Defunding Planned Parenthood

Diane Rehm had a show on the Planned Parenthood defunding, with Majorie Dannenfelser representing the defunding side (in a group curiously called The Susan B Anthony List), and Sarah Brown representing the pro-PP side.  It was kind of an annoying conversation, full of half-truths and statistics put to questionable use, but I enjoyed the posts on Diane's FB page, which were mostly pro-PP and many were very smart and to the point.  Here's the comment I posted:

America *is* broke, but we didn't get this way by funding health service organizations. If we completely eliminated the funding for PP and NPR it would not make even a tiny dent in our deficit. BILLIONS to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan for almost a decade for very questionable benefit is a much bigger factor. We need to focus our budget discussion on items that will actually impact our deficit.




I realize "policy riders" are a legitimate element of this process, but it's such a major over-reach, to target this one organization's funding just because they annoy the crap out of you (PP manages to have its cake and eat it too - provide abortions and maintain a reputation as a quality healthcare provider, no wonder the Repugs see red.)

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One of the most outrageous  things I heard during this period was what Jon Kyl (R, AZ) said on the floor of the Senate - that abortions are “well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”

Of course that's ridiculous - the real figure is about 5%, which Kyl no doubt knows - they flat out lie when spin or slogans aren't working. But the fun part is that the story took on a life of it's own ~

After the gaffe, Kyl’s office backpedaled, telling CNN that “his remark was not intended to be a factual statement.”

Stephen Colbert created a hashtag “#NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement” and his 2 million Twitter followers are tweeting silly “facts” about the senator with the hashtag attached:

Jon Kyl has the world’s most extensive catalogue of snuff films. #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement


Jon Kyl actually prefers Hydrox to Oreos. #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement