The Biden-Becerra Budget: Equity Is In, Religious Freedom Is Out
https://deepstatetribunal.com/the-biden-becerra-budget-equity-is-in-religious-freedom-is-out/
On the Friday before Memorial Day, President Biden quietly released
his budget for the fiscal year 2022, clearly hoping people’s attention would be
anywhere but on his plans for America. I am not here referring to the billions
upon billions of wasteful spending he is proposing, but to something more
pernicious — the rise of the “woke” budget and how it seeks to transform this
country.
A word search of the president’s 33-page budget narrative reveals his
administration’s priorities. It mentions “equity” and its variations 49 times,
while a variant of the now passe’ term “equality” is mentioned just once, and
probably by accident. Gobs of other intersectional buzzwords are layered
throughout, with women/gender, race/racial, people of color, minority, black,
Asian American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic, Native American, sexual orientation,
and transgender/gender identity appearing a whopping 90 times combined.
Conspicuously missing from Biden’s equity list, however, is any
mention of conscience or religious liberty. By contrast, the Trump
administration’s budgets put these issues front and center, as they should be.
(See Amend. I, U.S. Const.).
As director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS) under President Trump, I founded the nation’s first
Conscience and Religious Freedom Division to ensure these fundamental rights
would never again be treated as second-class rights. Here is a sampling of the
division’s accomplishments that are now at risk:
- Securing a $200 million disallowance of
Medicaid funds from California, the first such disallowance in history,
after the state required an order of nuns to purchase abortion insurance.
(Yes, nuns.)
- Holding California in violation of the
Weldon Amendment for attempting to force pro-life pregnancy-resource
centers — which give pregnant mothers life-affirming options — to refer
for state-funded abortions.
- Issuing landmark regulations to provide
proper enforcement tools for approximately two dozen conscience-protection
statutes in existence for decades but underenforced.
- Holding the University of Vermont Medical
Center in violation of the Church Amendments for forcing a nurse to assist
in an abortion after being informed well ahead of time that the nurse
could not participate because of moral and religious objections to
abortion.
- Assuring safe access to clergy in
hospitals during COVID-19 so that patients would no longer die alone.
- Guaranteeing access to safe importation
of childhood vaccines that have not been derived with the use of aborted
fetal cell lines for people who object to abortion on religious grounds.
I say these accomplishments are at risk for good reasons. Prime among
them is the fact that the most notorious violator of conscience laws in recent
years, Xavier Becerra, is now the secretary of HHS. In fact, as attorney
general of California, Becerra was the guilty party in the first two
enforcement actions mentioned above. Even Justice Kennedy called him out in
NIFLA v. Becerra for “compel[ling] individuals to contradict their most deeply
held beliefs” on abortion like a “relentless authoritarian regime[].”
Relentless, indeed. This authoritarian streak is all the scarier now that
Becerra, with Biden’s full support, is the regime pushing a radically coercive
pro-abortion agenda.
Becerra’s first budget for HHS has erased nearly all mention of
conscience and religious freedom enforcement, exposing Becerra’s contrary
assurances about enforcement at his confirmation hearing as misrepresentations
at best. The budget about-face prompted Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, a
smart questioner if ever there was one, to ask at yesterday’s budget hearing
point-blank: “It seems like you are eliminating the Conscience and Religious
Freedom Division. Is that true?” Becerra, clearly uncomfortable answering,
responded by assuring us that the “Office for Civil Rights,” of which the
division is a part, will continue to “be a solid organization” in protecting
religious-conscience rights. Smelling a dodge, Lankford followed up two more
times, specifically asking about the future of the division, but the most Becerra
would say was “the work will not change . . . nothing there changes.”
Congressional oversight will soon enough determine if he was lying.
But for now, we certainly know what Becerra wants to do, but he couldn’t bring
himself to go on the record and just say it. Perhaps he realizes the public
outrage it would cause among people of good will who don’t want to be forced to
pay for other people’s abortions nor see anyone forced to assist in the grisly
procedure. Perhaps he knows he might lose Congress to a pro-life majority in
less than two years and that they would control his budget. Perhaps he realizes
how Nixonian it would look to shut down a law-enforcement unit that held him
accountable by name. Perhaps.
California Governor Jerry Brown Asks President Trump for Help (Past Research on Xavier Becerra)
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2017
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2017/02/california-governor-jerry-brown-asks.html
Xavier
Becerra is a regent for the Smithsonian
Institution.
Mike Pence is
a regent for the Smithsonian Institution
and the vice president for the Donald Trump
administration.
Joseph
R. Biden Jr. is a regent at the Smithsonian
Institution, the vice president for the Barack Obama administration,
and the president of the Biden administration.
John
G. Roberts Jr. is the chancellor for the Smithsonian Institution, the chief justice for
the U.S. Supreme Court.
Shirley
Ann Jackson is a regent for the Smithsonian
Institution, and a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
David
M. Rubenstein is a regent for the Smithsonian
Institution, a co-chairman for the Brookings Institution (think tank) a board
member for the National Museum of American
History and was a benefactor at the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings
Institution (think tank) and the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
George Soros was
the chairman for the Foundation to Promote
Open Society.
National Museum of Natural History is a member of the Smithsonian
Institution.
Darwin Exhibition Opens at Smithsonian’s National Museum
of Natural History
September 10, 2009
The National Museum of Natural
History will open a new exhibition, “Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution,” Sept. 12 in
celebration of the 200th anniversary of Charles
Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of
his groundbreaking “On the Origin of Species.” The exhibition will be on view
through July 18, 2010. A team of museum scientists from the departments of
Botany, Entomology, Mineral Sciences, Paleobiology and Vertebrate Zoology collaborated
on the exhibition.
“Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution” highlights the significant
role that Darwin’s theories have played in explaining and unifying all the
biological sciences. Specimens from the museum’s diverse collections, along
with documentation of ongoing research at the museum, illustrate the importance
of evolution as a scientific foundation, and how knowledge of evolution has
evolved over the past 150 years.
The exhibition includes about 90 objects with seven books and 80
specimens from the museum’s collections, including fossils, insects, plants,
dog skulls, goat horns, mice and birds. The most intriguing specimen may also
be considered one of the least attractive—a bird named the Hudsonian Godwit
that Darwin collected in 1837. The presentation of new discoveries made by
Museum of Natural History scientists shows the vast influence of the
evolutionary theory and how the research and inquiry processes that Darwin
promoted continue today. One recent discovery on view is a new species of
heliconia plant that was named in honor of Cristián Samper, museum director and
botanist.
The exhibition will be complemented by a public symposium on Darwin, a
children’s public program and an exhibit presented by Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
The Darwin Anniversary Symposium will be hosted by Hans-Dieter Sues,
associate director for Research and Collections, and Douglas Erwin, senior
scientist in the Department of Paleobiology. This all-day event features talks
on a variety of subjects from evolutionary biology by internationally renowned
experts from the museum and other institutions. The symposium will take place
Saturday, Sept. 12, 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. in the museum’s Baird Auditorium. It is
free and open to the public.
“Create Your Own Nature Bio-Journal” is a kid-friendly workshop that
will be held at the museum Saturday, Sept. 12, 1 – 4 p.m., in the Sant Ocean
Hall. Guided by artist and author Edwin Fontánez, children create bio-journals
to record observations of nature and decorate them with rubber stamps of their
favorite animals, flowers and birds and their own drawings. Co-sponsored by the
Smithsonian Latino Center, the workshop also celebrates Hispanic Heritage
Month. The event is free and open to the public.
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries opens its new exhibition,
“Darwin’s Legacy,” at the museum Sept. 10. The exhibition features the first
edition of Darwin’s book, “On the Origin of Species,” published in 1859. The
exhibition also showcases Darwin’s silk neckerchief, Joseph Henry’s desk diary,
beautifully illustrated volumes from “The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S.
Beagle” (edited by Darwin and published from 1838 – 1843), a background map of
the track of the H.M.S. Beagle and Galapagos land iguana and mockingbird
specimens from the museum’s collections.
Smithsonian Admits to Destruction of Thousands of Giant Human
Skeletons in Early 1900′s (Past Research on the Smithsonian
Institution & The Darwin Exhibition Opens at Smithsonian’s National Museum
of Natural History & Pushing Evolution)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2014/12/smithsonian-admits-to-destruction-of.html
Smithsonian Enriched by Stimulus Bill and Who Else Nancy? (Past Research on Mike Pence)
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