Congress versus Planned Parenthood: Game on?

[n2doc]

To tweak a line of President Ronald Reagan's, "There they go again."

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has voted to eliminate $317 million in federal funding for Planned Parenthood, not a nickel of which can or is spent on abortions, in spite of some of the political points that are scored by inferring that.

Republicans argued, as they have before, that putting so much as a nickel of federal money in Planned Parenthood -- which uses the money to provide services like reproductive health tests and checkups, pelvic and breast exams, infertility and safe-sex counseling to millions of women who can't afford them -- could actually be subsidizing abortions, because it's money that Planned Parenthood doesn't have to raise on its own to spend on those services.

One Republican-sponsored bill would even deny the standard federal tax credits to any private insurance plan that pays for abortions, the real motivation pretty obviously being to try to force those plans to drop coverage for a legal medical procedure. There are lots more bills along these lines, which purport to be about cutting the budget but that really, like the magician's trick of misdirection, are about cutting back women's reproductive rights.

So, here I go again:

http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/02/congress-versus-planned-parenthood-game-on.html

more at link

And for you budget-conscious taxpayers: The Republican majority decided to let the Army go ahead and keep spending $7 million a year to sponsor a NASCAR driver.

[KansDem]

1. Are they going to send O'Keefe out again to do another hatchet job?

Hey, Jimbo! If you're going to work with Congress, you really will have to wear your pimp's constume!