Friday, March 25, 2011

Republicans Start Eating Their Young Again; Target Agendas, Not Dollars

Years ago a friend gave me a button that read “Republicans Eat Their Young.” Kind of funny, and I suspect he was more Republican than Democrat, though we all tended to float in and out of both platforms. But now, one has to wonder if Republicans are starting to eat their young again.

With their attacks on public radio and television and their defunding of Planned Parenthood, they are clearly making politically and agenda-driven budget cuts. Marching like Sherman through hot topics like abortion and government-assisted, supposedly liberal-biased, programs like public broadcasting turns the Republicans into the party of “I don’t give a crap about anybody or anything unless they fit into my narrow-minded view of life” party. I know, that’s not really fair, but I don’t care.

With politicians throwing money away faster than (pick your own cliché . . . I was going to go with the sailors at a hooker convention one . . . ) it seems to me they’re ignoring the obvious, trying to spin the cuts into “budget only” decisions. Oh please. I know politicians think we’re all idiots incapable of seeing through their fluff and sputter, but with thousands of bloated programs funded at least in part by our government these attacks on women’s programs and public broadcasting (oh let’s just haul the Cookie Monster into Washington Square and shoot him) seem especially vicious.

Newly neutered Democrats are flopping around on the Washington beach without a clear message and seem to have forgotten that there are new bullies in town now and they ain’t Democrats. Welcome to the world.

Clearly Planned Parenthood was targeted because they provide abortion counseling and abortion services. But more importantly, they provide all kinds of services and counseling to a wide range of women. Rich, poor, black, white, young, old, etc. Pre-natal care, birth control counseling, and on and on. Millions of women go to Planned Parenthood for reasons other than abortions, and many women go there because Planned Parenthood provides them with services they need and want at little or no cost. Working on a five-point sliding payment scale, Planned Parenthood provides ob-gyn services, a wide variety of counseling, including birth control and pre-natal health,

An attack on Planned Parenthood is, simply, an attack on women, and the Republicans, not known for their open-mindedness when it comes to women and their rights, need to take a broader view of the world before starting to hack at so specific a target. I get the abortion issue and agree that federal funds shouldn’t be used to fund abortions, but this is a much bigger issue that Republicans don’t get, and we should all be ashamed they don’t.

Ok, thought I forgot about public broadcasting? Nah. It’s the one that really irks me. I get the liberal-bias argument, but with these folks agenda-driven cuts seem to be becoming the norm and not the exception. While arguments have been made that public broadcasting doesn’t need the federal dollars, I’d argue that needs-based government funding is a myth and often more reliant on political friends rather than viability of the program or need. Farm subsides? Ethanol production? (That worked for a few days until food prices started rising and some genius figured out that corn is used to feed farm animals . . . sheesh).

Of course top NPR execs didn’t help their cause by bad-mouthing conservatives to a group of fake Arab money guys in a video sting, but again, the bigger issue of “cherry picking” agenda-driven cuts over more significant cuts remains. And you can’t tell me Washington is serious about cuts until Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are on the table.

Everyone there needs to buckle up, because it is going to be a bumpy ride . . . no federal employee raises, nothing but commercial travel for politicians (no military planes and no overseas travel . . . stay here, folks and work), let’s take a look at your benefits (since you want to take ours and make us pay more), and on and on. You’re pissing money away and, frankly, it ain’t yours to piss.

You all may bitch about private companies, but the simple truth is that is you worked for one you’d be fired because they need to work to stay in business . . . and Washington hasn’t worked for a long time, and the fact that Republicans are starting to eat their young again won’t help.