On "Flexibility"
Policies vs. Principles...
A major news story today comes out of President Trump’s remarks to the House Republican retreat, when he suggested that Republicans should be “flexible” with regard to the Hyde Amendment, which prevents taxpayer funding of abortion: “You have to be a little flexible on Hyde, you know that. You gotta be a little flexible. You gotta work something … we’re all big fans of everything. But you have to have flexibility.”
On a broader level, the President has a point. Conservatives should of course remain flexible on policies—how they can best achieve their objectives while navigating public opinion and the realities of governing. Sometimes that involves accepting messy compromises or half-measures now, in the hopes of achieving bigger victories later.
But conservatives should NEVER compromise on principles. And protecting human life, by ensuring that taxpayers never fund the destruction of human life via abortion, has remained a central plank of the conservative platform since the Hyde Amendment was first enacted in 1976. Preventing taxpayer funding of abortion unites both fiscal and social conservatives, and has for half a century.
Conservatives adhered to this bedrock principle well before Donald Trump entered politics—and they should adhere to it well after Donald Trump has left politics. They should ensure that they do not, and will not, support policies that fund abortion either indirectly, by subsidizing insurance plans that cover abortion, or directly, by allowing individuals to divert government contributions into Health Savings Accounts (or a similar mechanism) to be used for elective abortions.
I noted just a few weeks ago, when the President seemed willing to embrace an extension of enhanced COVID subsidies (which have since expired), that if such a scenario came to fruition, “conservatives will question why they should support a party that abandoned their principles on protecting life and opposing Obamacare.” That fact is as true now as it was in November. The President, and congressional Republicans, should act accordingly.