Mike Lewis is one of the good friends. He’s a writer for the newspaper down in Daytona Beach, as well as one of the most passionate scribes I know. He wrote this last night for his excellent blog, which you can get to here. Because we’re friends, and because he owes me $10, I decided to steal it and post it here. Why? Simply put, he’s 100 percent correct (Plus, I love the irony. We need to end abortion—and we need to reduce federal funding for programs that help with, among other things, child care for low-income families).
I am livid. Beyond livid. I don’t think outrage is strong enough of a word.
We’re going to have a federal government shutdown at midnight tonight. Eight hundred thousand people will be without a paycheck temporarily, incredibly important services will be shut down, national parks and zoos will be closed, and federal loan approvals will grind to a halt.
But who gives a crap about that? The important thing here, folks, is that women must NEVER be allowed to have the right to an abortion. Abortion is wrong, bad, illegal and disgusting, and how dare our government fund ANYTHING that gives money to a responsible, safe and 100 percent scandal-free group like Planned Parenthood.
The important thing is that the cultural and moral priorities of a few righteous, indignant a-holes take precedence over EVERYTHING. No government shall go on if a raped teenager can go to Planned Parenthood!!!
Right, Tea Partiers?
Because that’s what this is all about, folks. This is what the GOP schmucks are holding up the government deal about, according to numerous published reports Thursday. As usual, my fellow Democrats have once again backed down, acquiescing to spending cuts that will, of course, affect the poor and middle class only.
The money part has been agreed to, and why wouldn’t it be? The Republicans are getting what they want, and winning as always.
But no, we don’t have a deal because GOP members of Congress are demanding that funding for the EPA (because who gives a damn about clear air and regulating businesses that pollute it?) and Planned Parenthood be eliminated, or no deal.
And once again, where is my President in all this? My president who is a Democrat, who was the Democratic nominee, has once again decided to sit this one out. He’s laying the blame at the feet of Congress, without once, without ONCE, calling out these scumbags on the right for holding the government hostages.
As I said to a friend tonight, it’s like Obama “is scared to admit he’s a Democrat. Afraid to lead his own party.”
The hypocrisy of the right always astounds me, but this … After months and months of talking about the deficit and the national debt and spending cuts, they’re getting what they want. Just about everything they want.
But see, it was never about spending. It was never about deficits. It’s about force-feeding their conservative social views and making them the law of the land, and screw you if you don’t agree.
Go ahead, I say. Shut the whole government down. Let the public see that the right wingers have forced a cultural shutdown, not a budgetary one.
Makes me sick to my damn stomach. But if this is what the GOP wants, give it to ‘em.
Don’t you dare cave on women’s reproductive rights, or on the right for the EPA to investigate dirty practices, Democrats.
Shut. It. Down. And let the embers of this fire settle where they belong, onto the blood-soaked hands of those who think they know best when it comes to a woman’s body.
