No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Two minutes, of course, is not time enough to discuss this issue, but I rise in opposition to this piece of legislation.
With millions out of work, the American people sent Congress a strong mandate in the last election: take action on jobs. Yet after 4 months in the House majority, Republicans have yet to put forward a jobs agenda. What are they doing instead? They are pursuing a controversial social agenda, one that is far too extreme for most Americans.
Let me say something to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, my friends on the other side of the aisle. Some of you, I think, probably characterize yourselves as libertarians, or close to libertarians. You believe the government ought to stay out of people's lives. I think that's a worthwhile premise. I have been here for, as some of you know, a long time, some 30 years; and I have heard Republicans say so often, it's their money, let them keep their money, they know better how to spend their money.
So what do you do today, my friends? What you say is, well, it's your money, and, yes, we'll give you a tax credit, if you spend it the way we want you to spend it. That's what this legislation says: it's your money, but if you don't spend it the way we want you to spend it, we will not give you the tax credit that every other American can get.
How far can you take that, my friends? In tax preference after tax preference after tax preference, we can say, you don't get it if you don't spend it the way we want you to spend it. I want you to think about that. I want you to think about the precedent that you're setting here, the social activism that you are embarking upon, on the imposition of your views on others through the Tax Code.
My friends, this bill undermines, more than any bill that I have seen, the rights of women under the Constitution of the United States.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. HOYER. May I have 1 additional minute?
Mr. CONYERS. I yield my friend an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. HOYER. Stingy, aren't you? I miss my 1 minute, ladies and gentlemen, I tell you that. The public won't know what I'm talking about, of course.
But the fact of the matter is this bill is bad public policy, it's bad for women's health, and it's bad for America. Vote ``no'' on this bill. Let freedom ring.
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