Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
It’s common knowledge that Governor John Kasich wears his religious beliefs like a suit and inserts them into his speeches and remarks when he can. Democrat challenger Ed FitzGerald rarely talks about his faith because he feels religion is a private matter. Contrary to the ‘no religious test’ words in the US Constitution, the Columbus Dispatch ran an article about the public religiousness of each man.
The conservative propaganda machine is trying like mad to minimize the Hobby Lobby court decision. One argument is that women can still get contraceptives, they just have to pay for it. I wish it was that simple. Kind of like the decision some elderly people have to make – either pay for their expensive medicine and eat cat food or die from untreated medical conditions. It’s a ‘Sophie’s Choice‘ and one where conservatives show they have no heart. The decision covers ALL forms of contraception and includes talking to your doctor about them.
One attempt at conservative spin is to claim that women still have access to birth control but they would have to pay for it themselves.
Back on March 11th, Hemant Mehta, over at his Friendly Atheist blog, had a guest post by Kristine Kruszelnicki that attempted to give some secular arguments against abortion. Naturally Mehta received some heat for the post. However his need to ‘debate’ abortion didn’t include allowing a rebuttal from the group Secular Woman. I agree with Secular Woman that abortion shouldn’t be debated like some kind of flavor of ice cream.
Kruszelnicki’s post was a response to a comment American Atheist President David Silverman made to a reporter that there were secular arguments against abortion.
Guess who showed up in a news clip showing a tacky photo-op by supporters of HB 125 aka “Heartbeat” Bill? Senator Cliff Hite (R-Findlay) received a Teddy Bear that made a heartbeat sound when squeezed. The whole photo-op was a circus that P. T. Barnum would be proud of.
Here is a screenshot from the video:
When the Republicans won back the House of Representatives, they did it by campaigning about JOBS JOBS JOBS, yet just as I knew they would they instead decided to start by attacking women. One way was by passing HR 3 (aka No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act) on Tuesday. This bill not only prevents federal money being spent on abortions it also goes much further and redefines what is your money and what is the government’s money.
The House of Representatives just passed H.R. 3, the controversial abortion-funding law that pro-choice critics and the White House has said will make it harder for woman to pay for abortion coverage with their own money.
The passage was expected, considering 227 members signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation. The final vote was 251-175. Sixteen Democrats and 235 Republicans voted aye. The full rollcall vote is here.
Not only does the bill ban federal funds to pay for abortions, and redefines rape to remove that from reasons to use federal funds for an abortion, it also changes what is meant by “Your money”:
In order to make their “no taxpayer funding for abortion” scheme work, Republicans use H.R. 3 to disallow tax deductions for your health care expenses if your private insurance plan covers abortion. Not if you actually get an abortion. And not if a member of your family does. All it takes for you to see your taxes hiked is if the private insurance plan you selected and paid for with your own money permits coverage of abortion at all. For anyone. Even if you never get one and never plan to. If you bought a plan that agrees to cover abortion if someone else totally unrelated to you needs one, then you lose eligibility for any tax deductions for the cost of your insurance, and your tax bill shoots up. Republicans take your cash, because you agreed to buy a plan that might someday pay for someone else’s abortion.
That’s right. The cheap labor conservatives will raise your taxes to make sure no one gets an abortion – even if you pay for it yourself.
As David Waldman continues:
Yes, it’s the government’s prerogative to favor or disfavor certain activities using the tax code. But of course, just last month, the Supreme Court’s conservative wing went out of its way to preserve state tax breaks for donations made to funds that underwrite religious school tuition in Arizona by holding that tax credits aren’t “government spending.” And yet now, here are Congressional “conservatives” insisting that they are. And that since money is fungible, that means every dollar you have might be in your wallet only by virtue of a tax credit. Which means the government can keep every dollar you have on a string, telling you you can’t spend it on things they don’t like, or else they’ll raise your taxes for making them mad.
AND the GOP went ape shit over something called a “Medicine cabinet tax” after the Affordable Health Care for America Act passed.
As my friends and I say IOKIYAR!
It’s OK If You’re a Republican.