Tagged: budget cuts

Posted: March 28, 2011 at 7:16 am

The Worst Kind of Hypocrites

Republicans are keeping up their track record of doing absolutely nothing on job creation, ostensibly what they were sent to Helena to work on, but they are doubling down on looking out for numero uno: Gutting health care benefits for their neediest constituents, while making sure their own families are taken care of.

Despite running campaigns largely focused on repealing government funded health care, and introducing dozens of bills designed to prevent the implementation of the program in Montana, the Missoulian is reporting that 95% of Republicans in the legislature take government health care benefits themselves: even as they voted to cut health care for seniors, Montanans with disabilities, and children.

This explains why Republicans opposed a simple measure to make transparent whether members of the legislature accepted government funded health care. Polling shows most Americans oppose health care hypocrisy. Most Republicans think those who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they’re in office. [Public Policy Polling, 11/23/10]

A list of legislators taking the benefit can be found here.

Posted: March 24, 2011 at 7:45 pm

Montana’s GOP Leader Melts Down

Twice in the last two days, the Republican president of Montana’s Senate has broken down and sobbed during a session of the Montana Senate because he was unable to muster enough votes for his preferred bills. (March 22, 23, video not yet available) Far right wing-nut Republicans are deserting him, weakening his grip on his own caucus and making it difficult for him to keep his ship floating.

This is not John Boehner-type crying, the kind where you start tearing up when someone shows you an American flag. This is crying from stress.

His double-meltdown comes immediately on the heels of a new Lee Newspapers poll showing that over 60 percent of Montanans disapprove of the job that the GOP-controlled legislature is doing. Such a poll result didn’t surprise too many observers, because Montanans have been reading lots of articles lately about all the kooky stuff the GOP has been doing in the statehouse. But when you seek to become the leader of a glorious revolution, and it all goes to pot under the weight of bills that authorize spear hunting, militias and secession, it must certainly create stress on the leader.

You could easily feel for him, the poor guy, until you remember what his grand plan was for the state when he took the job: cut everything in sight, even though the state has a $300 million dollar surplus. Cut meals on wheels, which brings food to elderly disabled people; eliminate all family planning services in Montana; eliminate most all subsidies for healthcare for the poor, and so on.

It’s the new playbook from Republicans nationwide. Cut services for the neediest, no matter what the services are and no matter what the financial shape of the state government is. But for some reason, the emotional Peterson’s soft side hasn’t ever been stirred up by any of these constituents who need a little help from society, from people who have a little more to give. He has been more than happy to say no.

Peterson was also happy to ride a wave of right-wing lunatics to an election victory and also to his new perch as Senate President, by telling teabaggers, that he was one of them, that he would slash and burn government, that liberals have destroyed the universe, that Obama sucks, and so on.

At first Peterson rode the horse happy and proud, but now the the animal has bucked him off and bolted, and Peterson is sitting in the dirt having himself a cry.

Posted: March 19, 2011 at 4:21 pm

GUEST POST: Family services clinics do more to prevent abortion than the other side ever will

Planned Parenthood of Montana has been my primary care provider for the last thirteen years. I’ve gone to them for contraception, annual exams, cancer screenings, anxiety and depression issues, digestion problems and more.

Family planning services around the country operate on Title X funding – that funding goes toward the services I just listed. Title X funding is never used for abortion care, and yet this particular funding which provides life-saving, preventative care is exactly what conservatives and the anti-choice community are after. By their logic, if Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics are forced to close due to the lack of Title X funding, our country will no longer be plagued by abortion.

This attack is not only at the federal level. The Montana House recently voted to remove 4.7 million in family planning funding from our state budget. This year alone, Montana’s family planning programs served 27, 731 patients. Contraceptive services provided at family clinics in Montana helped prevent 5,600 unintended pregnancies, which would likely have resulted in 2,500 unintended births and 2,300 abortions.

Getting rid of federal Title X funding and cutting family planning funding at the state level will do nothing to prevent abortions. It will prevent women from accessing affordable and sanitary services. It will create more unintended pregnancies by cutting off access to contraception. It will result in more unwanted children and many more back alley abortions.

If the anti-choice folks really want to do something about abortion – which is a completely legal medical procedure I might add – they should support Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics around our state and nationwide. These clinics, by providing contraception and accurate medical information, do more to prevent abortion than the other side ever will.

[Special thanks to guest contributor Ashley Stevick for this post. If you are interested in being a guest contributor, email me on the tipline.]

Posted: January 23, 2011 at 3:38 pm

Don’t Worry About the Taxpayer-Funded Lobbyists, They’re Still Making Bank

Montanans are watching as the budgets for public school classrooms and care for the elderly and disabled are slashed even as the state has a $300 million surplus. As the Missoulian reports:

“This is really unnecessary,” said Rep. Trudi Schmidt, D-Great Falls. “It’s too soon to make any drastic cuts. It’s premature. …

“Why this, when we have a balanced budget (proposed by Schweitzer)? It is unbelievable. If you were concerned about the citizens of this state, you wouldn’t be doing this.”

With the total lack of logic going into the GOP’s budget cuts, people are worried–and they should be.

But for those who are looking for something to be hopeful about but also for inspiration, for the knowledge that even if they’re doomed–there are Montanans out there who are totally unaffected by any of the cuts. Take heart. Many a low-income senior will be weeping tears of joy into his can of cat food today, as he learns that yes, lobbyists for the Montana School Boards Association can still find lucrative six-figure salaries denying unemployment benefits to victims of domestic violence right here in Montana. And their funding comes from dues paid to them by local school districts, with your money.

You were probably pretty worried about the Republican lobbyist/ex-school administrator/think-tanking class all going unemployed once the Republicans slashed school budgets–it has been a rough three weeks since the session started. Likely some at the MTSBA had to dip into the strategic gold reserves that they have hoarded in their basements — but you will be happy to know that they’re all going to be fine, just fine.

So go out and tell those worried about kids, seniors, and the disabled to stop being such Debbie Downers.