"The RSC Goes Hog Wild", says the headline on The New Republic article by Jonathan Chait. It's about how the "ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee released a series of proposed spending cuts" that amount to "budget cutting as culture war".
So how could we translate that plan to Albany to help plug the $10 billion budget gap? Obvious targets would include defunding Medicaid abortion (fully paid for by New York because the feds can't pay anything under the Hyde Amendment), and embryonic stem cell research, and the Health Department-funded "I Am Gay" billboards currently ticking off some Capital Region blacks while not expressing any health message. You could go beyond that to abolishing the Empire State Stem Cell Board and defunding Planned Parenthood.
If that's too overtly ideological, how about cutting or at least examining the funding of groups like the Parent Network of the Capital Region, which according to its Web site is "one of thirteen special education parent technical assistance centers throughout the state, funded by a grant from the New York State Education Department." It's not just the direct state funding which costs taxpayers, but the work these centers do in pushing more students into expensive special ed --by no means always to their benefit.
Y'know, Bob, the amount of time you spend railing against abortion & Planned Parenthood therein (never mind the fact they do a lot to work against STD prevention, birth control, & responsible family planning), I'd be curious to know what your policy position is when it comes to spaying & neutering ones pets? Afterall is that not denying the natural course of God's will?
Posted by: Matthew | January 28, 2011 at 11:03 AM
Hey Matt: Spaying and neutering does not involve killing young human beings.
Posted by: Bob Conner | January 28, 2011 at 02:24 PM