Wednesday, April 13, 2011

#229: Non-Issues

The Kansas House and Senate have approved two different budget plans for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The House plan includes a provision that eliminates the pass-through of federal family planning funding to Planned Parenthood clinics.

The Senate budget plan doesn’t have such a proposal. Legislators return from their break to reconvene the session on April 27.

What the hell? You would think the Kansas state government would have better things to do than deal with an issue that is technically not an issue. I've received mailings from Kansans for Life and I didn't like the message they preached then either. I'm getting tired of these non-issues being the ones the politicians we've erroneously elected deal with when there are 2 1/2 wars, economic problems, unemployment and a huge divide with the people on the left and right. We can't agree on anything like little kids on the playground who all want to be first to kick the ball.

“Americans don’t want their taxes to help an immoral business,” said Kathy Ostrowski, of Kansans for Life. Opponents of Planned Parenthood say the funds should go to other local health clinics.

Um, our taxes don't go to pay for an immoral business. Only 3% of Planned Parenthood's business is abortions and those cost between $300 and $1,000, definitely not tax-subsidized. I would like to know how many people the Kansans for Life actually know who have used Planned Parenthood or gotten an abortion. And people belonging to KFL don't count. Being someone who knows several people who have used Planned Parenthood and gotten abortions (myself, well a girlfriend, included), I honestly don't see the big deal. All are productive members of society with their own families and doing just fine. Do they regret what they did. Probably but their lives would've been much different had they not gotten the abortion.

Planned Parenthood says the funding is crucial to support Planned Parenthood health centers in Wichita and Hays, which according to a recent study serve nearly 9,000 women per year. No abortions are conducted at either one of those clinics. Planned Parenthood also points out that the Hays clinic is the only one for low-income women in Ellis County.

Nice. No Planned Parenthood in Kansas except for the one in Overland Park performs abortions. Overland Park, the mecca for Republicans in Kansas has the Planned Parenthood that does abortions. So there are Planned Parenthoods in Wichita and Hays that serve 9,000 women per year. Where will those women go if those places are shut down? How many county health clinics are out in the boonies of Kansas? Luckily, with a quick search of Google News shows that we are not taking the lead on this for once. Other states are also creating bills defunding Planned Parenthood or wanting to reject the Federal money for Planned Parenthood.

You would think Americans would get tired of non-issues such as gay marriage and abortions being shoved down our throats as an excuse for our representatives to not actually do any work but they apparently haven't. They would rather argue the merits of something that was already upheld by the Supreme Court in 1973. Why don't they demand our government do something about the debt, the wars, the economy, jobs, immigration or ending our dependance on oil?

What's interesting is that I'm seeing a lot more people who actually voted these people in wonder what they hell they are doing. The Religious Right (or Tea Party) elected these people based on the assumption they would bring down the deficit, cut the budget, create jobs and bring this country back to prosperity. That clearly isn't happening because during the budget battle, both sides came out looking like impotent dogs. I don't care who got the better deal--Obama or Boehner--both lost because they both looked and acted like children.

I feel offended that our government threatened a shut down. They think we can be manipulated to do their bidding. The President doesn't want a shut down because that makes him look really bad, like he has no power so this was completely Boehner's fault. I feel they made it public so the American would voice support for getting rid of Planned Parenthood funding, hence the scare tactics but a majority of Americans are not stupid and they can see through that. The only ones who actually think Planned Parenthood is a threat to the well-being of our daughter and women have been nicely brainwashed by Fox News so they agree with whatever Fox says.

I find it odd that the Republicans want women to bring children into this world when they are also slashing school funding and Medicaid. "Your child may be sick as a dog and dumb as a post but at least it's alive!"