1115.org

When the Bush administration began to taking fire for adding their $200-300 billion reconstruction plans for the Gulf coast on top of $200+ billion in Iraq war spending, Democrats renewed calls for repealing some of the $2 trillion in upper-income tax cuts passed in the last four years. As the President dismissed such calls, many Republicans, hoping to appease their fiscal conservative brethren, contradicted Tom Delay’s declaration of victory over wasteful government spending and rushed to identify spending cuts in an attempt to avoid adding to the already obscene defecit. Members of Congress took a look in the mirror and either volunteered some of their pork or blanched based largely on their standing back home.

Republicans in Congress, arguably those with the most to lose if they start looking like free-spending liberals, launched “Operation Offset” (PDF) to make sure that any cuts not only reduce spending, but score maximum political points with their base. One proposed cut affects the teen funding portion of Title X Family Planning, and would save $95 million per year with a 10-year savings of $1.32 billion. Why is Title X important? Because it is…:

…the only Federal program devoted solely to the provision of family planning and reproductive health care. The program is designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons. A broad range of effective and acceptable family planning methods and related preventive health services are available on a voluntary and confidential basis. In addition to contraceptive services and related counseling, Title X supported clinics also provide a number of preventive health services such as: patient education and counseling; breast and pelvic examinations; cervical cancer, STD and HIV screenings; and pregnancy diagnosis and counseling. For many clients, Title X clinics provide the only continuing source of health care and health education.

Note that not the whole program was cut, just the third of it that covers teenagers. Needless to say, the Dobson right is happy with the reduced access to contraceptives, and point to abstinence-only programs (which received $170 million in 2004 and $270 million this year) as the solution to Title X cuts. As we’ve mentioned previously, abstinence-only not only doesn’t work, but in its current form only serves to mislead. But as Jamie wrote earlier this year, noting a quote from U.S. diplomat Ellen Sauerbrey, it’s official policy:

“We emphasize the value of the ABC — abstinence, be faithful, and correct and consistent condom use where appropriate — approach in comprehensive strategies to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and the promotion of abstinence as the healthiest and most responsible choice for adolescents.”

When I read that quote, my shock and disappointment at what was being done in our name was somewhat tempered by the “C’ part of ABC, and the unequivocal smackdown dealt Sauerbrey by all but four other delegates at the U.N. global women’s conference. As it turns out, the events at the U.N. were mostly symbolic, and completely trivial when compared to how ABC is being carried out in Africa:

The U.S. government’s emphasis on abstinence-only programs to prevent AIDS is hobbling Africa’s battle against the pandemic by downplaying the role of condoms, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.
[…]
Activists in both Uganda and the United States say the country is now in the grip of condom shortage so severe that men are using plastic garbage bags in an effort to protect themselves.
[…]
“That distortion of the preventive apparatus … is resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.“

For the sake of catering to the religious beliefs of his key supporters, the President’s policy is causing disease (including AIDS) and unwanted pregnancies that only increase the burden on starving African nations. But with the Title X cuts, the effects are not limited to foreigners, but teens in our own cities. Once again, a policy not supported by any facts is handed down from the White House to satisfy the religious right, who in this case are effectively nothing but sadistic lunatics more concerned with their faith than the lives of those affected. The icing this time is that Title X is being cut to help fund reconstruction already adversely affecting some of the same people who depend on free or reduced cost family planning.

By cutting a program aimed at the poor and ignoring the tax cuts that are scheduled to cost this country $2 trillion over the next 10 years, Republicans are taking Willie Sutton’s “because that’s where the money is” theory and inverting it. The results, already tragic, will have echoing consequences both here and abroad. But as long as the wealthy don’t have to sacrifice, and no money goes to anything not expressly permitted by the bible, it’s all good.