House and Senate Budgets Fund Radical Agenda!
On Sunday the Democrat-led House and Senate Appropriations Committees unveiled their own budget plans (HB 30 and SB 30), which among other things restore funding for abortions, grow the Virginia Lottery to regulate new forms of gambling, and expand the Human Rights Division of the Attorney General.
A close look at the details of the two plans reveals the true priorities of the legislature’s new Democrat majority. For starters, the House’s budget increases the Virginia Lottery’s line of credit from $16 million to $56 million to fund the start-up costs for the implementation of Internet Lottery, Casino Gambling, and Sports Betting – and creates over 100 new full time positions mostly dedicated to the regulation and oversight of Casinos all across the state.
Notably, there are no allocations for the localities with casinos to pay for the enhanced costs of public safety for increases in crime or for social services to handle the family breakdowns and financial distresses brought on by addiction and irresponsible behavior.
Both budgets also included additional funding and full time employees for the Attorney General’s Division of Human Rights to implement legislation (like HB 1663 and SB 868) that add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes under Virginia law. The House version gives the Attorney General $1.2 million for the creation of 5 new attorney positions, while the Senate budget funds two new full-time employees.
This funding and the new positions are all part of the Left’s scheme to “Seek and Destroy” Christian churches, schools, non-profits, and business owners who the Attorney General “has reasonable cause to believe … is engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of any of the rights granted” by the Virginia Human Rights Act – whatever that means!
The House plan continues funding the “LARC” program which funnels $2 million each year to Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics to pay for and insert intrauterine devices (IUDs). We are still looking for all the other ways we suspect budget dollars will be flowing to abortion and those who perform and promote them.
The House plan also nullify a major victory last year to include budget language that brought Virginia in line with the federal "Hyde Amendment," which prohibits Virginia from funding any abortions, except in the limited cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother. After just one year, the Democrat majority has rolled back the Hyde Amendment (4-5.04, l.) to pre-2019 language, ensuring that taxpayer dollars will once again be used for the termination of pre-born children with disabilities.
These are just some of the ways the House and Senate are planning to spend your tax dollars on over the next two years, but there are many more we will continue to tell you about. Over the next couple weeks, the House and Senate will debate, amend and vote on their respective budgets. Nevertheless, the budget is where politics meets math, so each chamber will eventually reject the other's budget and a conference committee of select members of the House and Senate will work out a final budget.
During this time, we encourage you to contact your legislator and tell them to reject unnecessary and harmful government programs that take more of your money that you can better allocate yourself, and which often fund things that violate your core beliefs.
