The Royal Destiny & Spiritual Inheritance of Man…
Last night, a story was brought to my attention that makes my blood boil. This week in Indiana, a bill passed banning Planned Parenthood funding from the state. In response, the Obama Administration bared its teeth and threatened Indiana – if Planned Parenthood funding is cut, Indiana will lose all Medicare funding. Everyone who reads this blog understands that I am not pro-entitlements, and cutting Medicare may seem like a good thing if you ascribe to my views of the world. But this is not the reason something should be cut. This is FURTHER coercion and threat of violence on the state, not a withdrawal of coercion…
What strikes me is first the priority of the Democratic Party led by Planned Parenthood. The poor will be sacrificed if abortion is tampered with. I know, I know, “abortion is only 3% of what Planned Parenthood does,” or so some people argue. I’ll grant that, even though I think it is an accounting trick. Abortion is still over 1/3 of the profits of the company, and to pretend that these clinics would not exist if they didn’t do abortions is a denial of reality. If that is true, why not abolish their abortive policies and have two companies – one which sees no federal funding ever and can do abortions at will? After all, the Hyde Amendment makes for a shell game with federal money only. Can anyone believe that if I give my friend $200 and he immediately goes out and buys a new iPod that he wouldn’t have bought if I hadn’t given him the money is using money that “isn’t mine,” even if he goes to the bank and puts the gift in a separate account for something else and uses his normal account? You don’t have to be a genius to know that the Hyde Amendment is a joke.
Secondly, Federalism is dead. That’s about all you can say. The states are effective puppets of the federal government, despite the Constitution and our history. Texas was the recent victim of a similar Federal threat, when passing a bill banning the TSA from the pat-downs (to which Eric Holder’s henchmen responded: do it and we will shut down all of your airports). Federalism is dead, and coercion is the theme of recent Administrations.
Anyway. I don’t have time to spend on it, though it does deserve its own attention here on SNV.
I liked the anger in this National Catholic Register column, and more info is available at Deacon’sBench.