Fuck Indiana

Indiana is going to be the first state to defund Planned  Parenthood. For this, fuck Indiana. I've never been so ashamed of my state. Yeah, Indiana is a conservative state, but this is just bloody stupid. This not only fails to achieve any benefit, but is actively detrimental, both economically and socially.

The intent of this bill is presumably to decrease abortions. Of course, abortions by Planned Parenthood aren't funded by the government. So the whole thing seems kind pointless to start with. But worse than that is that this will actually increase abortions. One of the things that PP does is provide access to contraception and information about avoiding unwanted pregnancies. Removing those things isn't going to make people stop having sex, it's just going to have them have less safe sex, which will result in more unwanted pregnancies. And if someone doesn't want to carry a pregnancy to term, they'll be willing to go further out of their way to get an abortion, so the lack of PP won't make a big difference.

Ok, so this bill will actively do the opposite of its intention. Great. What other stupidity will result from this?

This will eliminate jobs. PP employs people. With reduced funds, it won't be able to employ as many, so people will be laid off, increasing unemployment.

This will prevent access to medical services that people need. PP provides all sorts of wonderful medical services like pap smears, testing for and treating STDs, and cancer screenings. PP is the only place poor people can really get these services since there aren't enough OB/GYNs and clinics that accept Medicaid to handle it all.

And this in turn will increase medical costs since it's cheaper to treat things earlier than later. And most of that cost will be borne by the taxpayers.

Really, this is just sickening. Fuck Indiana.

Universal Health Care

When I voted for Obama, I really thought he, y'know, really stood for hope and change. One of the changes I looked forward to most was universal health care. Now, no public option, no medicare buy-in. In other words, "That's not change, that's more of the same."

Why is this so difficult? We have free socialized schools, postal service, roads, police, fire departments... What's so different about health care?

We need government provided health care for the same reason we need those other government provided services. They're necessary for the proper functioning of society, and cannot be efficiently dealt with by many different entities.

I don't really care what it costs. If taxes need to be raised to make ends meet, then so be it. Raise taxes. If some rich people can't bear to part from another 1% of their money, screw 'em.

I think my favorite conservative argument against health care is that people should be responsible for themselves. Because, if you work a minimum wage job with no benefits, you deserve to die.

It's time we joined the rest of the first world, and start giving a shit about our citizens.