PRAYER ALERT for TODAY! High Court Weighs Buffer Zone Abortion Challenge, January 15, 2014;http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2014/January/High-Court-Weighs-Buffer-Zone-Abortion-Challenge/
The Supreme Court is hearing a pivotal case Wednesday challenging a Massachusetts law that forces abortion opponents to stay 35 feet away from a clinic entrance. According to state officials and clinic employees, the law allows patients and staff to feel safe and more easily enter the clinics. But pro-life advocates say the law makes it impossible to talk to women going into the clinics who may be open to keeping their unborn child.
"It takes away the person-to-person aspect of it and puts you at a distance," longtime pro-life demonstrator Ray Neary told CBN News outside a clinic in Boston. "You have to yell at them as though you're in opposition to them, and you're not," Neary explained. "You're trying to save that child that's in that womb."
REMINDER/CHALLENGE: On either NEXT Sunday (1/19) or the FOLLOWING Sunday (1/26), thousands of churches across the U.S.\will mark the 41st anniversary of the American Holocaust. It was on Jan. 22, 1973 that our Supreme Court legalized the murder of unborn children and we have collectively destroyed over 55 million lives! Call your pastor and ask in what way your church will recognize a Sanctity of Human Life Sunday this month. Let’s be sure to honor the Author of All Life and ask forgiveness for our country continuing to destroy its most innocent citizens
SIGN A PETITION TO THE UN FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHRISTIANS :" The church in Syria has shone brightly for 2,000 years. But today violence and persecution threatens its survival. Thanks to an incredible response, Open Doors is helping 8,000 families in Syria survive each month. We believe the signatures and prayers of 500,000 people will encourage the UN to act and protect the rights and lives of all Syrians, especially the vulnerable Christian community." Go to: http://lp.opendoorsusa.org/emails/nov-13-action/save-syria.html?utm_source=action&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button&utm_campaign=november
WORLD-WDE PRAYER REQUESTS:
NEWS ALERT: Oct. 23: "Christians Fleeing IRAQ Area Once Considered Safe," - CBNNews.com, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/October/Christians-Fleeing-Iraq-Area-Once-Considered-Safe/ PRAY that believers in Iraq will know God's protection and provision; that believers will know[ whether they are called to flee or remain and persevere; and that their persecutors may come to hear the gospel and come to faith in Christ. - Stan]
Continue to Pray for EGYPT - Continue to pray for the tense situation in Egypt and especially for the Christian believers who are being targeted with violence by Muslim Brotherhood members.]
Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"- CBNNews.com, Aug 14, 2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/ - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.]
NEWS ALERT: Monday, November 04, 2013 - Saeed's Life in [Greater] Jeopardy After Prison Transfer - CBNNews.com, ; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/November/Saeeds-Life-in-Jeopardy-after-Prison-Transfer/ IRAN - Vigils Mark One Year Imprisonment of Pastor Saeed - CBNNews.com, Thursday, September 26, 2013 - Today marks one-year that American pastor Saeed Abedini has been held in an Iranian prison. He is serving an eight-year sentence because of his Christian faith. It has been a year of torment as he has suffered beatings, physical pain from untreated medical conditions, and separation from his wife and two children... The suffering has not dampened his passion for Jesus. Pastor Abedini has led more than 30 prisoners to Christ during his time in prison. This afternoon, thousands of Americans from coast to coast will pray for his release. Events will be held in 40 states at capitols, city halls, parks and churches. Thousands more will join from 15 nations around the world
PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.\
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
- GO TO SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------"Government Failures Congress Wants You to Fund This Year" - By Amy Payne,January 15, 2014 [NOTE: AS this bill goes up for a vote in the days ahead, PRAY that there will be enough in Congress to want to take a closer look at this massive spending bill to delay rubber stamping it.]
Wasteful, ineffective, failed. Those are all ways Heritage experts have described government programs Congress is funding—with your hard-earned money—in its new trillion-dollar omnibus spending bill [1].
Here are a few big failures that need to be eliminated or seriously reformed—but instead are getting millions (or billions) of dollars.
Head Start. Head Start is an emotional trap. It’s supposed to help children get a jumpstart on success—and who can be against that? Well, the fact is that it just doesn’t work [2]. Head Start has been a colossal failure for those children and their parents. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke explains [3], an Obama Administration study confirmed that “Access to Head Start had no statistically measurable effects on all measures of cognitive ability, including numerous measures of reading, language, and math ability.” This omnibus increases funding for the failed Head Start and Early Head Start programs by $612 million.
U.S. Postal Service. The USPS already defaulted on its debt [4] last year—after seven straight years of deficits. It’s saddled with billions owed to retiree benefits, and customers are sending less and less mail with each passing year. If it is to survive, the USPS needs big reforms, but in this omnibus spending bill, Congress blocks [5] two needed money-savers: discontinuing Saturday delivery and closing some rural post offices.
Capitol-Omnibus600 [6]
Facebook - Share on Facebook [7]Twitter - Tweet This [8]
Amtrak. Despite operating in the red (even its snack cars [9] lose millions of dollars), Amtrak would get $1.39 billion [10] in the omnibus. Heritage expert Emily Goff reminds Congress that, as a step toward full privatization, it should make Amtrak subsidies contingent on reductions in its operating costs. How? Competitive contracting [11]. Goff says, “Competitive contracting would improve Amtrak’s quality of service and lower its operating costs, which is good news for both riders and taxpayers.”
Job Corps. A job training program—sounds like a good thing. Except when it doesn’t boost participants’ wages or help them secure full-time jobs. The omnibus gives Job Corps $1.65 billion, even though Heritage’s David B. Muhlhausen concluded years ago [12] that “Job Corps does not provide the skills and training necessary to substantially raise the wages of participants.”
Firefighter grants. Once again, a program that sounds like it should help people does not. Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis evaluated the effectiveness of fire department grants [13] and found that the grants were ineffective at reducing fire casualties. They failed to reduce firefighter deaths, firefighter injuries, civilian deaths, or civilian injuries. Yet the omnibus sends $680 million to this program.
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The omnibus gives this failed hiring grant program $214 million. Heritage expert Muhlhausen points out [14] Heritage research findings: COPS failed to add 100,000 additional officers [15] to America’s streets and was also ineffective at reducing crime [16].
Congress will be pushing through all this spending in the next couple of days. Since the bill was just released Monday night, we’re wondering how many Members of Congress will actually know what’s in it [17] before they vote.
[bold, italics, and underline emphasis mine]
Quick Hit: Billions are going to energy subsidies in the new omnibus spending bill. This is a problem [26].
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Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org;URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/15/government-failures-congress-wants-fund-year/
URLs in this post:
[1] omnibus spending bill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhaABE2ESVU
[2] it just doesn’t work: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/10/02/government-shutdown-highlights-need-for-head-start-reform/
[3] explains: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/13/heritage-experts-weigh-massive-omnibus-spending-bill/#headline6
[4] defaulted on its debt: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/10/01/postal-service-wont-shut-down-but-will-default-on-its-debt/
[5] blocks: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/13/heritage-experts-weigh-massive-omnibus-spending-bill/#headline2
[6] Image: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/15/government-failures-congress-wants-fund-year/
[7] Image: http://on.fb.me/1kATyfL
[8] Image: https://twitter.com/Heritage/status/423270955272929280
[9] snack cars: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/12/12/budget-conference-spending-cuts-start-amtrak-subsidies/
[10] $1.39 billion: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/13/heritage-experts-weigh-massive-omnibus-spending-bill/#headline9
[11] Competitive contracting: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/06/amtrak-privatization-proposal-to-reform-passenger-rail-service
[12] concluded years ago: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/05/job-corps-an-unfailing-record-of-failure
[13] evaluated the effectiveness of fire department grants: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/11/fire-grants-do-not-reauthorize-femas-ineffective-program
[14] points out: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/13/heritage-experts-weigh-massive-omnibus-spending-bill/
[15] failed to add 100,000 additional officers: http://www.heritage.org/research/testimony/byrne-jag-and-cops-grant-funding-will-not-stimulate-the-economy
[16] ineffective at reducing crime: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2006/05/impact-evaluation-of-cops-grants-in-large-cities
[17] know what’s in it: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/10/omnibus-no-member-of-congress-will-read-this-bill/
[26] This is a problem: http://blog.heritage.org/2014/01/14/energy-technologies-youll-propping-2014/
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