‘Centrist’ Economic Recovery Package Disproportionately Cuts Programs For Women And Children
‘Centrist’ Economic Recovery Package Disproportionately Cuts Programs For Women And Children
Conservatives opposed to the Democratic economic recovery package have been voicing their complaints by calling out individual programs they believe to be wasteful. For example, last month on the House bill, conservatives specifically targeted funding for comprehensive family planning services and STD prevention. Unfortunately, in an effort to compromise, President Obama called for both of those provisions to be cut from the legislation.
Today, various progressive blogs released a list of items that so-called “centrist” Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ben Nelson (D-NE) have proposed cutting from the economic recovery package. Many of these cuts, however, would disproportionately affect women and children — similar to the cuts to the House bill. Some highlights:
– $150 million cut to the Violence Against Women Act
– $50 million to the Victims of Crime Act
– $25 million to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces
– $1.1 billion to Head Start
– $50 million to Teacher Quality Partnership Grants
– $5.2 billion for Prevention And Wellness (including diabetes screening and HIV testing)
– $13.9 billion for Pell Grants
– $2 billion for Child Care Development Block Grants
Over on the Wonk Room, Pat Garofalo notes why these cuts are so troubling:
For Nelson, who has a personal net worth about $10 million, this is also a case of kicking Main Street while its down, as the proposed cuts are in areas like health care, education, and aid to the states. Adding insult to injury, Collins and Nelson are nitpicking important stimulus funding that would benefit working Americans and their children, after they voted for giving $700 billion to Wall St. with no oversight.
In particular, health care provisions not only disproportionately boost women and children, but also minorities. After all, preventive health care spending is stimulative; it creates jobs and saves the country expensive long-term medical costs.
President Obama put it best today when he criticized all the people who are calling anything besides tax cuts “pork”: “So when you hear these attacks deriding something of such obvious importance as this, you have to ask yourself, ‘Are these folks serious?’”
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Women and children last?
February 5th, 2009 at 4:49 pmHere’s my wish for a Democratic legislative strategy: Only bring “pure” bills to the floor for discussion and vote, focusing on one issue only. Defeat any unrelated amendments. Force the Republicans to address the single issue without having the opportunity to hide by claiming to be against a bill for some unrelated piece included, as is the case now. Force the Republicans to filibuster, not just threaten.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:50 pmHey Obama….one simple sentance for you…..YOU WON THE ELECTION BASED ON A PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT!
If you wont protect our interests, you too can be replace.
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET WHAT WE ELECTED. I WANT TO SEE CHANGES BY YOU MR. PREZ. WE ARE SICK AND TIRED OF HAVING A GOVERNMENT WHO DOES NOT LOOK OUT FOR IT’S PEOPLE.
FCUK THE CORPORATIONS AND TAX CUTS.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:50 pmNo, Mr. President they aren;t serious…they are deluded. Deluded because you have not put the truth of your package on the table. Deluded because the spineless Dims in Congress have not stood up and backed your plan.
They haven’t because you are too busy trying to get Repug support that just ain’t coming.
Work with your allies, Mr. President. Encourage them to speak out. Otherwise, you will lose.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:51 pmNo, Mr. President they aren’t serious…they are deluded. Deluded because you have not put the truth of your package on the table. Deluded because the spineless Dims in Congress have not stood up and backed your plan.
They haven’t because you are too busy trying to get Repug support that just ain’t coming.
Work with your allies, Mr. President. Encourage them to speak out. Otherwise, you will lose.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:51 pmThese are all good programs, and must be funded. But not today.
The stimulus bill needs to be bare bones. Fund programs and projects that will provide the economy with the greatest boost for the buck. And can start today.
We need these other programs, but they should be dealt with separately.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:52 pmWell, obviously, any money going to help those unsanitary, lazy poor people is pork.
And women? They should be home taking care of their children where they’d be nice and safe.
And as long as Muffy’s private school is in the black, who cares about those dirty nasty public schools?? Only the filthy spawn of poor people go there anyway.
Harumph!
/snarkity-snarkity-snark
February 5th, 2009 at 4:55 pmPhone Numbers for the so called centrist:
February 5th, 2009 at 4:55 pmSusan Collins: (202)224-2523
Ben Nelson:(202)224-6551
Time to make some calls. LOTS of them
I don’t think the package should be bare bones at all. This problem is ridiculous and now isn’t the time to cut corners and not be thorough. These programs all serve a purpose, otherwise they wouldn’t have been in there in the first place. For example, $13.9 billion for Federal Pell Grants. Credit has gone to crap. Students can’t get loans at a reasonable interest rate. Result, they choose a less than stellar educational institution or choose not to attend school at all…The money makes sense to me. It serves a purpose.
February 5th, 2009 at 4:55 pmI will give some slack in that it is hard to name any measure as a clear example of stimulus. after all, is fixing a bridge in Minneapolis a routine govt measure or does the money count as a stimulus.
That being said, I like the idea I heard on an interview the other night that Obama said he was going to restore science. Well Economics has some scientific elements to it. So why not choose the top economists, lock them in a room, and ask them to rate each project for the “bang for the buck” ???
February 5th, 2009 at 5:01 pmThese are socially irresponsible cuts. If you only recover the economy for day traders, segments of the population will be left in a rut. Giving a damn about your fellow man has everything to do with the economy. We rise and fall as a nation.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:04 pmThe stooopid, stooopid, stooopid…it burns.
Just what happens with these programs. Yeah. They hire teachers. And social workers. And other “white collar” workers.
Who are all suffering in this economy right along with the shovel pushers. Because BushCo drove this economy so deep in the ditch that every market segment has been trashed. And it’s going to take extraordinary effort to raise all segments of the market.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:06 pmExcessive tax cuts are pork. What sense does it make to spend $800 billion when the revenues eventually needed to pay it off are cut?
February 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pmAs Noam Chomsky has pointed out, the American people are considerably to the left of their government. That’s why we have so much trouble getting what most of us want. Unfortunately, the media is even farther to the right.
Going Back in Time:
February 5th, 2009 at 5:08 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naZdfGqZtJ0
go to C&L and read the part of that speech that’s posted…
stirring… thank you, mr. president…
now…
i’m listening to nancy skinner (?), in for randi today, and she’s talked with some real wingers today…
first rep. boyle (?) – who talked down to her, explaing how a bill is made, like to a 5th grader… and the latest meme is that the polls are showing that the people are turning against this plan because of all the spending…
is it any wonder since they’ve had nothing but bullshiit poured into their scared little brains for weeks…
oh, and then there was a former bushie, sullivan, who was on to complain about the more relaxed dress code for the oval office… he’s worried about appearances… old news, but know that it’s still making the rounds…
February 5th, 2009 at 5:08 pmI never said these programs don’t serve a purpose, because they do.
I’m just saying we need to stay focused. Funding for health and education programs won’t be of much use to people with no jobs and no home.
Obama and Congress have eight years of disastrous leadership to clean up after. They can’t fix everything at once.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:11 pmWhat needs to be done is that the American people march on Washington and Wall Street. That alone will get the attention of our incompetent politicians. We’ve been sitting around too complacent when this was happening to other people and it was not a problem, now this chaos is bilateral and is affecting everyone.
We have let our elected officials keep us pitted against each other while they’ve literally torn this country apart and we’ve done nothing about it. What do most of you want for yourselves and your families?
Corporations do not want to pay pensions period! What happens to the American worker is of no importance to them at all.
Are the actions of “Big Business” showing us that our welfare is less important than theirs? Are our so called conservative politicians doing the same thing?
February 5th, 2009 at 5:11 pmBeing a child of the 60’s, marching is a good thing. The American public needs to put their frustration in the face of the government. Screw the lobbyists and special interests.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:18 pmIn particular, health care provisions not only disproportionately boost women and children, but also minorities. After all, preventive health care spending is stimulative; it creates jobs and saves the country expensive long-term medical costs.
Stop letting these asswipes cut the stimulus to nothing!! Jeebus!
February 5th, 2009 at 5:23 pmRepublicans must be muslims…
February 5th, 2009 at 5:27 pmthe way they hate pork so much.
Good! Cut more!
February 5th, 2009 at 5:29 pmThe so-called stimulus package should be focused only on direct and immediate job creation. No additional social-engineering nonsense.
Shut up, Erkel.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:32 pmThe so-called stimulus package should be focused only on direct and immediate job creation.
So you agree that the Government should immediately start hiring people directly? Great! A new W.P.A., alright Erkel!
February 5th, 2009 at 5:39 pmCutting programs for women and children is so ‘American Taliban’. They were probably against the Lily Ledbetter Act, too. They want a new brand, but no one is going to call them ‘T-bone’ and American Taliban fits pretty well.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:40 pmEvery time I hear Collins talk about the “center”, I can’t help but think how many times she’s talked this way then always voted with the righties. She must think points are given for talk and none for action.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:41 pmErkelTheUsurper Says:
Psst, sorry, this isn’t Dungeons & Dragons. Trolls have no hit powers at all.
February 5th, 2009 at 5:57 pmlm945 Says: Funding for health and education programs won’t be of much use to people with no jobs and no home.
Fixing the health funding system will free up employers from the expense of providing insurance and, thereby, more likely to be able to keep companies operating and people employed. Some unemployed people may choose to go back to college or trade schools to improve their employability and, by doing so, making less people needing a job.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:04 pmErkelTheUsurper Says:
Good! Cut more!
The so-called stimulus package should be focused only on direct and immediate job creation. No additional social-engineering nonsense.
Every law, every governmental policy, and every governmental expenditure is a form of social engineering. You can say you don’t like the current form, but your side lost in the election. It’s our form’s turn.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:06 pmOf what Benefit is Nelson to the Dem party?IMO,it’s better to see a Repuke in that seat rather than this piece of s..t.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:13 pmZooey Says:
Stop letting these asswipes cut the stimulus to nothing!! Jeebus!
Nothing, Zooey? I wouldn’t call $800 billion nothing. I wouldn’t call it anywhere close.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:26 pmgummitch:
Great one-liner! thanks!
February 5th, 2009 at 6:29 pmDemocrats need to get out front and argue against Reaganomics. The American public is capable of grasping the difference between micro and macro, if they have it explained to them that money moves, being taxed repeatedly, and doesn’t just disappear into a vortex when it’s spent on poor people.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:51 pmKeltoi at Night Says:
Zooey Says:
Stop letting these asswipes cut the stimulus to nothing!! Jeebus!
Nothing, Zooey? I wouldn’t call $800 billion nothing. I wouldn’t call it anywhere close.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
“Nothing” being all tax cuts and few jobs. But I bet you had an idea what I meant.
February 5th, 2009 at 6:57 pmAdds up to about 25 billion or 2%.
February 5th, 2009 at 7:16 pmThe same as six to eight weeks of the Iraq war which has been going on for over 5 years.
Turns my stomach
Zooey Says:
“Nothing” being all tax cuts and few jobs. But I bet you had an idea what I meant.
I may be obtuse at times, but I am never deliberately obtuse. Being obtuse is counter-productive to being a pain in the ass contrarian Troll.
As I understand, the current Bill is about 300 billion in tax cuts and 500 billion in spending. How about we lower a billion in tax cuts, 1.5 billion in spending, get down to the hardcore stimulus on both sides of that balance sheet and go with something more focussed, less ominbus, less expensive?
February 5th, 2009 at 7:51 pmWhat people seem to forget (but especially Collins and Nelson) is that these desperately-needed funding proposals that help working families, as well as a whole lot of struggling small to medium-sized businesses, don’t just help Democrats, but help a whole lot of working Republican families and struggling Republican-owned small to medium-sized businesses.
I guess if you’re a Republican, your family or your business don’t matter unless you are one of the top-tier Republicans donating a whole lot of money to Republicans. This was the whole purpose behind Paulson’s top-tier Republican bail-out package.
Republicans in the corporate/investor class are the only Republicans apparently that matter. Along with the lobbyists for this group.
Lower-level working-class Republicans, as well as small to medium-sized Republican business owners, should just tighten their belts, suck it in, because the top-tier corporate-overseer Republicans just don’t give a damn for them and their families.
This is what people like Collins and Nelson and all the Republican obstructionists in Congress are really saying. They are willing to throw a whole lot of lower-level Republican families, and their children, under the bus just so no federal money makes its way into the hands of their hated enemies, the Democrats.
Each of the programs listed above don’t have a litmus test, so Republican, Democrat and Independent families benefit, which certain corrupt and devilish Republicans just can’t allow.
On the other hand, tax cuts and throwing $700 Billion in taxpayer money at corporate America is just fine, because they reason that the bulk of taxpayer money will end up benefiting Republicans and only Republicans.
This is what makes these culture of corruption Republicans so un-American and dangerous to our democracy, not only to freedom-loving Democrats but also a whole lot of hard-working Republicans and Independents who just aren’t high enough up the economic ladder to matter to the culture of corruption Republican leadership.
February 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm32. Wiley –
Agreed. My talking point is that if you give $ 100 to a poor person, they are likely to spend it almost immediately, as they must. Also, they are likely to spend this lower down on the supply chain stimulating these stores to place more orders (Weakness in this argument is that WalMart isn’t exactly a small local store).
However, if you give $ 100 to Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, they have no reason to quickly spend the money. Places that they spend their money are likewise more likely to slowly circulate the money. Thus the dollar circulates slower.
February 5th, 2009 at 9:52 pmAnd just how does this square in light of the Senate’s creation of the new subcommittee on Women’s Global Health?
http://punditmom1.blogspot.com
February 5th, 2009 at 10:33 pmJimwolf359, I just tried to call Senators Collins and
Nelson and their mailboxes are full.
I emailed my state’s representatives and senators this
morning.
Jimwolf is right. We need to let’em hear from us.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:22 amto im945,
But health and education programs hire workers.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:31 amto ErkeltheUsurper,
Do you know which parts of the bill create jobs and
February 7th, 2009 at 12:37 amwhich, if any, are social engineering?
wizard2000, didn’t Paulson pull a switch with the
February 7th, 2009 at 12:45 ambank bailout? At first, it was to be used to make
loans, then all of a sudden it was just to shore up
banks. And no transparency.
heh-heh, wizard -
I just re-read what you said. Right you are.
February 7th, 2009 at 12:46 amwizard2000 Just another anti-Republican load of nonsense.Wizzard this is a very good reason for tax cuts.
You want to create jobs and help the poor?
First reduce the income tax. The poor will have more money to buy things they need. Sound good so far? It instantly gives people all around the nation money to stimulate the economy. It requires no Government intervention. It requires no new programs that cost money to oversee. People feel better and start spending. How’s that?
People by things. Companies need to supply those things. Demand increases for those things so companies hire more people to make those things. Still with me Wizzard. So far we haven’t wasted any money to oversee expenditures and the money instantly appears into the economy.
Now the economy starts to improve. People begin to feel better because more are working. The result is an increase in demand for more products like autos and maybe a home. The auto industry hires laid off employees to keep up with the demand. The housing industry begins to recover. I hope I haven’t lost you wizzard.
The people who were laid off from those industries who supplied parts to manufacture those cars have an increase in demand. They hire people to meet that demand. The plastic company, steel industry, machinists, textile workers, engeneers, and a geat many other people who supply products to those companies have to hire people to meet the demand.
Now take that and multiply that by the thousands of companies, both big and small, who experience a greater demand for their products. More jobs to make Microwaves, Fridges, TV’s Computers and all the things that people want.
Now we don’t have to rely on tax cuts only. While the country begins it climb back to prosperity we can continue to funding for Infrastructure repair, low income housing and other programs that will take months and even years to see a benefit from.
One note mr. wizzard about your need to bad mouth Corporations in this country. This is a plan that is being pushed in the Senate.
Those companies you hate manufacture all the products you enjoy every day. Even your computer that you use to bad mouth them with.
Does tax cuts create jobs? You bet and it is instant. No wasted money to form Government agencies to oversee the spending and it hits the economy with just the swipe of the pen.
Did I lose you mr. wizzard. If I did, there is no help for you because your hate is clouding your judgment.
That’s just a cut in income taxes. What would a cut in taxes do for a small business? More jobs and an incentive to hire more people. It won’t be easy but it is a good start.
As far as spending money to give out condoms or buy green cars for Government workers, maybe later when things get better. I also think that helping fish swim up river can wait a while also.
February 8th, 2009 at 7:38 pmWang111 Says:
The ‘Centrist’ Economic Recovery Package resembles Bush in that it is not favorable to children.
Bush hates children.
Wang do you get paid for posting this nonsense on all the sites? Just wondering because you certainly can’t believe the tripe you post. If you do then you need to do a reality check. Does GS pay you to do this?
February 8th, 2009 at 7:41 pmIt’s amazing how many don’t seem to realize those health and education jobs are held by more women than men, while construction jobs are the other way around.
Basically, when you say those don’t create jobs, you are saying they don’t create jobs for mostly men, as though they are the only ones that need jobs. It shows your bias towards men having work rather than women.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:41 amOh, and this statement shows just how out of touch some are:
Obviously that person doesn’t realize that the poor usually don’t pay income taxes. They don’t earn enough.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:43 am