With a vote of 240-185, Planned Parenthood’s funding was blocked by House Republicans. Thinking this is a great moral victory, “[Mike Pence (R-IN)] says taxpayer money should not go to groups that provide or promote abortion.”
Yet, this rings hollow and hypocritical on so many accounts. Do Mike Pence and Republicans think taxpayer money should go to groups that kill civilians? Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq carried out with equipment built by American corporations. Do Republicans think taxpayer money should go to groups that kill inmates? The death penalty must be a symbol of the “culture of life.”
Do Republicans think that the greatest moral victory is to make sure everyone lives and once they are actually born, to get rid of every social program to help? Moreover, do Republicans think defunding education, health care, and putting over 1,000,000 people out of work is moral?
“Planned Parenthood provides services in hundreds of clinics around the country. Pence aides say the group reported receiving $363 million in federal money in its latest report.”
Of course, this is not ideological; this is primarily about cutting the federal budget, Republicans would have you believe.
What the Republicans are doing, though, is either good for democracy or good for Democrats. Consider, if Republicans insist on acting like true freshman--silly, vain, unschooled in how government works, trying to bring to the table argumentative points that take away fundamental rights of people to be in control over their own body, to freely assemble (even if they are government employees), to be secure in their drinking water, and other such poor legislation and the people support this--then democracy is served.
On the other hand, if their inanities wake up the voting populace to start pressuring their representatives immediately and eventually vote them out in the 2012 elections, then Democrats are served.
Republicans say they donÂ’t want gridlock. But unless they understand that they donÂ’t control both Houses nor do they control the White House, the self-righteous posturing and tyrannical ultimatums only serve to increase what they self-purportedly donÂ’t want: gridlock.
But the biggest losers arenÂ’t Democrats. Planned Parenthood doesnÂ’t just perform abortions. It is unfortunate that Republicans are taking away another program to help the people.
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Comments: 38
Republicans say they want to reduce spending but they refuse to reduce spending on the things they hold dear. A bit hypocritical.
They also voted against the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. They cannot justify these votes as anything other than misogyny.
@White Hood (Really? That's your username? Is that a klan reference?): Again, federal funds don't go towards abortion services. You don't like paying for it? That's fine. You don't. You never have. So stop your whining. You don't have to support abortion. But you also do not get a say in what your tax dollars fund. If my tax dollars have to fund bailouts for corrupt corporations and illegal wars, then your tax dollars can damn well help a few poor women get birth control pills or an HIV test.
"John, the "majority of the legislature" doesn't give a damn about womens' health services."
Then run for office, I suggest. I want no part of this super-government you seem to think ought rule over our elected ones. And you can take your anti-religious bigotry, and shove it back where it came from. All the people get a voice in governance, I say, and not just the ones you happen to find acceptable.
I'm a real American liberal, not freakin' totalitarian . .
Regardless, I agree with her comment.
So, @White Hood: Lots of programs, agencies, churches, etc., etc. get federal funding.
@Renee: I agree. (BTW White Hood answered his moniker on another post of mine. Don't be too hasty on any supposed associations.)
@John: Thank goodness we have a BI-cameral legislature. And just because the legislature can make a law doesn't mean it will be a just law or a good law.
"@John: Thank goodness we have a BI-cameral legislature. And just because the legislature can make a law doesn't mean it will be a just law or a good law."
No kiddin' !! Why, you must be a real smart guy . . ; )
And it isn't anti-religious bigotry (though I am an atheist). It's a fact: conservative Republicans are pushing a Christian agenda when it comes to abortion funding. They say they're doing it to reduce government spending but anyone with half a brain knows what a joke that is.
And what super government? The Senate will veto this bill if it ever gets voted onto the floor, and the President will veto it if it comes to his desk. Just because the Republicans have a small majority in the House doesn't mean they get to run roughshod over the rest of the country.
I find it hard to believe you're any sort of liberal.
"Republicans are pushing a Christian agenda when it comes to abortion funding."
Well, bully for them if they are, it's a free country . . sorta.
Obviously you don't think freedom of religion is a good idea, or you would not be here "accusing" people of doing things for religious reasons . . You're not a liberal, or you would not question the right of all people to advocate for whatever they feel is right, for whatever reasons they feel it is right. This ain't rocket science.
'Liberal' has a meaning, and it ain't intolerance for people with opposing views (even religious people), honest.
liberal — adj
1. relating to or having social and political views that favour progress and reform
2. relating to or having policies or views advocating individual freedom
3. giving and generous in temperament or behaviour
4. tolerant of other people
5. abundant; lavish: a liberal helping of cream
6. not strict; free: a liberal translation
7. of or relating to an education that aims to develop general cultural interests and intellectual ability
But here are some other values of liberalism: the right to an education, the right to choose your occupation, the right to get special training needed to acquire these skills, the right to choose your partner in marriage, the right to be gainfully employed, the right to a minimal standard of living, the right to privacy, the right of trial by impartial jury not subject to political duress, the right to take part in free elections. (Mostly quoted from "Liberalism" Dictionary of the History of Ideas.)
Conservatives are going their own way with the social rights. The political rights are agreed upon but the outlook of those is still different.
The right to privacy is a liberal value. Especially in your own house. We've institutionalized it in our 4th amendment. I cannot believe that that should not pertain to a woman's womb!
Freedom of religion is fine. So also is separation of church and state.
You are a liberal on one level only. But in the general connotation of the word, you are not. BTW liberal is not a back-formation of liberalism.
Another BTW: Liberalism as a political theory is: "based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (as those involving race, gender, or class)"
François,
"Yes, John, even you right-wing conservatives are actually liberal in the sense of liberalism."
I am a liberal, and you have shown no evidence of any kind that I am not. It don't matter to me at all that some folks have forgotten what the liberal philosophy actually is, and what the word means. I know many have, I can read.
"Liberalism as a political theory is: "based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties; specifically : such a philosophy that considers government as a crucial instrument for amelioration of social inequities (as those involving race, gender, or class)"
I agree with all of that, what's your point?
My point, is that either actual citizens all get to advocate and vote for what they think is right, regardless of their philosophy or heritage or class, or they don't. One has no more right to restrict what another bases their reasoning on, than the next. Separation of church and state, as you put it.
Not some arbitrary banishment of ideas that stem from the writings of Thomas Jefferson in some sense, or Plato, or Isaiah, or Marx, or Disney. No litmus test qualifiers that exclude people in any sense based on another person's personal opinions about what is appropriate for them to consider. Equality and freedom of the mind. Liberal.
If that's not a Klan reference, he ought to change it. Unless he likes having to explain.
The closest abortion clinic is 50 miles away, and I have brought two women there (both victims of rape, I volunteer at a rape center) and the women paid for the abortions out of their own pockets, 350.00 each.
IN fact, out of curiousity, because people here keep screaming that PP pays for it or whatever, I called the clinic and they told me that no, the women whom come in do pay for the procedure themselves...they do Not give free services.
And yes, before a procedure, the women have to get a counseling session pertaining to the why they want an abortion, and they do provide counseling if needed afterwards...and that is free.
The women can also watch a film before hand also...one women I brought there wanted to see it, and asked me to stay with her.
If a woman wants an abortion, leave her alone..you aren't in her shoes and don't know the circumstances behind it.