Rep. Stupak (D-MI) has successfully lobbied for a floor vote on his sweeping pro-life amendment that would substantially rewrite the federal government’s stance on abortion funding. The main objection of Stupak and other pro-life House members is the concern that tax subsidies provided through the health insurance exchange (so-called “affordability credits”) will pay for private or public plans that provide for coverage of abortion services.
Ironically, one of the things these members fail to realize is that the American taxpayer already pays for private health insurance coverage for Americans that includes abortion procedures. There is already an employer tax exemption for money spent on health insurance for employees, and many of these plans include abortion coverage.
Because any money the federal government does not collect through tax exemptions costs taxpayers, from a budgetary perspective the fact that the money is not collected rather than spent makes no difference. It is still a cost that needs to be offset somewhere else, either in the form of new revenue or cuts in spending. There can be no question that the meandering reasoning these House members put forward—that affordability credits fund abortion—is just as consistent with the one that links tax exemptions for medical benefits to abortion funding.
But the Stupak amendment doesn’t even address this issue, and the argument has never been prominently vocalized by any House members. One thing the pro-life House members pushing the Stupak amendment are unwilling to or will not admit is that the American taxpayer has already in practice held a financial stance on the funding of abortion coverage in health insurance plans. Indirect taxpayer spending on abortion coverage has been a consequence of the funding mechanism for our healthcare system for decades.
23 hours ago
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continuum:
inthefade:
In which video games are blamed for a gang rape
37.
Essentially, the current generation of violent video games are military-grade training/conditioning systems. They train players to commit the most obscene acts and even crimes without consequence. What many people fail to remember is that play, especially among children, is a rehearsal for real-life. As people play, so will they act in the real-world. If a young man is inclined to violence anyways – and most are – and has played Grand Theft Auto for several years, he will be more likely to accept real auto theft as an acceptable act. It’s not a certainty, very few things involving humans are, but it raises the likelyhood considerably.
Emphasis mine. Though I could emphasize the whole thing for sheer ignorance.
Much like other entertainment mediums cherished by past generations, video games cause their users to lose all sense of conscience and gamers only grow to the mimic the worlds the experience in video games. If only we could return to our crime free past when we didn’t have books, movies, TV, or even story-telling. Then we would be able to live again and not have to worry.
4 days ago
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The frequency between jaunts out into our Capitol city has been slowly trending upward—as today marks my third jog in 8 days. While a terrible record for most, for me it is reassuring. It was the longest yet!
4 days ago
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I had another lousy day at work and then my day took a total U-turn because I remembered Frontline is on tonight. But on the other hand, does this make me a huge nerd?
2 weeks ago
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fleurinc:
Ok so last night post wine I thought of an amazing tv show to pitch to the Food Network…it would have Paula Deen & Sandra “Semi-Homemade” Lee as hosts and would be called ‘Drinkin’ and Bakin’ and would run around the holidays only. Sandra could make stiff drinks (her specialty), Paula could concoct new recipes to kill us all and both ladies could dish out advice on how to ‘cope’ with family/holiday stress. I mean they’d probably just talk about how to hide liquor in coffee cups and new ways to cook bacon but who couldn’t learn something from their combined life experiences?
Best idea/post in the history of mankind
3 weeks ago
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