This September marks the 50th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment’s first passage in the House of Representatives — the annual appropriations rider that bars federal funding of elective abortion.
No one should be surprised that Democrats would mark the moment by extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that help enable backdoor abortion funding in blue states. What did surprise pro-lifers was President Donald Trump’s recent declaration that Republicans “have to be a little flexible on Hyde.”
Human lives aren’t negotiable. Neither is the Hyde Amendment.
“We’re all big fans of everything, but you have to have flexibility,” Trump told House Republicans in Washington on Jan. 6. He urged them to “work something” out on health care, a line that seemed to suggest Hyde could become a bargaining chip.
For millions of GOP voters, it cannot.
Just one year ago, the president aligned himself with them. On his fourth day in office, he signed an executive order declaring that “consistent with the Hyde Amendment,” it is the policy of the United States “to end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion.”
The same president helped overturn Roe v. Wade, restored the Mexico City policy ending funding for overseas abortions, and declared himself the “most pro-life president” in history.
If his position has changed, Americans have the right to know.
The Hyde Amendment is estimated to have saved more than 2.6 million lives over the past five decades. It forbids the use of federal tax dollars for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or a life-threatening medical emergency.
Yet the abortion lobby found a work-around. Twenty state Medicaid programs cover elective abortions using state funds, and millions of enrollees in those plans receive federal subsidies to help pay their premiums.
In plain terms, federal tax dollars indirectly support abortion in blue states, regardless of Hyde. It’s the same moral and fiscal problem that drove Congress to defund Planned Parenthood in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act spending package last July. Why cut off one pipeline while leaving another one wide open?
The Jan. 1 expiration of Biden-era enhancements to Obamacare subsidies offered Republicans a chance to close this loophole.
House Republicans, to their credit, tried. In December, they passed H.R. 6703, which would explicitly block federal dollars from helping pay for a Medicaid plan that covers elective abortion. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the bill would lower Obamacare premiums by 11% on average through 2035 — nearly double the estimated reduction in the Democrats’ plan — and shrink the national deficit by $35.6 billion.
Then 17 Republicans defected.
On Jan. 8, they voted with Democrats to force a “clean” three-year extension of Obamacare subsidies with no language protecting taxpayers from subsidizing abortion.
Now the bill moves to the Senate, where negotiations reportedly continue on a bipartisan package. Thankfully, contrary to Trump’s calls for “flexibility,” Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has signaled that Hyde will remain non-negotiable in any deal.
“We want to ensure that, if we do anything, it’s done in a way that reforms these programs and ... ensures that those dollars aren’t being used to go against the practice that’s been in place for the last 50 years around here, when it comes to taxpayer dollars being used to finance abortions,” Thune told reporters on Jan. 6.
The president — and any Republicans tempted to treat Hyde as disposable — should follow Thune’s lead. Trump may have a gift for “the art of the deal,” but the values at the center of the Republican coalition are not bargaining chips.
The GOP has long cast itself as a party of abolitionists, freedom fighters, and defenders of the vulnerable unborn. It should not compromise those claims for short-term political convenience — and become what it says it opposes.
Respectfully, Mr. President, human lives aren’t negotiable. Neither is the Hyde Amendment.
Many Americans have watched Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy “The Lord of the Rings.” And many have read J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Some can quote whole passages and trace Tolkien’s deliberate references to the life of Christ and the horror of modern war.
Maybe House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) live in that camp. If not, they should.
The Republicans’ plan cannot be ‘use federal power while we have it, then trust the next guys.’
A crucial scene comes early in the saga. The council debates what to do with the One Ring, the ultimate source of power. Boromir makes an understandable, dangerous suggestion — a perfect expression of fallen man’s temptation: “Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy. Let us use it against him.”
Aragorn stops him with two sentences rooted in humility and truth: “You cannot wield it. None of us can.”
That is the lesson Republicans must learn now, while they still hold majorities.
Many supporters of President Trump want Congress to act boldly. They also want something more important: They want Republicans to roll back the reach and scope of the federal government while they can. If the GOP refuses, Democrats will inherit the same machinery and use it without restraint. Not someday. Soon.
If you think I exaggerate by calling Democrats the enemy or warning that we are doomed, consider a recent message from the second-highest-ranking elected congressional Democrat in the country, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. Jeffries posted a video of White House adviser Stephen Miller on X.com and wrote: “Donald Trump will leave office long before the five-year statute of limitations expires. You are hereby put on notice.”
Jeffries did not allege a crime. He did not explain what Miller did wrong. He did not argue facts or law. He issued a threat: We will punish you later because we can.
That is what Republicans keep forgetting. The federal government’s power does not idle in neutral. It exists to be used. If it remains in place, someone will use it — and progressives have already shown what they want to do with it.
Which raises the central point: Nobody can safely wield that power. Not congressional Republicans. Not any administration. The correct move is not to grab the weapon and promise better behavior. The correct move is to destroy the weapon.
Start with something as basic as fraud.
Look at the unraveling of the Somali day-care scandal in Minnesota and the billions of stolen tax dollars. That story grew so large that it helped end Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz’s re-election ambitions. Yet the government did not uncover it.
Not the Government Accountability Office. Not the Congressional Budget Office. Not the Office of Management and Budget. Not House or Senate oversight committees. Not the IRS. Not the Small Business Administration. Not the armies of full-time staffers inside federal agencies reporting up to inspectors general whose job description exists for this very purpose.
All that government power — and it did nothing.
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The scandal came to light because of the tenacity of a 23-year-old guy with a camera. If the federal machine can miss fraud on that scale, imagine what else it misses.
Fraud saturates the system. Estimates run as high as $500 billion — roughly 7% of the $6.8 trillion federal budget. That budget still reflects COVID-era spending levels. In 2019, Washington spent $4.45 trillion. Why did we never return to pre-COVID levels?
Because money is power. And like Boromir, too many people convince themselves they can wield it.
Energy policy shows the same temptation in real time.
My nonprofit organization, Power the Future, sent another letter to House and Senate oversight committees and to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging investigations into Biden’s energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm. In the final days of the Biden administration, Granholm awarded $100 billion in green-energy grants — more than the previous 15 years combined. Many recipients had previously supported her political campaigns.
Green money poured out of Washington through the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which allocated $60 billion for “environmental justice” — a phrase so deliberately amorphous that it has no fixed meaning. Team Biden spent $1 trillion “going green,” a statistic Vice President Kamala Harris bragged about during her lone 2024 debate with Donald Trump.
That entire structure still stands.
Nothing prevents the current energy secretary, Chris Wright, from spending billions on his favorite projects except his ethics. I believe Wright has ethics in abundance. We should feel grateful. But one man’s ethics do not qualify as a system of government.
The next secretary could be worse than Granholm. If the power remains, someone will use it.
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Just as in Tolkien’s masterpiece, our enemies do not wait quietly. They scheme. They train. They amass armies of lawyers, activists, operatives, and bureaucrats. They build institutional pipelines that outlast elections. They do not go home after losing once. They plan the return.
Republicans need to plan as well — and their plan cannot be “use federal power while we have it, then trust the next guys.”
One party will not hold Washington forever. When conservatives lose power, they should make sure the left inherits a reduced federal government: weaker, narrower, stripped of the patronage systems and enforcement tools that now function as political weapons.
That is why it is incumbent upon congressional Republicans to do everything in their power — everything — to destroy the Ring.
America’s founders envisioned a weak federal government for this reason. In America’s 250th year, Congress should act like it understands the danger of concentrated power. If Republicans keep the machinery intact, they will regret it. If the Ring finds its next master, it will not spare the people who once held it.
Republican Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana officially launched her campaign to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) just days after securing an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Trump came out in support of Letlow on Saturday, calling her a "Big Star" who would embrace the MAGA agenda. Although Republican operatives like the National Republican Senatorial Committee customarily endorse the incumbent, Cassidy's controversial votes may have cost him the support of the president.
'I am confident I will win.'
"I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust," Letlow said in a post on X. "My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger."
"This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver."
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While the race is shaping up to be a contested Republican primary, the NRSC is letting the chips fall where they may.
The Senate Republicans' campaign arm is holding off from spending money on Cassidy, whom the NRSC endorsed, because "Louisiana will be won by a Republican regardless" and because the group doesn't want to oppose the president, according to a source familiar with the NRSC's decision-making.
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Notably, Cassidy was one of the few Republicans who voted to go forward with Trump's second impeachment trial in 2021, later voting to convict the president. Despite this, Cassidy remains confident about his race.
"I'm proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana," Cassidy said after Trump endorsed Letlow. "If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win."
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The failure of both Democrat and Republican plans to extend or partially replace enhanced Obamacare subsidies offers a clear lesson: Escaping an entitlement trap almost never happens.
Yes, the House of Representatives on Thursday voted to extend the COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired at the end of 2025. Seventeen Republicans even joined a unanimous Democratic Caucus in voting for the extension. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Republicans have “no appetite” for an extension — at least not without reforms.
Republicans remain an impediment to the necessary reforms and are working hand in hand with Democrats to bring on economic collapse. Time is not on our side.
The reality is, once government creates a welfare entitlement, logic and sustainability exit the conversation. Politicians do not debate whether to grow the program. They argue only over how much to increase spending and how to disguise the costs. That pattern now governs the fight over enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
When the Senate rejected a nearly identical bill in December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Congress faces “no clear path for aiding millions of Americans facing soaring Affordable Care Act insurance costs next year.”
The Journal’s framing accepts the entitlement premise without question. It treats “aiding millions” as morally self-evident while ignoring the coercion necessary to fund that aid. Government assistance does not materialize from thin air. It transfers responsibility, money, and risk from one group of Americans to another.
Once imposed, that transfer only grows.
Both rejected plans would have sent more taxpayer money to insurers than the ACA already guarantees. With no deal in sight, the Journal observed last month that hope for extending the subsidies is fading. That assessment may be accurate politically, but an extension does not deserve hope. It deserves scrutiny.
Democrats want Republicans to extend an expansion they never voted for of a program they never supported. Republicans respond by proposing modest adjustments to reduce political damage without challenging the underlying structure.
Rep. Max L. Miller (R-Ohio), who voted for the bill, summarized the dilemma perfectly. “I just want to make this abundantly clear: This is a Democratic piece of legislation. It is absolutely horrific. Now, it is the best alternative to what we have at the moment.”
That is how entitlement traps operate.
For decades, big-government advocates have followed a reliable strategy. They create a benefit for a defined group, allow costs to spiral, then dare the opposition to take something away from a newly entrenched constituency. When the moment arrives, those who claim to favor limited government retreat or propose cosmetic reforms that leave the core system untouched.
That dynamic explains why the country remains locked into the socialist ratchet, the uniparty routine, and a political class that acts as tax collector for an ever-expanding welfare state.
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Entitlements squeeze the nation from both sides. They trap recipients by discouraging work and mobility, and they trap taxpayers by locking future governments into permanent obligations.
The Affordable Care Act stands as one of the most powerful modern examples of this system. The law forced millions into government-regulated insurance markets while guaranteeing insurers a growing pool of subsidized customers. The result was predictable: higher costs, deeper dependency, and a massive political constituency invested in permanent expansion.
Not a single Republican voted for the ACA. They understood what the law would do. Democrats passed it anyway, and it worked exactly as designed.
As Connor O’Keeffe has argued at Mises Wire, federal health care policy has long served industry interests. Government interventions channel money toward providers, pharmaceutical companies, and insurers under the guise of helping patients.
Obamacare accelerated that process by mandating coverage and expanding what insurers must provide, driving demand and cost growth in tandem. Once people rely on government assistance to afford insurance, any reduction becomes politically unthinkable.
Republicans now scramble to avoid electoral consequences. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the GOP will advance health care proposals without extending subsidies, yet many lawmakers privately admit that only an extension prevents immediate pain ahead of the 2026 midterms.
That admission exposes the trap. Spending limits become cruel. Taxpayer costs disappear from the conversation. Only the next premium increase matters.
History explains where this leads. Entitlement debates almost always end with higher spending. Political power depends on payments to voters. Reducing benefits means losing elections.
Progressives act decisively when in power. Conservatives obsess over procedure and restraint, even as the administrative state grows unchecked.
Last week alone offered two examples. The House overturned President Trump’s March 2025 executive order blocking collective bargaining for over a million federal employees, with 20 Republicans joining Democrats. Even Franklin Roosevelt opposed public-sector unions. Modern conservatives could not summon the resolve to block them.
On the same day, Indiana Republicans declined to redraw their congressional map despite the risk of losing the House and triggering impeachment proceedings against Trump. They clung to unwritten norms while their opponents prepared to exploit the outcome.
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This pattern defines conservative failure. Republicans manage decline. They preserve a decaying system rather than reverse it.
Donald Trump broke from that habit. A former Democrat, he understands power. Win elections, then act. Trump restored a political energy absent on the right for decades.
His approach to entitlements focuses on restraining growth outside Social Security while expanding private-sector freedom to increase economic output. The goal is not austerity. It is to shrink government’s share of the economy by growing everything else faster.
That strategy may succeed or fail. It remains the only alternative to collapse. Without reform, federal spending and debt will overwhelm the system within a decade, possibly sooner. Borrowing costs will explode. Inflation will surge. Control will vanish.
The United States approached that danger under unified Democrat control and Joe Biden’s autopen in 2021 and 2022. Voters halted the slide by electing Republican majorities and returning Trump to the White House.
Trump failed to drain the swamp in his first term, largely because congressional Republicans refused to legislate when they had the chance. In his second term, he has advanced reforms through executive action. Congress has responded with delay and timidity.
The country will escape the entitlement trap one way or another. Reform can arrive through disciplined growth and economic expansion, or through collapse driven by massive overspending.
With their conservative approach to governance, Republicans remain an impediment to the necessary reforms and are working hand in hand with Democrats to bring on that collapse. Time is not on our side.
‘I am absolutely committed to ensuring that no taxpayer funding is used to fund the radical left’s agenda, including abortion,’ Sen. Moreno said.
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