Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), to his very minimal credit, wants to ensure that some of the people being forced to have children get some financial support from the government, albeit minimal. He has a few Republican takers, a very few. And absolutely no support from leadership. According to Sen. Mitch McConnell, people are being coddled enough already.
“There are actually a lot of resources for expecting and new Moms, including Medicaid and S-CHIP for health care, maternal nutrition and child care programs,” McConnell spokesman Scott Sloofman told The Washington Post. “What we shouldn’t do is expand massive government stimulus programs which would exacerbate the runaway inflation that is crushing Kentucky’s working families.”
Get that? Kentucky’s working families don’t need any more help for those children Republicans are forcing them to have. Because all those programs exist, despite repeated efforts by Republicans to end them.
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One of the main reasons people have been having abortions since, well, forever, is economic. Having a child upends work, education, ability to care for other family members, and just costs a lot of money.
That’s one reason why a group of 154 distinguished economists and researchers filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in advance of the Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, where the court overturned Roe and ended federal protection of abortion rights.
That’s what passes for family-friendly among the death cult Republicans, the ones including Romney and Rubio who just voted against making insulin affordable for people with private insurance.
Some Republicans kind of get it. Along with Romney, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida has been thinking about helping working families. “We have a history of laissez faire economic policies in the Republican Party,” he told the Post. “But there are things that are important for the well-being of our country, and one of them is the strength of our families.” Rubio has one proposal that’s blatantly anti-abortion for that, allowing pregnant people to claim a child tax credit for an unborn child—that’s essentially an outgrowth of the “personhood” movement giving a fetus rights at least equal to that of the person carrying it. He also has what he calls a “pro-work” child tax credit proposal, meaning the help would come with a work requirement.
You would think last week’s lesson on abortion rights from Kansas might make McConnell rethink his stance on abortion rights and all of the politics around it. You’d think wrong.
“Republicans have a major, major problem right now with women, exacerbated by abortion but made a lot worse by their refusal to balance that liability with support for any kind of family benefits,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake told the Post. “That could really make them pay a price in the fall, particularly with women, but there’s no evidence they’re going to change.”
Thanks to the voters in Kansas, they’re not going to be able to avoid that discussion this fall.
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