William J. Murray

113th Congress sworn in – I was on Capitol Hill on Thursday, January 3rd as the 113th Congress was sworn in. Only families of the Members to be sworn in are allowed at the actual ceremony, but I attended reception with some of those that were elected with the help of GING-PAC, of which I am the chairman.

GING-PAC helped elect socially conservative Senators Cruz, Deb Fischer and Jeff Flake. Please note that not a single economic conservative candidate backed by Karl Rove’s PAC won. Every candidate Rove backed who ran away from social issues lost.

House: One in five faces new – There are 82 new Members in the 435 seat House, and 14 new Senators. On the House side almost 20% of the Members are new, although one did previously serve back in the 1980’s. There are also two empty seats because of resignations that occurred before the new 113th Congress even had a chance to convene. The only African-American in the Senate is a Republican. Everywhere I go, conservatives champion “term limits” because Congressmen “stay forever.” The reality is different. The average length of service for Representatives is currently 9.8 years (4.9 terms) and for Senators is 11.4 years (1.9 terms).

THE SENATE
GING-PAC endorsed social conservative Senators Deb Fischer (R-NE), Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) were all sworn in and are already making waves in the Senate and in the media. All three have been on TV talk shows in early January to lay out their views on how our nation can be fixed.

One of Senator Cruz’s first acts as Senator was to announce that his first piece of legislation will be to strike down “every syllable of every word” of Obama’s socialist health care law – with its abortion, contraceptive and sterilization mandate. Cruz is also going to oppose any Obama-inspired gun control legislation.

Cruz was on Fox News recently to oppose the confirmation of RINO Chuck Hagel as Obama’s new Secretary of Defense! Senator Cruz will serve on the influential Senate Judiciary Committee – tasked with confirming or defeating Obama’s judicial nominees. Cruz warns that America is “one justice away from a five-justice liberal majority that could overturn decades of precedent.”

When Senator Cruz took the oath of office to defend the Constitution, he held his hand on his father’s well-worn Bible. His dad is a Cuban immigrant and pastor in Dallas.

Senator Deb Fischer appeared on PBS with Judy Woodruff to discuss her opposition to out-of-control spending by Obama and his minions in the House and Senate. Fischer will serve on the Armed Services Committee. She’s already indicated that she’s not certain about supporting Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary. Fischer took the oath of office by placing her hand on a well-worn Bible that her grandmother had given to her in 1955.

Senator Jeff Flake, formerly a Congressman from Arizona, appeared on C-SPAN in early January to discuss his plans to oppose the Obama socialist agenda.

Two other GING-PAC endorsed Senators could have been sworn into office if they had not been thrown under the bus by establishment Republicans like Karl Rove. Richard Mourdock of Indiana and Todd Akin of Missouri were briefly tripped up by poorly worded statements about abortion – and were immediately shunned by establishment types. These races could have been won if the GOP had stood strong with them. Instead, we’re stuck with rabid liberal Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri for another six years – and Democrat Senator Joe Donnelly from Indiana.  Mourdock had defeated RINO Richard Lugar in the Republican primary and was expected to win the general election.

THE HOUSE
GING-PAC endorsed Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) was on Fox News recently to debate out-of-control spending and Obama’s plan to subvert the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms. Jordan told the Fox host: “We got to remember, the Second Amendment is about freedom. And that’s what we’ve got to focus on as we move forward. If there’s ways outside of this that we can help address the situation, fine. But we’ve got to remember it’s about freedom.

“And, frankly, you’ve got to remember that bad guys aren’t stupid, they’re just bad. They’re going to figure out a way, if they’re intent on doing something bad, they’re going to figure out a way to get to fire them and use it.”

GING-PAC endorsed Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is taking on the issue of the children of illegals. He’s vice-chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration. He introduced legislation that would only allow children born in the United States to be considered American citizens only if at least one parent was a citizen, a legal resident or a foreigner on duty in the Armed Forces of the United States. According to King: “We need a common sense solution to fix the flawed interpretation of the Constitution’s citizenship clause, and the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2013 does just that. The current practice of extending U.S. citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ‘anchor babies’ must end because it creates a magnet for illegal immigration into our country. Now is the time to ensure that the laws in this country do not encourage law breaking.”

THE PRESIDENT
President Barack Hussein Obama is opposed to religious freedom for Chaplains in the U.S. military. He recently expressed his objection to a religious liberty/conscience clause in the National Defense Authorization Act that would protect Chaplains from being forced to perform same-sex marriages. According to Obama, the clause is “unnecessary and ill-advised.”

Obama has the same view on religious liberty when it comes to forcing Christian-owned businesses or other religious institutions to provide abortion, sterilization, and contraceptive services to their employees.

Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned business is challenging Obama’s abortion mandate. Obama’s lawyers are arguing that Christians who run businesses can’t claim religious liberty protections because they’re engaged in commerce! The second argument is that the federal government can violate religious liberty so long as it is not specifically targeting Christians. In other words, if everyone gets equal persecution, it’s legal to violate the religious liberty of anyone.

This is the political reality we’re living in for the next four years. We must not lose heart and must keep fighting for what’s right. We have lost a battle in the tragic re-election of Obama, but we’ve not yet lost the war.

Help GING-PAC keep fighting for the election of social conservatives to the House and Senate in 2014. And, please encourage those in the House and Senate who are already fighting for biblical morality the culture war.