You have to hand it to Texas Republicans. We have some of the craziest, teabgging-est fire breathing willfully ignorant and happily arrogant asshats to ever serve Big Money Jesus. Like the nutty fellows who got caught off guard by the additional expenses incurred by women when access to birth control is restricted:
NYT— When state lawmakers passed a two-year budget in 2011 that moved $73 million from family planning services to other programs, the goal was largely political: halt the flow of taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics.
The latest Health and Human Services Commission projections being circulated among Texas lawmakers indicate that during the 2014-15 biennium, poor women will deliver an estimated 23,760 more babies than they would have, as a result of their reduced access to state-subsidized birth control. The additional cost to taxpayers is expected to be as much as $273 million — $103 million to $108 million to the state’s general revenue budget alone — and the bulk of it is the cost of caring for those infants under Medicaid.
What a shock! Babies are expensive! Who couda node it!
Reality bites.
If only there were piles and piles of sociological studies and historical evidence available that could have informed them of the consequences of their short-sighted actions.
If only there were some sort of easily accessible and user-friendly worldwide data distribution network available that could have helped them to find it.
Sadly, unless someone wants to put in the effort to find out if their preconceptions might be fundamentally flawed and focus on forming superior policies, there’s not much to do about that.
Does this mean we can follow Nugent’s advice, and disenfranchise the entire state of Texas now, since that state will now be collecting an even larger percentage of federal aid?
@ #2 or that there are all these people disagreeing with them and the words they keep saying bring up those various points.
Reality has a strong liberal bias. Imagine that.
This angers me.
Fucking magnets! How do they work?
Medicaid is footing the bill right…so why would the republicans care? As long as it isn’t coming out of their pockets.
@bobo Republicans dominate state politics here, so they have been cutting social services for years. At the same time, they have been cutting taxes, so less revenue to pay for what is left. Medicaid is paid by the state here. Gov. Perry has expressed the sentiment that he would like to opt out of Medicaid. HTH
But…those women were obviously sluts! Who had sex! So let them foot the cost of their own slutty adventures!
This isn’t about reducing births for these folks; it’s about tying women down to little monsters* so they can’t get too uppity and demand, like, jobs and all. Compete with the men. Step out of their role in life, and try to be all professional.
Which, of course, is the exact opposite of a poor woman, who is supposed to park the little dear in day care (paid by themselves, of course) and get a job – quit being lazy! Or, better yet, get a husband (one with a job who isn’t lazy and can protect and support you and all the monsters you are able to breed). If you can’t do that, don’t have sex, because only sluts have sex. That’s the real message.
*You guessed it. I’m not that fond of kids. I have one of my own, I won’t say he was an exception, but he’s 30 now, so he sort of takes care of himself. Even monsters grow up.
Maybe it’s high time they were told about the birds and the bees.
Now guys, we have two perfectly reasonable sets of ideas here, each should be respected. On the one side are those who feel women should be treated as equal human beings under the law and have access to general healthcare and equal opportunity, on the other side are those who honestly feel that since a women listened to a magic talking snake and is therefore to blame for all death, misery, and eternal damnation in the history of the world they should have to suffer horribly and often die bearing children, and any interference with that curse will anger an invisible sky wizard. It’s just a difference of opinion, really, it’s not personal or anything.
Now if only those women would get married! Their single-parenting ways will cause the collapse of society, no doubt about it!
Ah, those inconvenient facts :) the schadenfreude is delicious, though slightly offset by the sympathy felt for those women now lumbered with babies they can’t afford to bring up.