Well, the problem I have with Guest from Sanity's positions at 2:47 is that on one hand GfS suggests that there are too many governemnt programs and then defends Greg B's observation that if there was a more comprhensive family planning "programs" that maybe a Down's Syndrome child wouldn't have been born to a 44 year old woman and maybe her 17 year old daughter would not be pregnant...

That's the problem...

The Repubs have convinced people that they don't need these (and other) programs but when you strip them down these programs do make our society better... I was a social worker when Ronald Reagan started this bullsh*t and I saw first hand what happens when social programs get the axe... It isn't very pretty... We have more people living in poverty than any developed country in the world... It ain't like we are lavishing program after program on our least fortunate... The Department of Defense spends more in one month than is spent in an entire year on our poor... That is shamefull... Yet we still have folks spouting off about "Welfare Caddilac Moms" as if they exist... What a friggin' and cruelass joke... We should be ashamed, and not just for how little we spend on our poor but also in how we have such a large percentage of people who are completely ignorant of how little we spend yet spout off every time the issue comes up... That in itself is sickening!!!

And also sickening is the notion that governemnt has too many controls over businesses and corporations... With Ronald Reagan came not only the gutting of social programs but also the ***BIG D***, as in DEREGULATION!!! That was supposed to be the panecia to cure all of society's ills as the benevolent Fat Cats would make more money and create worderfull, well paying jobs and all would be well... Well, after 3 decades it is evident that that little experiement has been a complete flop to everyone but the upper 5%... Everyone else is going backwards or, at best, treading water...

But back to this deregulation which has made the wealthy wealthier and everyone else suffer; I find it interesting that those who still hang out around the Koolaid cooler didn't say a peep when the government--- you know, that thing they say is too big and does too much for people--- handed out $26B to the airlines after 9/11 and more recently close to $30B to Bear-Sterns??? Where was the protest from the Repubs then??? But these same people will get up on their soapboxes and proclaim, as if they actually knew anything (which they don't), that the governemnt has too many handout programs???

Give this old hillbilly a break...

So what I have deducted is that the folks who make statements that there are too many handout programs aren't informed people and in a truely ***Jeffersonain Democracy*** these people wouldn't/shouldn't be allowed to participate because they are not part of an "informed electorate"... In other words, the reason that the US is slowly sinking isn't because of too much regulation or too many handout programs... It's because we let ignorannt people vote...

                      End of Rant

B~