Planned Parenthood and Poverty, Infrastrcture Spending and More

I. PP Clinic Shooting and a Doctored Video
Ruth Marcus, a Washington Post columnist, has made the case that Republicans "deserve some blame" for the shooting  at Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. Republican politicians who fueled the overwrought and underreported controversy over selling body parts have some measure of responsibility." Marcus adds: ""This, [the video on selling body parts] is, literally, a manufactured issue, cobbled together from doctored videotape and overheated accusations. The organization's activities have been so mischaracterized, and the practice of providing fetal tissue so overblown and so manipulated by lawmakers and politicians, (sic) that blame for the ensuing violence falls more heavily on them." [1]

The federal government funded fetal remains for research purposes to the tune of $76 million in 2014. Stopping such funding will impede research on diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Down syndrome.

II. Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Increase Poverty
1. Poor women are six times more likely to have an unplanned birth than well-off women, partly because healthcare is expensive.

2. Planned Parenthood serves mostly poor women: 79% have incomes at or below 150% of the poverty line and 75% go there for contraception.

3. Without contraception and abortion access, poor women fall deeper into poverty, starting the whole cycle over. Women denied an abortion are three times more likely to fall into poverty. [2]

III. Clinton and  Sanders on Infrastructure Spending
Hillary Clinton would increase infrastructure spending by $275 billion, with $250 billion coming from direct public funding and $25 billion coming from the creation of an infrastructure bank. Bernie Sanders has proposed spending which is much more in line with the estimate of the civil engineer's association of the need to spend at least $3 trillion spread over a four-year period.

During the 1980s, civil engineers were proposing spending of $1 trillion to bring the nation's infrastructure to their standards. Even accounting for inflation, the fact that the most recent estimate of $3 trillion is a reflection that, except for the building and repair of highways, which has a separate revenue stream,. the U.S. has hugely neglected  its bridges, water pipes, sewer lines, filtration plants, fuel lines,  repair of city streets and other rebuilding needs that will make for a more productive and safer society.

ADDENDUMS:
* Alabama loses its fight to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics and agrees to  pay $51,000 in legal fees.

*The Hill publication reports that 73 more companies back President Obama's climate agenda.

*By December 2014 at the latest, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office knew about the dash-cam video of the fatal shooting of a teenager named McDonald, according to NBC Chicago. This disclosure should help the cause of the many Chicagoans who are demanding the resignation of Mayor Emanuel.

*In a 2010 poll, 30% of respondents said there was a racial problem in the United States. Early in 2015, a similar poll found 50% saying there was a racial problem. A December 2015 PBS/Marist poll found 60% believing there was a racial problem. There is no evidence for the cause or causes for this doubling of those who see racism as a problem, yet it is hard to not identify law enforcement as a major cause, given the many instances of excessive use of force, the code of silence among fellow officers and the failure of the judicial system to punish officers who engaged in gross misconduct, ranging from killing unarmed citizens on down.

*Although the U.S. Congress won't touch gun control with a 10-foot pole, 18 states have passed tougher gun buyer background check laws and nine states have adopted laws to keep guns out of the hands of known domestic abusers. The Connecticut governor's move to bar anyone whose name appears on the government's terrorist watch list from buying a gun is being considered by several other states. [3]

Footnotes
[1] Ruth Marcus, "Republican politicians deserve some blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting," The Washington Post, December 1, 2015.

[2] Bryce Covert and Mike Konczal, "Born, Not Free," The Nation, January 11/18, 2015.

[3] Diane Dimond, "States doing what Congress won't on gun control laws," The Albuquerque Journal, January 9, 2016.