Friday, February 6, 2009

I choose STDs & Smoking..


I am neither a big fan of sexually transmitted diseases nor of cigarettes, but I am aghast that Bushbama's original stimulus plan included $400,000,000 for the prevention of STDS and $75,000,000 in anti-smoking. While these are laudable goals and IF these programs were effective there would be long term economic benefits, they hardly constitute an immediate economic stimulus. Clearly, Bushbama and many Democrats are using the stimulus bill as an opportunity to push through their pet programs, without subjecting them to normal legislative debate.

In addition, Bushbama's stimulus bill is directing $87,000,000,000 towards Medicaid and $45,000,000,000 in funding other government health care programs. The question is not if we agree or disagree with this particular segment of the "stimulus bill. The question is if a policy that will ad billions to an already mind-boggling deficit should be decided through the debate and votes of our legislature. If you answered "yes," the second question is: What does it say about a leader when he uses a crisis to circumvent the normal legislative process? I believe the answer is that Bushbama and many of his democratic cohorts have very little regard for the democratic process.

You don't have to be an Ultra-Orthodox Jew to choose STDs and Smoking over a giant pork sandwich filled with many questionable ingredients...especially when your children and grandchildren will be paying for it for decades to come.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/02/dems-drop-anti-smoking-st_n_163266.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE50S05320090129
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 7, 2009 at 8:28 AM

    The $400,000,000 figure as I understood it was to go towards family planning, which may have included elements of STD prevention (wear a condom stupid!). Family planning services decrease the reproductive rate of those in the welfare/medicaid class. With proper counciling maybe such recipients would be less likely to have 6 kids by the time they are 25. That is 6 less kids to blow money trying to educate, provide food stamps and medicaid for. There is reliable research tying legalized abortion with decreased crime 18 years later. Such an investment may have proven to be a net savings had it not been cut.

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  2. JasonFebruary 7, 2009 at 12:06 PM

    Jay F, of course I agree with you that preventing STDs and teen pregnancies are great goals that will save us lots of money in the long run. Of course I would like to see the data to determine if those programs accomplish their stated goals. But, even if they were successful programs:

    1. They do not constitute an immediate economic stimulus.

    2. Any program that doesn't constitute an economic stimulus should be debated and voted on through normal legislative procedures.

    And of course this is even more relevent for the $85,000,000 transferred to medicaid.

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