Tobacco Tax for Abortion and Contraceptives?

RED ALERT!
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The big dispute over the trauma center funding issue is whether to go with the Governor's plan which will tax tobacco to not only fund a trauma system but will also pursue unspecified additional Medicaid funding or go with the Garner Plan. Rep. Ed Garner has a plan that just builds the trauma system using re-directed existing revenue and fines on people who commit crimes that cause a traumatic injury. Those backing the Governor's plan have criticized Garner's bill as a "half-measure".

But what will the extra money from the tax increase be buying? In other words, what extra medicaid funding is in the works?

The Family Council has sent an email which includes a part of an interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that is most instructive. .......

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Stimulus: Promoting Birth Control, Not Self-Control

Exactly what kind of stimulus did Speaker Nancy Pelosi have in mind? That's a question more Americans are asking now that details are trickling in about the controversial $825 billion "economic recovery" package. As it stands, more than 10 percent of the proposal--$87 billion--would allow states to expand their "family planning" services through Medicaid. The country's recession is crippling families, and the Democrats' solution is spending billions of dollars on contraception? On yesterday's "This Week" program on ABC, George Stephanopoulos pressed Speaker Pelosi for an explanation.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost... The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health... [is] to help the states meet their financial needs... [O]ne of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?
PELOSI: No apologies. No. We have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

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Governor Mike Beebe got the memo from the new White House. They mean to push contraceptives and abortion, which is what they normally mean when they use the euphemism "family planning". That is why he is pushing for more money than he really needs to fund the trauma system. He wants the rest to use to draw in matching federal funds for more access to abortion and contraceptives.

If your representative thinks that is what we need more of, then they should vote for Beebe's bill. If not, they should vote against it.

People, if I am wrong then those pushing Beebe's plan can fix it by inserting a simple line into the bill saying that no money raised can be used for medicaid matching funds if the purpose of those funds is for "family planning". Will they do it?