So, the process of cutting state budgets is going on in many places, and is especially grim here in Virginia, given that recently installed Governor Robert McDonnell has ruled out any tax increases to offset all the spending cuts, which are hitting hard in many areas, including education, social serives, and others, and federal stimulus funds for states look to be about to end. The legislature is not agreeing with all his proposals, but their proposed cuts are also deep into serious areas, and the pressure is bringing forth some strange comments.
In particular, Delegate Robert Marshall of Manassas appears to have gone off the deep end and taken the Pat Robertson looney religious right cake with his latest, reported in the Staunton News Leader. The article's headline reads, "Legislator: Disabled kids are God's punishment," and Marshall in opposing state funds for Planned Parenthood is quoted as saying, "Having disabled children is God's punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy." I note that the state is probably going to freeze eligibility for new applicants for medicaid for disabled children, so Marshall's comments are really outrageous, far worse than the usual dreck these clowns produce.
I also note that my local paper, the Harrisonburg Daily News Record, seems to be in love with Marshall, regularly printing favorable stories about his various statements with large headlines. Will be curious to see if they do it for this one, although I would not be surprised if they approve, as the Editorial Page Editor, Cort Kirkwood, has publicly stated that the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were caused by the feminist movement. So, this stuff is probably right up his alley.
5 comments:
Hard to know what to say.
"I note that the state is probably going to freeze eligibility for new applicants for medicaid for disabled children."
Instead of cutting the absolutely extraordinary high salaries of doctors and imposing asset taxes on the rich?
What are the economic choices that have not been mentioned by the Virginian government? One is left to wonder. Do Virginians realise that there are choices?
How do these lunatics with no logical abilities get to do what they do while the rest of us sane people can't do anything about it?
A very recent report has it that Delegate Marshall is now claiming to have been misquoted. However, he has a long history of such off-the-wall remarks, and unfortunately he sits on the relevant budget committee that is overseeing these cuts, including for medicaid eligibility. This latter directly affects the managing editor of the journal I edit, as she has an autistic son who was supposed to become eligible for medicaid, but now will probably not be able to do so because of all this mess.
I would note that despite his protests of being misquoted or taken out of context, Marshall has been caught on audiotape, and the words are his and in context. Thank you, Barkley, for picking this up.
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