TN GOP proves that “pro-life” ends at birth, Daily Kos, May 28, 2010, by benintn, quoted verbatim:

Disgusting.

A state agency that seeks to reduce the infant mortality rate in Tennessee would be cut under a budget plan passed by a Senate panel Thursday night and now headed for a floor vote.

The Republican-majority Senate Finance Committee approved the proposal 8-2, the first significant progress the budget has made in weeks. The full Senate was expected to take up the plan next week.

Lawmakers worked late into the night trying to work out differences in Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen’s original proposal and a Senate Republican plan.

I can tell you why infant mortality is high in Tennessee. It’s because Tennessee ranks among the highest rates of bankruptcy in the country and we’ve got too few people with too many resources, spending their money trying to get their people elected instead of helping their neighbors.

I’m so angry I can’t see straight.

Tennessee Republicans claim to be “pro-life” but support the endless wars and the death penalty. And it appears the right to life ends at birth, at least, when you’re in a recession.

Tennessee is one of a handful of states that has no state income tax, but we have one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation. That means that every time there’s a recession, Tennessee is a great place to be wealthy (because property and income taxes are low) but a terrible place to be poor. Or to be a parent.

These draconian budget measures come as Tennessee Republicans continue to rail against the “San Francisco liberals” and the “Obama-Pelosi agenda” as if Obama and Pelosi are terrible people.

You know what I think is terrible?

I think it’s terrible that instead of spending money on healthcare for poor people, we spend it on the 287g program that adds needless bureaucracy and wasteful spending on a witch hunt against illegal immigrants.

I think it’s terrible that the Tennessee Republicans in our state legislature are spending more time worrying about protecting the rights of gun owners to carry weapons into restaurants than they spend on creating real solutions to a 10% unemployment rate (and it’s worse in many parts of the state).

As Mother Teresa said:

It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.

Comment by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: This article gets at the heart of the reason I have a problem being anti-abortion (as I am), even though a developing fetus has a measurably human brainwave at eight days after conception. If we eliminate first trimester abortions, this will dump about 300,000 unwanted infants annually, into the social services pool. Caring for that many children is a huge burden on the system. However even though I remain basically anti-abortion, I cannot STAND these righteous Republican moralizers who rant against it. These are the last people on earth who would be willing to cut out one of their vacations each year in order to pay for the costs of caring for the infants who would be born if there were no abortion. They rave on against abortion, but they are not willing to pay the social costs for not having it. It’s truly root hog or die with these hypocrites. That is NOT to say that many Republicans aren’t willing to pay these costs, but the Grand Old Party is kneejerk and lockstep in opposition to programs to care for our people.

Far from wanting to alleviate suffering in the worst economic turndown since the Great Depression (voting almost in lockstep against extending unemployment benefits any further), Republicans are now preparing an onslaught against tried and tested safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Watch for this one folks: right wingers are now saying we can’t afford to pay for these programs and it will be a big campaign issue in 2012.

If you want to do the crime, ya got to do the time (and pay for the costs). ~ Paul Evans

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