PELOSI SAYS BIRTH CONTROL WILL HELP ECONOMY

[GG]

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashpbc.htm

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi boldly defended a move to add birth control funding to the new economic "stimulus" package, claiming "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

Pelosi, the mother of 5 children and 6 grandchildren, who once said, "Nothing in my life will ever, ever compare to being a mom," seemed to imply babies are somehow a burden on the treasury.

The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

[GG]

I wonder if she has Egenics in mind.

Eu-gen-ics
noun (used with a singular verb)
the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, esp. by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics).

[rwarn17588]

It makes sense to me. It's hard to keep your head above financial water if you've got an extra mouth to feed.

These is a time to keep the family unit stable, not expand it when financial resources are shrinking.

The birth rate went down dramatically during the Great Depression for this very reason. And there were far fewer birth-control options in the 1930s, too.

[Conan71]

What does a condom cost these days? .25, .50 per if you buy a box???

The gov't needs to stay out of the reproductive health business.  

It's like education, you are not going to improve behavior or results by throwing more money at it.  It doesn't matter if you pay a teacher $40K or $70K, how recently-purchased the busses are, or what the cost per square foot to build the school.  If a child's parents are not involved and are not a positive influence, the child won't do any better in school.

The only way to improve the problem of unintended pregnancy is through the family peer group, not by creating or expanding bureaucracies.  You can buy someone all the condoms you want, but if they don't have any family influence helping to guide their judgement, it's not going to make one iota's difference.

If the suggestion is abortion at taxpayer expense, there's a hell of a fight ahead.

I'll play Inteller here for a second:

"Take all that trailer trash and sterilize them, that's the only wise use of tax money for birth control!"

[TeeDub]

It may not be popular to say, but I would rather pay for an abortion than welfare for the mother and child for the next 18 years.

[RecycleMichael]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

What does a condom cost these days? .25, .50 per if you buy a box???

Keep some latex paint near the bed. Dip Mr. Happy in and then run a fan over it.

Way cheaper.

[cannon_fodder]

I agree with her.  It is not popular, but helping people who don't want to breed to NOT breed will help the economy.  Not sure if people are too stupid or too uneducated, but reproductive rates in the US have an inverse relationship to income.  Clearly that has social and economic consequences that are usually not desirable.

If spending $4 a month on birth control saves $1200 a month in section 8, food stamps, medicaid, schooling, prison or whatever... it was an amazing economic investment.

And no, she is not a Nazi.  Eugenics is a great idea if it actually worked and was done voluntarily... unfortunately it probably doesn't work and when tried is most often NOT done voluntarily.  More importantly, this isn't discouraging people from breeding - it is allowing people the choice.  I choose NOT to breed at the moment for a variety of reasons - why do you think poor people shouldn't have that choice.

You hate poor people if you force them to breed.  [xx(]

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588



The birth rate went down dramatically during the Great Depression for this very reason. And there were far fewer birth-control options in the 1930s, too.

Well then should the government do anything? Apparently, people 70 years ago figured out that putting tab A into slot B will result in a baby.

[guido911]

This just in..the provision pertaining to family planning in this economic stimulus/jobs bill has been removed:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/26/house-leaders-axe-family-planning-funds-stimulus/

Apparently Barack "I vote no on Illinois' Born Alive Act" Obama was even against this.

[cannon_fodder]

I don't understand your opposition Guido.

Are you Catholic and against birth control as part of your religion?

Or are you afraid this is a backdoor to government abortions and are against abortions as part of your religion?


As a government policy, enabling people who don't want kids to facilitate that desire is a damn fine idea.  Please extrapolate your opposition.  I trust you know I'm interested in hyperbolic "eugenics" arguments or the like.

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by cannon_fodder

I don't understand your opposition Guido.

Are you Catholic and against birth control as part of your religion?

Or are you afraid this is a backdoor to government abortions and are against abortions as part of your religion?


As a government policy, enabling people who don't want kids to facilitate that desire is a damn fine idea.  Please extrapolate your opposition.  I trust you know I'm interested in hyperbolic "eugenics" arguments or the like.

This is a smokescreen for something else, CF.  As I recall from my high school days, Planned Parenthood was available to anyone who wanted it.  The cost of services or contraception were available on a sliding scale basis, I believe.

IOW- this initiative already exists, simply sounds like the government is going to provide a quid pro quo for PP's support of key candidates in November.

[Gaspar]

I am 100% for paying for Nancy Pelosi's birth control.  

Best idea yet!