I just want to point out one thing in regards to Arizona Bill 2625, the “slut police” bill that allows employers to fire employees for using birth control.
If employers can fire you for using contraception, couldn’t they also fire you for not using it? Seems to me it’s more in an employer’s interest to not have its female employees out on maternity leave and racking up all those pregnancy and baby-birthing expenses, not to mention all of the other issues that crop up when an employee is a mother.
Either way, it’s way too much power for an employer to have. But I just wonder if that argument has been made, and if Arizona Republicans might rethink their support if it were.
Southern Beale 
Well, Sisters, back in the day, women who worked and had a family were scared they would lose their jobs IF THEY BECAME PREGNANT. Now the opposite must be true, thanks to males who have never been pregnant, who have never been forced to WORK outside the home, and who never have to deal with a husband like them.
Question: How will the “pill, IUD, police check to prove contraception is in use?
These slugs will wake up one glorious morn, go to the business they own, and find that all those ‘unprotected women’ were home!
“Pfft.”
“Bah,” “Feh,” “Gah.”
“When Debbie Lesko (R-Glendale)introduced AZ Bill 2625 the assembled crowd uttered strange sounds that nobody could understand”
I think the solution is to remove health insurance as being provided by your employer. Whenever someone else is paying for something that you receive, they are going to have some say over what they are willing to provide.
Yeah I think we’ve agreed on this one before. It makes sense but it hasn’t stopped right-wingers from mangling the birth control mandate issue regardless. Obama’s compromise completely left the employers out of the equation, just told insurance companies they have to provide it at no extra charge so those who want it can buy it. And everyone started screaming RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OMG LOOK WHAT THE MUSLIM PRESIDENT DID TO JESUS.
So you know … I don’t harbor any hope that removing health insurance from employers will shut conservatives up about anything to do with women’s reproductive healthcare.
Obama’s solution of just having the insurance company pay for it is kind of silly for a few reasons:
1. Insurance companies don’t just magically have money – they charge companies premiums and pay out benfits from those premiums. So indirectly, any “free” contraceptive coverage would be paid for by the premiums whether it was a line item on the bill or not.
2. Some organizations are self insured including some religious organizations. So if the insurer had to pay for contraceptives then that would be the religious organization paying for it.
Finally, I have not heard the Republicans say women should not have access to birth control. The arguement is whether or not someone else should pay for it or if they should cover their own costs. So comparisons to Viagra or other ED medications is not accurate as I do not think these medications are given out “free” either.
Jim that’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard. You know what’s expensive? Pregnancy. And childbirth. And miscarriages. Any cost increase is negligible and more than offset by the savings of not having to cover those things.
And your logic is wrong. Insurance companies pay for all sorts of stuff as part of basic insurance coverage, they don’t need a magical pile of money to cover diabetes and allergy and cholesterol and yes erectile dysfunction drugs. Why should birth control be any different? What’s so magical about birth control? Cuz it involves LADY PARTS? Lady parts involved in SEX? Of course that’s it. Makes Republicans feel all icky.
And honestly, religious organizations need to shut the fuck up and stop wringing their hands that they might have looked at a case of Ortho-TriCycline once. When they stop molesting little children and hiding it for decades, then and only then will they have any moral authority to demand a Presbyterian receptionist at a Catholic hospital live under Catholic religious law.
And yes, Republicans DO want to ban birth control. You haven’t heard of the bill Arizona Republicans are floating, whereby women have to prove they need birth control for non-contraceptive purposes or their employer can fire them? Follow the linky-links in this post. The Blunt Amendment? Hello? Are you even paying attention?
You don’t think calling women sluts and whores and prostitutes for using birth control is a way of signaling disapproval? You don’t think Rick Santorum, the REPUBLICAN candidate for president, saying contraception is “a danger to this country” because it gives people “license to do things they wouldn’t do” is an official stance against women having access to birth control?
You don’t think cutting funds to women’s clinics all around the country, some of which have ZERO connection to Planned Parenthood, which provide poor women access to birth control is a way of saying women shouldn’t have access to birth control? Seriously?
And finally Jim, NO ONE ELSE IS PAYING FOR THIS SHIT. The employee is paying for it. It’s part of her BENEFITS PACKAGE. BENEFITS you know what those are? It’s in LIEU OF SALARY. You get a benefit package worth X amount of dollars INSTEAD OF GETTING THAT AMOUNT IN YOUR PAY.
That’s the fucking point. Of the whole goddamned debate. Jesus fuck I’m sick of you people being so goddamned stupid about this.
And last of all, to paraphrase Jon Stewart: You and everyone in the fundie religious world who doesn’t want your precious tax money paying for something you don’t like? JOIN THE FUCKING CLUB. I pay for shit I don’t like ALL THE GODDAMNED TIME. The Iraq War. Derek Dye the Abstinence Clown. Torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib. GITMO. A fucking military base in Japan.
Stop being such fucking whiny assed titty babies about what YOUR PRECIOUS TAX DOLLAHS pay for. We ALL pay for shit we don’t like. Grow the fuck up I’m sick of you people pissing and moaning like it’s the end of the goddamned world already.
SB – again, when other people pay for something you are receiving, you can expect them to have a say in what you get. So whether it is the government supplying something or a private company supplying something chances are you are not going to get 100% of what you want. As far as complaining about paying for things through taxes that we don’t like – isn’t that what 90% of your blog is about?
Actually no, 90% of my blog is complaining about a variety of stuff very very little of it complaints that OMG I AM PAYING FOR SOMETHING I DO NOT LIKE WHAAAAH. In fact, I think most of my blog is basically complaining about how fucking stupid conservatives are. I get that for free.
I came back here to make the point that when your insurance plan doesn’t cover something, that forces you to pay a lot MORE for that thing, because you are going out of plan. Saying “you can still buy it if you really want to and have the money” completely misses the point.
Again, NO ONE ELSE IS PAYING FOR IT. Insurance is part of an employee’s COMPENSATION FOR WORK.
And let me just add, this entire debate with Jim illustrates our need for a national, government-funded health insurance system that is completely separate from your employment. Which is where we started this whole argument to begin with. Because you cannot just say to your boss , “Okie dokie, instead of the health insurance benefit, give me an extra $15G a year in salary and I’ll pay for my own health insurance plan.”
Because our system is completely DYSFUNCTIONAL and BROKEN and WILDLY EXPENSIVE and INEFFECIENT and any attempts to fix the one thing that causes so much damage to the economy as well as people’s health and well-being is SOCIALISM and COMMUNISM and EVIL and OMG WE’RE DOOOOOMED.
This is the system Republicans want and then they want to whine and moan about it without offering any workable solutions except “tort reform.” Which is so laughable. Just, fuck off. I’m sick of it.
SB – as long as you understand that with your government funded health insurance you will be limited to whatever the government decides it is willing to pay for.
And why would I have a problem with that? Seeing as how it’s the government trying to EXPAND that coverage to stuff that millions and millions of women actually USE? So yeah. I’m fine with that.
It’s the private organizations like the Catholic-run hospitals, schools and other organizations who are trying to take stuff AWAY. So fuck them. And yet, they get MAH TAX DOLLAHS TOO OMG I AM PAYING FOR SHIT I DON’T LIKE. WHAAAH.
Nice try fearmongering about “evil government taking stuff away from you” and “private enterprise is so much better.”
I have been told that the reason people beat their heads against brick walls is because it feels so good when they stop.
That’s what I get for commenting before cocktail hour.
I’m pretty convinced that most conservatives don’t even know what their ideology is anymore. They just know if it involves taxes and government involvement it is their duty to oppose it. That and they just get a charge out of being assholes. ” I can crash this motherfucking party and there’s not a goddamn thing you can do about it.” (A sentiment I imagine to be somewhat analagous to what Roseanne Barr meant when she said “We’re America’s worst nightmare. White trash with money.”) I am devising a test to assess my hypothesis. It is still in the planning stage but so far it goes like this… Next time a conservative inquires about your political affiliation quote Reagan “Government isn’t a solution to our problems, Government is the problem.” When they light up and say “Oh, your a conservative” say “Nope I’m an anarchist.” Their face will turn red and they’ll say “You’re one of them terrorist weathermen Bill Ayers types aren’t you.” “Well by god America has the greatest form of government on earth. Either you’re for us or against us.” Case closed.
They just know if it involves taxes and government involvement it is their duty to oppose it.
No, if a Democratic president proposes it — especially a black one — it’s their duty to oppose it. Because 80% of the big stuff Obama has proposed is all stuff a Republican proposed back when Republicans resembled a sane political opposition. Obamacare? It’s the 1993 Senate Republican Plan, repurposed for Massachusetts by Mitt Romney. Cap and trade? A ‘free market” idea started under George HW Bush. Deficit spending? Perfectly fine under Bush The Lesser! “Deficits don’t matter!” — except when a Democrat is in the White House?
OK. I think I’m following you here. The black criteria is self explanatory. But does “Democrat” mean homo-atheist-female-college professor-sub-human who may have had a good idea but is so abnormal that if the idea is acknowledged as having merit it will cause biblical plagues to rain down on mankind?