Replies to post #477920 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[zab]

Wonderful, in an opinion piece by the New York Times, by an editor that has an opinion on what you want to believe. Meanwhile in my 74-year lifetime I have seen both political parties do what they do when they are in office and have lived through all of the economic shit that has happened.

All of those tax shift polices by the Republicans mean nothing to you, all of those decades of Republicans pushing back at unions, and wage growth, or raising the minimum wage mean nothing.

You get to believe what you like, and I get to sit in my office, trading my stocks, as I look back on a lifetime of having a union job for a few years and knowing I was being paid a better wage than I could get. I have worked for a few companies in my lifetime and watched jobs disappear quite quickly when the Republicans were in office.

Now I am watching my newest generation enter the workplace, they are not toiling around for $ 2,3, or even four dollars an hour like I did for so many years of my life. That was the decades of the 1960s, 1970s, and even the 1980s. Meanwhile I watched Republicans pass tax cuts like Raegen did that actually destroyed the middle class, and elevated CEO salaries.

[blackhawks]

Contrafactual as the Dems create more jobs, lower unemployment and do not cut taxes for the highest earners. And they generally do not pass along recessions which are mostly harmful to the middle and lower classes.

[arizona1]

Great! Let's get these fundie lunatics on the record. Make them take a vote and then run ads against them!

‘Condoms to little kids’: Republicans use religion to fight contraception bill

On Wednesday afternoon the full Senate will vote on legislation to protect the right to contraception. Twenty-two Republicans have signed a letter stating they will vote against the bill, claiming it violates religious liberties, parental right — and even baselessly claiming it provides "condoms to little kids."

"An overwhelming bipartisan majority of Americans support the Right to Contraception Act (81%), which aims to protect access to birth control pills, IUDs, condoms, and other forms of contraception," pollsters at Navigator Research report. That includes 90% of Democrats, 75% of Republicans, and 70% of independents.

In his 2022 concurring opinion on the Supreme Court decision stripping women of the constitutional right to abortion, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a call for cases to challenge a landmark ruling, Griswold v. Connecticut, which found a constitutional right to contraception. Justice Thomas targeted all rulings that found a right to privacy, which the far-right justices believe does not exist in the Constitution. Should he be successful, the Court theoretically would strike down settled decisions that include the right to contraception, the right to same-sex intimate relations, and the right to marriage for same-sex couples.

The Senate Democrats' bill explains why the right to contraception is at risk.

"Providers’ refusals to offer contraceptives and information related to contraception based on their own personal beliefs impede patients from obtaining their preferred method, with laws in 12 States as of the date of introduction of this Act specifically allowing health care providers to refuse to provide services related to contraception."

The Guttmacher Institute confirms that 12-state charge.

The bill goes on to note: "States have attempted to define abortion expansively so as to include contraceptives in State bans on abortion and have also restricted access to emergency contraception."

But according to Republicans, led by far-right U.S. Senator Rick Scott of Florida (photo), the legislation, known as the Right to Contraception Act, "infringes on the parental rights and religious liberties of some Americans and lets the federal government force religious institutions and schools, even public elementary schools, to offer contraception like condoms to little kids. It’s just another way for Democrats to use activist attorneys and our courts to advance their radical agenda and that is why we oppose this bill.”

The bill specifically states the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act supersedes the Right to Contraception Act. Also appearing to be false is the claim the legislation provides "condoms to little kids." No text in the bill states condoms will be handed out to children.

Despite the facts stated in the bill, Scott, who is running to replace retiring Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, also claimed in his letter: “There is no threat to access to contraception, which is legal in every state and required by law to be offered at no cost by health insurers, and it's disgusting that Democrats are fearmongering on this important issue to score cheap political points."

Scott's press release says in addition to Scott, the 22 Senate Republicans signing his letter are: Ron Johnson, Eric Schmitt, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Kevin Cramer, Ted Budd, James Lankford, Jim Risch, Mike Rounds, Cindy Hyde-Smith, Katie Britt, Bill Hagerty, Cynthia Lummis, John Thune, Lindsey Graham, Thom Tillis, Mike Crapo, and Steve Daines.

On Tuesday the Senate debated the contraception bill. U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) slammed the positions and actions of a Republican witness. Watch below or at this link.

Let's be clear: Senate Republicans specifically invited a witness to today's hearing about abortion rights with dangerous and radical positions, like stating abortion is NEVER necessary to save a woman's life and that basic forms of contraception like IUDs are abortions.

WATCH⬇️ pic.twitter.com/bqKuSBnJeq

— Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) June 4, 2024

https://www.rawstory.com/condoms-to-little-kids-republicans-rejecting-contraception-bill-claim-religious-infring/