Denuded Defunding

January 9, 2017

Sixty-two days down the Trump-Putin rabbit hole and I can’t tell which is the March Hare and which is the Mad Hatter – though I have my suspicions. After all, the Mad Hatter quote, “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense” pretty much sums up everything I know about Trump.

Yeah, I know it’s a cheap shot to equate the Donald with an insane character from a children’s fantasy, but Lewis Carroll only had opium to contend with – while, we have the Donald. So, comparison seems fair.

(The paragraph you just read is my first intentional journey into Trump logic. Notice that while the topic sentence seems to have structure it really doesn’t. The compound clauses have nothing to do with one another and the dependent clause obfuscates meaning. The last sentence draws the conclusion that the speaker is the winner. Sound familiar?

I can see why Trump talks this way. He gets to say the words he wants people to hear, with no need to arrange them into coherent thoughts – loose associations and innuendo work best. Declare victory and move on. Who would have thought, elegant word tricks from the Donald?

But, enough with the Language Abuse Seminar, let’s look at different word trick: defunding.)

The notion that Congress plans to defund Planned Parenthood is strangely absurd. Unlike GE or Trump Inc, the government doesn’t fund Planned Parenthood. While the idea of withholding money you don’t spend has a certain Reaganesque appeal, it’s a logical absurdity. The Donald would call it a euphenism, if you know what he means. I think he means a soft word to hide a harsh reality. For instance…

For many reasons beyond the scope of this rant, lots of women choose to use Planned Parenthood health services. Some of those women have government health insurance like Medicare, SSI or alike. In those cases, the government pays Planned Parenthood for whatever services the insured woman receives. (Abortion related services are not covered because sometimes vocal minorities get to impose their will on all of us. After all, their religious views are best – just ask them.)

So, let’s see, the Republicans can’t directly defund Planned Parenthood, but they can defund the women who use it by refusing to pay for Planned Parenthood services. And there it is, our “free market” friends want to dictate, through federal funding, where women’s health care would occur.

Yup, “Defunding Planned Parenthood” sounds much better than “Taking medical services away from women”. So, that’s what they say. And even better, the take away is from people who don’t have the money to defend themselves. It’s a sure thing win. That’s what these assholes call wining.

The republic stands totally dependent upon the hand that rocks the cradle. Yet, mad as a hatter, Paul Ryan and his crew insist on taking the, self-interested, self-destructive war path. You may want to proceed with caution, Paul. A guy could get his eyes scratched out.

In Peace with Justice,
osv