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The Planned Parenthood government shutdown … abstinence anyone? …. EYE Report
The Senate's refusal to accept culture war budget cuts brings us one big step closer to budget gridlock
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2011 08:30 ET
Could a successful defense of Planned Parenthood force a government shutdown?
The news that a handful of moderate Republican senators — Massachusetts' Scott Brown, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins — oppose cutting federal funding for the family planning nonprofit has defenders of the high-profile organization breathing a huge sigh of relief.
With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declaring outright last week that he would not accept a budget deal that included cuts to the program, it seems clear that the votes to defund Planned Parenthood simply aren't there in the Senate.
Whether the same will hold true for the other hot-button cuts that the House GOP has been pushing, such as defunding healthcare reform and NPR, remains to be seen.
But it's a little too early to declare victory on any front. Because the real significance of Planned Parenthood's reprieve won't be apparent until we get hard numbers on the reaction of House Republicans to the likely Senate rebuff.
Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor may be willing to recognize reality and jettison the attack on Planned Parenthood, but rank and file Republicans — with special consideration given to the 86 freshman representatives — are likely to see surrender to the Senate as a call to revolt.
In other words, the more successful Senate Democrats are at resisting House cuts, the higher the odds for a government shutdown become. And who knows what happens after that?
There is already has a mechanisim in place that keeps population numbers down. It’s called the ‘lemming syndrome’.
Stupid mindless creatures breed uncontrolably until they use up all available food, whereby they starve to death en-mass thus reducing their numbers. Good luck with that USA.