Officials: Family planning money may be dropped

[katsy]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON – House Democrats appear likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following an appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.

Several officials said a final decision was likely on Tuesday, coinciding with Obama's scheduled visit to the Capitol for separate meetings with House and Senate Republicans.

The provision has emerged as a point of contention among Republicans, who criticize it as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy.

Under the provision, states no longer would be required to obtain federal permission to offer family planning services — including contraceptives — under Medicaid, the health program for the low-income.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_go_co/obama_stimulus

---

Yep. We have our mandate. We have a majority. We just lack a spine.

[iamjoy]

1. It's Hardly Wasteful

Family Planning is not wasteful - it pays for itself. If a family is already struggling to make ends meet and they have another child, there's a greater chance that the family will not be able to afford adequate food and clothing. So, unless you like the idea of kids going hungry, you better fund family planning.

[DesertFlower]

4. exactly. why can't

republicans understand this?

[Duckhunter935]

6. If this is the case

Than it should be easy to have it stand on its own and not tie it to an economic stimulus package designed to put people back to work.

I am not against family planning and I think it should be funded -- as a seperate program.

[SharonAnn]

9. These are women who used to have jobs that paid for the contraceptives.

Now they don't have the jobs and can't pay for them.

Capice?

[Duckhunter935]

11. Yes I do

Will this bring jobs? That is what the stimulus package is for.

Universal health care would help this problem greatly

[cap]

12. except 56% of women voted for Obama

it's not uncommon to tag on something extra for the ones that brung ya'

[kirby]

40. I think you are confusing something...

The reason given for including this type of money is that it falls under direct aid to states, which is a portion of the stimulus bill. By giving direct grant aid to states, the states who are really hurting for money too, will not have to lay off people (job loss) and/or cut funding as deep.

The direct aid to state component has a job loss prevention element to it.

[DesertDiamond]

25. There's an old song from the 1930s Depression that goes...

"The rich get richer and the poor have children."

And now that we are possibly headed for another Depression, they think this is the time to get the poor having more babies? I'm really trying to understand the logic here...

[SpiralHawk]

32. Well, 'elite' Republicon Homelanders need a large supply of proles

to do the hard work...

[starroute]

35. Pre-depression, actually

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ain%27t_We_Got_Fun%3F

"Ain't We Got Fun?" is a popular foxtrot published in 1921 with music by Richard A. Whiting, lyrics by Raymond B. Egan and Gus Kahn.

It was first performed in the show Satires of 1920, then moved into vaudeville and recordings. "Ain't We Got Fun?" and both its jaunty response to poverty and its promise of fun "Every morning / Every evening", and "In the meantime, / In between time" have become symbolic of the Roaring Twenties, and it appears in some of the major literature of the decade, including The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and in Dorothy Parker's award-winning short story of 1929, "Big Blonde". . . .

George Orwell highlights the lyrics of "Ain't We Got Fun" as an example of working class unrest:

"All through the war and for a little time afterwards there had been high wages and abundant employment; things were now returning to something worse than normal, and naturally the working class resisted. The men who had fought had been lured into the army by gaudy promises, and they were coming home to a world where there were no jobs and not even any houses. Moreover, they had been at war and were coming home with a soldier's attitude to life, which is fundamentally, in spite of discipline, a lawless attitude. There was a turbulent feeling in the air."


http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/a/aintwegotfun.shtml

Every morning
Every evening
Ain't we got fun
Not much money
Oh but honey
Ain't we got fun
The rent's unpaid dear
We haven't a bus
But smiles were made dear
For people like us
In the winter in the Summer
Don't we have fun
Times are bum and getting bummer
Still we have fun
There's nothing surer
The rich get rich and the poor get children
In the meantime
In the between time
Ain't we got fun.

[Le Taz Hot]

29. It goes even beyond that.

For some reason, (well, actually for very calculated reasons) Planned Parenthood is seen as only performing abortion services when abortion makes up only 3% of the services PP provides. They also provide counseling, low-cost pap smears, pregnancy tests, breast exams, birth control, HIV screening, pre-natal and post-natal care mostly for low income women. When I was going to college and incredibly poor, I don't know what I would have done without them.

[msongs]

2. bipartisanship = republicans in control still. sigh nt

[tom_paine]

15. Just like during the Clinton Days, though it is still possible that is not the case.

However, if it does turn out to be the case, either partially or fully, then we will have had 36 years of unbroken Bushevism running our nation.

I pray Obama has the spine to fight back on stuff like this, and while I like what I am seeing from him in other areas, this kind of repeat capitulation is disturbing in the EXTREME.

The Bushies behave as if they do not need the voters, and I am not sure they do, other than just enough for plausible deniability when they want to steal elections.

Let's see how this turns out, but I agree that if it does turn out as we suspect and have seen played out every single time in the past 8 years (with VERY FEW EXCEPTIONS), then we are in trouble.

[Duckhunter935]

3. I think it should be seperate

Stimulus should be reserved for immediate infrustrucure projects. This will all be put on the credit card and I think we should set an example of fiscal responsibility.

flame away

[katsy]

5. No flame.

However, I expect the Democrat majority to buckle under pressure from the minority and funding will never again see the light of day.

Keep your fingers crossed that I'm wrong and this legislation will be passed separately should they decouple it from the stimulous bill.

[Duckhunter935]

7. I agree, spineless leaders

The votes are there to pass family planning on its own and will make it that much harder for the other party to stall the stimulus package

[Mojorabbit]

18. I agree

and that is why I think the tax cuts should not be part of the stimulus either.

[skyounkin]

8. Jesus christ you spinelss fucks

you are in the majority!! THE MAJORITY!!

Do you even know what the fuck that means?!

Tell the rethugs to suck it and pass the bill as is!!

[Tansy_Gold]

10. I tried to improve on your post but couldn't. Well, except to fix

the spelling on "spineless." :evilgrin:

Otherwise, I T A.

[FriendlyReminder]

39. EXACTLY!!! I don't understand this bi-partisan crap that we keep getting fed.

WE ARE THE MAJORITY! If we know our legislation is the right thing to do, then stick to our principles and pass the legislation, repukes be damned!

[debbierlus]

13. Family planning is FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE - fucking PATHETIC

Outrageous!

[ShortnFiery]

14. This is WOMEN's health issue. DON'T CUT THIS ...

Yes, a family who's barely making ends meet would slip into poverty with an unintended pregnancy.

SHAME on those Democratic Representatives who folded.

GUTLESS WONDERS! :puke:

[sandnsea]

22. And wait until the women start screaming

and the governors and mayors. I think the Republicans are going to look like idiots again.

[depakid]

16. Next we'll hear that the Democratic Congress has added millions for abstinence only "education."

Oh, wait....

....

.....

......

8 June 2007

Today, the House Democrats will waltz into the mark-up of the Labor HHS Subcommittee and proudly present a bill that puts their stamp of approval on domestic abstinence-only-until-marriage programs--an ideological boondoggle that threatens the health and well-being of America's youth.

The most appalling aspect of this sell-out is that that the Democrats will not only fully fund the worst of the failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs--they'll give them a $27 million increase--the first in three years!.

http://mediagirl.org/node/1497

[geek tragedy]

17. Maybe he'll reverse the Mexico City rule again.

Gotta promote 'bipartisanship' and all that crap.

[gratuitous]

19. Cut Medicare funding for Viagra, too

I wonder if the Republicans would like to save money by not subsidizing old guys' boner-in-a-bottle?

[Duckhunter935]

20. Fine with me

[Le Taz Hot]

30. A-men to that!

I don't know why the hell we're funding it anyway! (Well, OK, yes I do, it's called Big Pharma lobby and the fact that most of Congress is made up of impotent men -- in more ways that one.)

[unc70]

36. Prostate cancer surgery side effect

Removal of prostate has major side effects

[sandnsea]

21. Wait until the women's groups scream tomorrow

The country will see how stupid the Republicans are - again. This might be good poker.

[Zhade]

23. Fucking. Insane.

NT!

[xxqqqzme]

24. Obama could attach a 'signing statement'

stating that provision can be ignored.....asswipe did it.

[Miss Chybil]

26. He doesn't need it in this bill. He can do it seperately.

I'm sure that's his plan.

[eShirl]

27. heaven forbid there be fewer abortions and unwanted children born into poverty

[Control-Z]

28. 'The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act'

HAWAII REPORTER

By Peter J. Smith, 1/24/2009 2:34:10 AM

'Focus on the Family's CitizenLink has decided to remind its supporters that more than one year has passed since Obama made his vows to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund that abortion would be the first priority of his administration.

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act," Obama said in his July speech to abortion advocates worried about the increase of pro-life legislation at the state level.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) is legislation Obama has co-sponsored along with 18 other senators that would annihilate every single state law limiting or regulating abortion, including the federal ban on partial birth abortion.'

snip

'Besides making abortion on demand a "fundamental right" throughout the United States, FOCA would effectively nullify informed consent laws, waiting periods, health safety regulations for abortion clinics, etc.'

more at: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?03b0c09e-10c9-4337-9649-cc441a58c76d

When President Obama reversed the Global Gag Rule I started to believe there just might be great change in store. If he's going to cave on family planning so soon, it is a good sign to me that we will be waiting and waiting for his promises, only to end up disappointed, again. Very discouraging.

[GeorgeGist]

31. Hip, hip, hooray for bi-partisanship economics.

More Poor People

[bunnies]

33. I dont see why it belongs in a stimulus bill.

If theres only ONE bill that actually *only* serves its purpose it should be this one. Pass the family planning stuff - and any other non-stimulus related stuff - separately.

[Betty]

34. wouldn't it improve the economy to have less unwanted children?

It seems even winning an election decisively is not enough to get the dems to actually lead. The repugs are realizing that they in fact CAN be the permanent ruling majority KKKArl hoped for, even if they don't have the actual numbers. They spineless dems will just give them everything they demand.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

41. yes

[TEXASYANKEE]

37. Big mouthpiece

Why are the Repubs given such a big mouthpiece? They are in the minority. When the Dems were in the minority (during 6 years of the Bush residency), they were practically shut out of the media. Why do we even need to listen to the Repubs right now?

[katsy]

38. Because their masters own the media.

The gop are bought & paid for by big $.

[maddezmom]

42. kick