NYT Editorial: It’s Not Really About Spending

[Derechos]

If the federal government shuts down at midnight on Friday — which seems likely unless negotiations take a sudden turn toward rationality — it will not be because of disagreements over spending. It will be because Republicans are refusing to budge on these ideological demands:

R• No federal financing for Planned Parenthood because it performs abortions. Instead, state administration of federal family planning funds, which means that Republican governors and legislatures will not spend them.

• No local financing for abortion services in the District of Columbia.

• No foreign aid to countries that might use the money for abortion or family planning. And no aid to the United Nations Population Fund, which supports family-planning services.

• No regulation of greenhouse gases by the Environmental Protection Agency.

• No funds for health care reform or the new consumer protection bureau established in the wake of the financial collapse.

Abortion. Environmental protection. Health care. Nothing to do with jobs or the economy; instead, all the hoary greatest hits of the Republican Party, only this time it has the power to wreak national havoc: furloughing 800,000 federal workers, suspending paychecks for soldiers and punishing millions of Americans who will have to wait for tax refunds, Social Security applications, small-business loans, and even most city services in Washington. The damage to a brittle economy will be substantial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/08/opinion/08fri1.html?ref=opinion

[gratuitous]

1. It's nice they noticed this time, I guess

But the Times and the other popular media outlets won't do anything untoward like . . . asking the Republicans why they're willing to shut down the government, throwing thousands of people out of work, costing untold billions, and almost certainly killing some people just for their "hoary greatest hits."

After all, asking the Republicans why they're doing this and pointing out the real consequences of their selfish indulgence would just be partisan and stuff. Such as.

[CatWoman]

2. kick

:kick:

[PotatoChip]

3. So true. Yet the republicans keep trying to frame this

as if it is about the money, as well as trying to pin the blame for a possible shutdown on the democrats. I've been watching the session live on CSpan pretty much all morning and that's been their constant meme. We've had some great rebuttals from our side of the aisle that demonstrate to the American people what this is really about (a far right R social agenda), but my fear is that the MSM will not accurately report this if the government does shutdown. Pardon my cynicism, but the media has proven their bias time and again.

I really hope that we can get beyond this impasse w/out giving into R social demands, but it is not looking very good right now. :banghead: