President Barack Obama asked Comittee Chairman Henry Waxman to remove family planning money from the stimulus bill after Republicans objected. This is on the heels of nixing bankruptcy reform because, well, Republicans objected.
Money for family planning is good stimulus as there is unfulfilled demand due to chronic underfunding. People can be hired immediately and there is demand for the service. It fits in a stimulus bill very well because it provides immediate spending. In fact it fits better than many of the other things in the bill, such as tax cuts for corporations which we know from experience will create few if any jobs.
So it's better as a stimulus than other expenditures in the bill. The only justification for not putting it in would be if it's "politically necessary". Will the bill not pass if it isn't in? What Republicans in the House think is irrelevant, their votes aren't needed. In the Senate Obama presumably needs 3 or 4 Republicans to pass the stimulus. Therefor the question is if stripping family planning is the difference between getting those 3 or 4 votes or not. It seems unlikely to me that Republican Senators likely to sign on would withhold their vote because of family planning money, as those most likely to vote on any Democratic bill won't come from the hard theocon wing of the party.
So, odds are Obama didn't need to strip out the money in order to get the bill passed. However, it has been indicated that Obama wants to do more than barely pass the bill, he wants to pass it with substantial Republican support.
Which means, in effect, that having "bipartisan" support is more important to Obama than funding family planning. The practical result will be more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions which should never have happened. And in many areas of the country, many women forced to carry to term babies they never wanted. Bipartisanship, to Obama, is more important than that result.
Now, if it's only this bill that Obama feels the need to pass with bipartisan agreement, if this is a one time thing, well I guess the bill might be passed later. But if he intends to keep wanting more Republicans to pass his bills, well, one wonders when it can pass? Even worse, lets face it, a lot of Democrats (Harry Reid, the majority leader, for example) are "pro-life" themselves. To pass such an increase pretty much requires putting it in another, more popular, bill.
Democrats are giddy at being back in power. But I will suggest that being in power is all about priorities. One should watch carefully to see what the priorities of the new administration are.
Today we have learned something about the administration's priorities. And appeasing Republicans ranks appears to be a higher priority than family planning.
plus ça change
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Dropping Family Planning Funding Is the Right Move
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Stimulus and Energy
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Retro-Hooverites All
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Et tu, Barack?
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Do Contraceptives Stimulate the Economy?
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A Hole Worth Digging?
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Ignore Limbaugh
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Condoms and Art are Stimulating (to the Economy); Corporate Tax Cuts Not So Much
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2. Sex is a Responsibility NOT a Right!
3. Condomns DO NOT PREVENT diseases, they fail 2 - 10 % (good - adverage use) of the time in preventing pregancy. A sperm is literally 1000 times larger than a virus - therefore if enough sperm is getting through to get you pregnant than how many more viruses are making it through to cause an infection. If you don't know your partner well enough to know they are free from diseases - Don't Have Sex!
4. Pills don't prevent diseases AT ALL, and cause more a health problems than solve - I am an RN and I have worked in women's services for over 10 years and the one thing in common I see in the women I take care of with ovarian cycts, uterine fibroids and breast cancer - is they have all been on the pill. If it isn't broke - don't fix it. Your fertility is NOT a Health Problem.
4. Children are NOT a Liability - who's going to pay for your retirement (SSI)!
5. More Children Stimulate the economy! More children create the need for more daycare workers, health care workers, teachers, baby & child supplies...
FYI - Bottle feeding messed up natural child spacing - Breast feeding produces a normal spacing of about 2 1/2 years between children - the average couple would have 6 children, not the dozen or so you saw
Poor people who have no money for PILLS AND CONDOMS need help! When it comes down to buying birth control or feeding the family, which will people choose? The economy is in the ditch and we will add more babies? Pleeeease.......
Family Planning can be tackled later (hopefully, sooner than later), in another bill.
ACTION PLAN:
1. Email, fax, or call your Senators and Representatives and ask them NOT to reduce or eliminate family planning funds for low-income individuals and families. You can find your elected officials’ contact information here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
2. Please call the White House immediately and ask President Obama NOT to cut family planning funds in the stimulus package! Call the White House today at 202-456-1414 or 202-456-1111.
2. Leave a comment online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
4. There are also good Action Plans and comments here: http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/obama-caves-womens-groups-shift-focus/
The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society
Action Alert: Possible cuts to family planning in stimulus package Please call the White House immediately and ask President Obama not to cut family planning funds in the stimulus package!
Call the White House today at 202-456-1414. You can also leave a comment online at www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
Supporters of this funding cut question the relevancy of including these funds in an economic stimulus package. Ironically, when the Congressional Budget Office assessed a virtually identical provision in 2007, it found that it would save the federal government $200 million over five years by helping women voluntarily avoid pregnancies that otherwise would result in Medicaid-funded births. The money saved could be spent for job creation.
If family planning is so important that you have to spend tax dollars for it, then pass it in a separate bill. As elected leader you have to sell your programs to the public and if you include too many items that many consider "bridges to nowhere"-waste then you won't have the political capital to address future problems.
BO put stuff into the bill DELIBERATLY that they planned on taking out all along. When you negotiate you always ask for more than you think you are going to get and may even ask for unreasonable things that you will later "give in on" since most times you have to give in on somethings. Better to add in extra stuff you don't really want or need so you can say..."hey I gave in on that, now give me these others things I want."
BO doesn't have to do this but he is doing this for politicial theater--so he can show the world and repubs that he is interested in bi-partisianship eventhough he likely never planned on or at least relied on family planning being in the bill.
How is it that you don't get that?
A comprehensive family planning bill could cover more than a family planning provision in the stimulus package. Passing it would be a signature victory for the administration.
I am against packing everything under the sun into 'omnibus' bills anyway. That said, I believe that we should aggressively lobby our president for an administration sponsored or supported family planning bill as soon as the stimulus bill is passed.
I wonder exactly how many people could be out of work before the Republicans would care? 25%? 35%? 50%?!?
I can just hear them gleefully contemplating everyone working for the minimum wage, so that their profits soar, and their costs dive. As long as they are in food products, oil&gas, or other thinges we have to have, they might actually thrive for a while. But when even Mickey D's is EXPENSIVE, where will all the discretionary spending-based companies go?
I don't understand how an economy based on paying people next to nothing, and every benefit is supposed to be sustainable. Rich people seem to think there will be an inless sea of profits, but I just don't understand how the economy thrives when no one has a job, or is paid next to nothing, and we go back to the 30's Depression. They want this, but I just can't understand why.