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Inanity Politics – Cutting Planned Parenthood Funding is Folly

by George Jones on April 5, 2011

The notion that cutting funding for Planned Parenthood is a great idea is nonsense. So is the idea that it will reduce the number of abortions being performed.

The Hyde Amendment has precluded any federal funding of abortion services since 1976.

Homer Simpson

Cutting Planned Parenthood funding will simply reduce availability of critical health services like sexually-transmitted disease testing, cancer screenings, gynecological testing, prenatal care, pediatric care, condoms, pregnancy testing, human papilloma virus and hepatitis vaccines.

The result will be less early-detection of these type of health issues which, as all reasonable people realize, ends up costing more both in terms of money … and human misery.

But Republicans and their a-step-slow acolytes, the Tea Party, don’t care. They are far more invested in their sanctimony and the appearance of fiscal prudence than they are public health and making smart choices on fiscal issues.

military spending

Sometimes a picture is worth $700 billion dollars

We spend more on defense spending than any other country on the planet. We spend more than China, Russia, England, France, Italy COMBINED – yet the “austerity” being presented in Congress actually increases defense spending.

President George W. Bush - epic failure

What’s even more amazing is that despite the moronic, irresponsible policies of the Bush administration that cratered the national economy via a laissez-faire attitude about regulation, a jingoistic go-it-alone foreign policy that mired us in a trillion dollar war-of-choice in Iraq, an expansion of entitlement spending (Medicare Part D), and the incomprehensible cutting of taxes despite these profligate expenditures, the Republican Party is trying to claim the mantle of fiduciary respectability.

What bullshit.

I’d be more inclined to believe the Republicans were earnest in being fiscally responsible if they would show some good faith, if not common decency, by having the temerity to cut their number one entitlement – defense spending – or raise taxes on their favorite charity: hyper-wealthy people.

They would also seem less shrill and uninformed if they recognized, as they did in the recession of 1982, that government spending is a part of the triad that comprises our economy (consumer and business spending being the other legs).

Slashing of government spending might help purge their newfound sense of rage about deficits, but considered in parallel with a fragile economic recovery, it seems less like a panacea than a hysterical gesture aimed at a constituency that generally provides more support to the Democratic Party.

The Republican Party’s newfound embrace of austerity is certainly in the better-late-than- never category, but targeting cuts solely against the weakest, most vulnerable citizens of our country when Republican sacred cows like the military-industrial complex and hyper-wealthy remain either untouched or elevated just seems obscene.

Cuts are certainly necessary, but the pain should be shared by all, not targeted on our weakest citizens – the people that rely on health services that organizations like Planned Parenthood provide.

I’d recommend not weakening access to healthcare especially when it obviously will entail growth in public health costs elsewhere. It seems like the smart thing to do.

It would be even be the Christian thing to do. Oh, the irony!
Jesus

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

I. P. Daily April 6, 2011 at 9:56 pm

This is moronic. Do you know anything about Margaret Sanger? Do some research.

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George Jones April 6, 2011 at 10:17 pm

Not sure I’m following your point on Margaret Sanger. I mean, I’m pretty familiar with her work and it seems pretty clear that she would not support cutting the funding of Planned Parenthood.

If there is something about Margaret Sanger you could offer that contradicts this, I hope you will share it.

Reply

Kathleen Mayberry April 6, 2011 at 12:54 pm

I have to agree that cutting healthcare for the poor is not one of governments brightest ideas. Everyone has someone that cares about them and to lose anyone is bad enough. Knowing that their life could have been saved is just unbearable and certainly sparks anger. This country should be taking care of its own. It seems like such a simple statement.
Our government has proven time and again that they have very little, if any, value for human life. The spending on military could be put toward much more productive avenues. Your statement “It helps fuel my sense of rage” is so true, sometimes I have to walk away from what I’m reading in the news because I get so angry and can do nothing. Even speaking our mind doesn’t change anything, well……maybe now that the people can gather from all corners of the country with social networks such as facebook, change could come, slowly.
Finally, I remember learning, somewhere in history one of our founding fathers said that politicians serve their country out of duty, not a way to become rich.

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aaron April 6, 2011 at 8:56 am

Very well written. Have you seen the documentary “Why We Fight”? A must watch in my opinion. Really an insightful look at military spending. It’s on youtube (in segments).

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George Jones April 6, 2011 at 10:45 am

Yes, I’d seen “Why We Fight?” before, but I went through it again when you posted the links to it. It helps fuel my sense of outrage.

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