approved by Congress, the amendment must be passed by three-fourths of the states to become law.
  • Environment. Several new Republican senators favor oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (news - web sites). They could give Republicans the last few votes needed to pass the controversial provision as part of a larger energy bill stalled in the Senate.
  • Clergy and politics. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., will reintroduce a bill that would make it legal for churches to participate in political campaigns without losing tax-exempt status. It's not clear whether Bush will weigh in on the issue.

The only one I agree with is the balanced budget amendment, and that's the one least likely to pass! Especially given our President's desire to be "compassionate". But what's really depressing here is the Congressman quoted: Mike Pence. He's from my district. He ran more or less unopposed in the last election (the Dem didn't bother campaigning). It's depressing.

USATODAY.com - Exit polls indicate social conservatives voted in about the same proportion as in 2000. But many credit them with President Bush's margin of victory over Democrat John Kerry and say the election was a referendum on conservative values. "It's a new day," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind. said, "and a new Congress."

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

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