Republican National Coalition for Life national chairman and president of Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly, will be honored by Family Research Council at a black tie Faith, Family & Freedom Gala Dinner on Saturday night, September 19, 2009, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Mrs. Schlafly will be presented with the James C. Dobson Vision and Leadership Award.

Correction: RNC Chairman did not Endorse Kirk in Illinois

In the September 4 edition of FaxNotes, we reported that RNC chairman Michael Steele had endorsed Mark Kirk (R-IL), a liberal Republican, in the Illinois Senate Race. Our source for that information was a Christian Newswire Media Advisory (8/26/09) entitled "Steele Joins Ranks with Those Choosing Political Expediency Over Principles."

We have been advised by officials at the Republican National Committee that the report is erroneous and that Michael Steele has not endorsed Kirk or anyone else in that Primary race.

We apologize for any problems this may have caused Mr. Steele.

Anti-life Sunstein Confirmed by U.S. Senate

Cass Sunstein, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who was appointed by President Barack Obama as his regulatory Czar, was nominated by Obama to serve as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget.

Sunstein's nomination was confirmed by a vote of 57-40 in the U.S. Senate on September 9, 2009. Please note that 5 Republicans voted YEA.

Prior to the vote on confirmation, a vote to invoke cloture (end debate and proceed to a vote) passed by 63-35, with seven Republicans voting YEA.

Sunstein's End-of-Life Advocacy/Philosophy

• June 2003, authored and published a paper entitled, "Lives, Life Years, and Willingness to Pay."

  • Argues that human life varies in value.

  • Advocates for government bureaucracy to rely on the "value of a statistical life year" when doing cost-benefit analysis as opposed to the "value of a statistical life."

  • He states that this would "likely result in significantly lower [health] benefits calculations for elderly people, and significantly higher benefits calculations for children."

  • He states: "I urge that the government should indeed focus on life-years rather than lives. A program that saves young people produces more welfare than one that saves old people."

  • Sunstein asserts that the current health care system that focuses on statistic lives, rather than life years, is "a form of illicit discrimination [.] because the idea of statistical lives treats the years of older people as worth far more than the years of younger people.

• Sunstein's views on cost-effective analysis are worrisome at best, especially since as head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, he will play a major role in defining the government's handling of health care.

• He will be just one major player in the massive bureaucracy needed to regulate the very loosely-defined H.R. 3200, Obama's proposed health care plan.

• He has been a longtime advocate for restricting animal testing for cosmetics, banning hunting, and encouraging the general public to eat less meat.

• He advocates granting animals the right to sue (that is, people can bring lawsuits on behalf of their pets and other animals).

• During a 2007 speech at Harvard University, Sunstein put animal rights in the same category as civil rights, abortion rights, and gay marriage rights:
  • "The animal's right to live free of suffering should be just as important as a person's right to be free of suffering."

  • "A full-grown horse or dog is, beyond comparison, a more rational, as well as a more conversable, animal than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month."

  • "The question is not 'Can they reason?' nor 'Can they talk?' but 'Can they suffer?' "

New RNC for Life Report now On-line

Please visit our web site to read the Summer 2009 edition of the Republican National Coalition for Life Report .