(crossposted at Amplify )
Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, has a long, long history of misogynist crap , and this week is no different. Republicans are up in arms over President Obama including $200 million in funding for family planning in his economic stimulous package, even though everyone knows that this will save the government a large sum of money (besides providing inumerable benefits for women's health). And Chris Matthews is laying down all of the false talking points on family planning with typical glee.
Because providing women with access to contraceptives and family planning if they so choose is obviously like.... Red Communist China !
I don’t know. It sounds a little like China . […] I think everybody should have family planning and everybody believes in birth control as a right. I’m for — abortion is a right and all that. It’s all right. But why should the federal government have a policy of reducing the number of births?
Yes, Matthews would like everyone to get the impression that Obama is trying to forcefully sterilize women against their will, because.... well, that's just what he does apparently.
But he wasn't done, as he spewed more garbage last night :
Good evening, I'm Chris Matthews. Leading off tonight: Leave the kids out of this! Barack Obama gets Democrats in Congress to drop contraception from his big stimulus bill. It turns out the idea of getting people to have fewer children didn't sell as national policy. Maybe people don't like Washington , which has done such a bang-up job regulating the sharpies on Wall Street, to decide it's now time to regulate the number of kids people might be in the mood for.
Regulating the number of kids people can have ??? Where does he pull this stuff out of?
Maybe one of these days, Chris Matthews will get over whatever his issues are with women, but I'm not holding my breath. Anyways, you can contact him at MSNBC here to let them know that his apology and correction is needed.
(Oh, and the "hope" takes a time out, as President Obama is now caving to Republican pressure and pulling the $200 million for family planning from his stimulous package. You know, since he's post-partisan and all...HOPE FAIL. Contact our new president here )
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What (amongst many things) is so crazy about his comments, is the idea that the money for family planning in the Stimulus Bill will limit the choices people have surrounding reproductive rights by some how forcing them to only have a certain number of children. Where in fact it completely opens up the choices we have.
Why is it "hope fail"?
You do realize, that in politics, if he includes things that the GOP will not approve...NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.
A symbolic bill that is destined to fail does nobody any good.
The economy needs help. It cannot wait for symbolic bills that make you warm and fuzzy inside.
He has 4 years, and he's already made sweeping changes in his first month.
It's not "caving". It's realizing that leaving that in may very well result in the death of his bill, and a lot of wasted time and tax dollars.
Sometimes you have to take steps and watch your feet before you start taking leaps.
Quit looking for reasons to hate the man. Yes, we know feminists would have rather had Clinton, but you need to give someone more than a few weeks as his "chance", when he has four years.
Um, what? All feminists wanted Clinton to be president? Now you know that's not true. But it is always fun to be reminded of the stereotype that we all like to vote with our vaginas.
And have you paid attention to this site lately? They've been praising tons and tons of stuff that Obama has been doing lately. I agree that saying HOPE:FAIL might be a tad harsh, but it is disappointing that this is something that he caved on because it is so important. But seriously, no need to make huge generalizations and saying they're just looking for reasons to hate Obama. That's more than just a bit ridiculous.
There are enough Democrats in both houses of Congress to pass the new Stimulus without the need of Republican support. Check your numbers. Obama doesn't *need* the Republicans this cycle. What he's doing is keeping his tone as an aisle-reacher.
Not a single Republican votes for it... exactly
But doesn't Obama's plan seek to do exactly the opposite of what Matthews is implying? By giving money to family planning we'd be enabling more people to choose what is right for them. That way they'd be able to decide the right amount of kids for their family. They would have more information and access to it so they could make more informed decisions. The government wouldn't be regulating anything. If anything, the government before was regulating birth by not allowing people access accurate information and contraception.
I really wish I could "like" this more than once. You are dead on.
apologies for repeatedly misspelling stimulus.
And yes, reproductive justice does make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and no, I'm not apologizing for that.
This proposal doesn't sound like China where a couple is allowed a certain number of children. It sounds like an America that I want to live in, where women have much better access to birth control and women can choose to go to college instead of getting pregnant at sixteen. It sounds like an America where women will no longer be forced to not use contraception because they can't afford it.
What is so hard for the right wing to understand about how this will help the economy?
Fewer unwanted pregnancies =
Fewer women buried in hospital debt they can't pay because of no insurance.
Fewer women and children on Medicaid.
Fewer women and children on Welfare.
Fewer women and children on Food Stamps.
More women with successful careers.
More women going to business school, opening a business, and creating new jobs.
Fewer women aborting unwanted pregnancies.
More women going to get contraception, usually the doctor will a woman an annual exam which includes a PAP smear, which means more cases of cervical cancer being detected early and treated.
I could probably go on.
HOW DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND HOW THIS IS A GOOD THING?!?!
Maybe I need to do some more homework here, but I don't understand what is economically "stimulating" about a family planning package, in the short term, other than helping out states who would normally have to cover this stuff? Is it sort of like the federal gov't will pay for this part of your state budget so you can pay for other things and not cut jobs?
But I do know where my father obviously got his news on this and called me to trash on our new president already. "See!" He says, "He is communist!" *sighs and groans*
Does anyone else maybe think that this was included in the package with the intent of removing it so more mutually agreeable legislation would pass? UntouchableFace is right, its removal is a clear indicator of making good on a promise to reach across the aisle. At the same time, including it in the first place is fueling discussion (but then, what isn't?) about what family planning "is," what it means, and state, federal, and individual roles therein. Just a thought...
Obama takes out the funding... and EVERY Republican still votes against it. Capitulation for no reason.
There will be time to put something like this back in... but this is seriously a missed opportunity.
I hardly think Chris Matthews is misogynistic. Something of a bubblehead, sure, but misogynist? Hardly.
yeah, I just tend to think Matthews is just sort of a numbskull. Not as if that excuses him; he is still responsible for what he says, but it's not like I expect a lot.
6 mos. ago I might have thought it was harsh to call Chris Matthews a misogynist, but then I saw some of his disastrous interactions with women on the show, particularly the ones highlighted in the Women's media center video "Sexism Sells and We're Not Buying".
www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-IrhRSwF9U
Now the term seems completely apt. I'm sure he would defend himself by saying the clips show that he LOVES women. . .but I'm unconvinced that treating a person like a piece of meat is evidence of respect or affection. Shiver.
Apparently,
Giving people birth control = forbidding them from reproducing.
Go figure.