DC mayor arrested protesting budget restrictions

[Beau_Ouiville]

Another casualty of the Republicans (who champion personal freedom) asserting their will on people who did not vote for or against them.

"As for a possible reintroduction of a ban on city money for needle exchanges, it would be a step back. Congress prohibited the city from using its own money for the programs for two decades beginning in the late 1980s. Other groups stepped in to provide the service with private dollars, but it is a widely held belief that the city’s inability to pay for needle exchange led to an increase in the number of residents contracting HIV. Approximately 3 percent of city residents are currently living with HIV or AIDS, a level considered by health officials to be epidemic.

When the ban was lifted in 2007, the city invested money in community programs that collected 300,000 used syringes in the last year. People who work at the city’s three needle exchange programs say they aren’t sure how they will cope if the city is again unable to provide money.

“It would be nothing short of disastrous,” said Cyndee Clay, executive director of HIPS, an organization that works with sex workers and drug users and is currently exchanging about 8,000 needles a month. “I don’t understand why they’re doing this to us.”
google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i_pcge0nhBBskQLZwLvCB58npyfA?docId=fd584c513a8849ef9b6026b667534bce

The ideology-driven change is penny wise and pound foolish.

 

[bbarrick8383]

Another casualty of the Republicans (who champion personal freedom) asserting their will on people who did not vote for or against them.

Funny I thought we championed individual responsibility. It’s liberals who promote personal freedom in the bedroom, drug house and abortion mills. You know keep your hands off my body, until I get sick or pregnant then give me other people’s money for what I need.

Now where did I put that tiny violin…

 

[ANNE_2]

When you read the article from Associated Press - - - read the word “may” this and “may” that.

There is no evidence that health care is not or will not be available for those in need.
MEDICAID is provided for the poor all over the USA.
Nor is there any evidence that drug programs will be curtailed.

Please provide a link to the passed budget bill that makes the accusations true.

As an aside, paying people to turn in used syringes does not stop the bad behavior of drug addition, nor curtail it.

" It’s liberals who promote personal freedom in the bedroom, drug house and abortion mills.
You know keep your hands off my body, until I get sick or pregnant then give me other people’s money for what I need. " - bbarrick8383

Democratic/liberals try to define “bad behavor” as smoking, or being overweight, or not supporting population control.
What about the bad behavior of individuals such adultary, fornication, homosexual acts, and abusing ones body with the illegal use of drugs - - - - that they expect the rest of us to pay for ? ? ? - AIDS; all other Sexually transmitted diseases; and abortion - murder for convenience; drug addicted babies, etc.

 

[Belloc_Fan]

Beau Ouiville, I’m baffled at the hypocrisy you think you see. There’s not even an issue of individual autonomy here at all. Individuals remain free, before and after this, to pay for heroin needles or abortion (the two things D.C. is complaining that the feds won’t let them buy).

But D.C., as a federally-controlled area, doesn’t get to use taxpayer dollars to do so directly. Which sounds like a victory for those taxpayers who don’t want to buy heroin needles and abortions. So I’m seeing this as a victory both for individual freedom (particularly freedom of conscience) and individual responsibility. On the other side, I just see D.C. bureaucrats upset that they can’t spend other people’s tax dollars on every political pet project they think of, even morally repulsive ones like abortion. How are you reading this that made you think the GOP was the bad actor here?

I mean, granted, the AP article you linked to quoted only Democratic and pro-choice sources, so that might be why you’re misinformed on this. But what do you expect? It’s the AP. If you want the other side of the story, read up on it in Catholic news sources – this was a great victory.

 

[Suudy]

Another casualty of the Republicans (who champion personal freedom) asserting their will on people who did not vote for or against them.

Eh? Who is “asserting their will” on anyone? You mean, refusing to pay for programs is suddenly oppression?

The ideology-driven change is penny wise and pound foolish.

All change is ideology-driven. Perhaps you meant “unpopular change”?

 

[Dale_M]

There is no evidence that health care is not or will not be available for those in need.
MEDICAID is provided for the poor all over the USA.
Nor is there any evidence that drug programs will be curtailed.

Please provide a link to the passed budget bill that makes the accusations true.

Anne, the article (and the protest it covers) isn’t about the US as a whole. It is about the city of Washington DC and the demand for home rule, rather than the US Congress dictating municipal policies.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Anne, the article (and the protest it covers) isn’t about the US as a whole. It is about the city of Washington DC and the demand for home rule, rather than the US Congress dictating municipal policies.

Sorry, but the Disctict of Columbia was established in the Constitution as the home turf of the Federal Government. If the people who live there don’t like it, they can move to a place that isn’t controlled by the federal government…like say…Greenland.

 

[Beau_Ouiville]

Sorry, but the Disctict of Columbia was established in the Constitution as the home turf of the Federal Government. If the people who live there don’t like it, they can move to a place that isn’t controlled by the federal government…like say…Greenland.

Yes, let 'em eat cake. The District folks had a program which they favored and which used federal funds. Now, some folks who the District citizens did not have a chance to vote for or against, have chosen to end a program which has a health impact on the District.

It sounds like the District needs a tea party. It certainly needs a wide-spread needle exchange program.

 

[feargalmac]

Yes, let 'em eat cake. The District folks had a program which they favored and which used federal funds. Now, some folks who the District citizens did not have a chance to vote for or against, have chosen to end a program which has a health impact on the District.

It sounds like the District needs a tea party. It certainly needs a wide-spread needle exchange program.

A needle exchange programme helps no-one except dealers, ie. a good steady supply of healthy(?) addicts. The user is still killing themselves by injecting God only knows.

What might be good would be drug rehab programmes such as Narcotics Anonymous.

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Yes, let 'em eat cake. The District folks had a program which they favored and which used federal funds. Now, some folks who the District citizens did not have a chance to vote for or against, have chosen to end a program which has a health impact on the District.

It sounds like the District needs a tea party. It** certainly needs a wide-spread needle exchange program**.

For what end? It needs a Congressperson exchange program even worse.

 

[bbarrick8383]

Yes, let 'em eat cake. The District folks had a program which they favored and which used federal funds. Now, some folks who the District citizens did not have a chance to vote for or against, have chosen to end a program which has a health impact on the District.

It sounds like the District needs a tea party. It certainly needs a wide-spread needle exchange program.

What? No representation? Sounds like they a lesson in history. Oklahomans are not interested in subsidizing any other state or areas drug addicts.

 

[Belloc_Fan]

Yes, let 'em eat cake. The District folks had a program which they favored and which used federal funds. Now, some folks who the District citizens did not have a chance to vote for or against, have chosen to end a program which has a health impact on the District.

It sounds like the District needs a tea party. It certainly needs a wide-spread needle exchange program.

(1) Again, if these are federal funds, as you say, what entitles D.C. residents to them (at all), much less to use them on whatever they so desire? And to my knowledge, the clean needle program was never put to a vote. In other words, some D.C. bureaucrats wanted to use the nation’s money for their own pet project. The money got cut, so they protested.

If you’re going to continue this issue honestly, at least admit that it’s just because you happen to have liked the program that got cut, rather than there being some underlying principle (district sovereignty, taxation without representation, taxpayer conscience, etc.) that motivates you here. Otherwise, it just comes off as sort of dishonest.

(2) And as for the morality of a wide-spread needle exchange program, the best argument is that Catholics shouldn’t support them (canonlaw.info/2010/02/arguments-against-bp-hubbards.html).

 

[Orogeny]

Yes, let 'em eat cake. The District folks had a program which they favored and which used federal funds. Now, some folks who the District citizens did not have a chance to vote for or against, have chosen to end a program which has a health impact on the District.

Why is this news? What federally funded programs do the residents of DC get to vote for?

Do you want the District to get federal funds for abortions? What if they vote for it?

Peace

Tim

 

[Dale_M]

What? No representation? Sounds like they a lesson in history. Oklahomans are not interested in subsidizing any other state or areas drug addicts.

But are Oklahomans eager to pay for the HIV treatment which will be required due to the absence of the needle exchange program?

The success of needle exchange at reducing HIV transmission among intravenous drug users is well known. Such programs do not increase drug use. And they are far, far less costly than medical treatment for HIV/AIDS.
cdc.gov/idu/facts/aed_idu_syr.pdf

 

[Dale_M]

Why is this news? What federally funded programs do the residents of DC get to vote for?

I think the question is tricky to answer since some of DC’s funds come from its own tax revenue, but a large dollop comes from the federal government. How can anyone say which programs are paid for with federal funds and which programs are paid for with local funds?

 

[Suudy]

I think the question is tricky to answer since some of DC’s funds come from its own tax revenue, but a large dollop comes from the federal government. How can anyone say which programs are paid for with federal funds and which programs are paid for with local funds?

Apparently those opposing the federal funding of PP think it is possible to separate expenditures. Why is it easy for a private group to do but difficult for the DC government to do?

 

[bbarrick8383]

But are Oklahomans eager to pay for the HIV treatment which is required due to the absence of the needle exchange program?

In Oklahoma.

I understand DC’s predicament, but I don’t support the program. If drug users want something free from taxpayers, they can go sit in jail till they are clean and return to society as productive citizens. I understand the cost is probably much higher, but I’m not interested in aiding and abetting a criminal with tax dollars.

Bank robbers were to get into a gun fight robbing a bank, they would have a higher chance of survival if they were wearing bullet proof vests. Should we ask police departments to supply free bullet proof vests?

 

[Orogeny]

I think the question is tricky to answer since some of DC’s funds come from its own tax revenue, but a large dollop comes from the federal government. How can anyone say which programs are paid for with federal funds and which programs are paid for with local funds?

They don’t do basic accounting in DC?

Peace

Tim

 

[Dale_M]

Apparently those opposing the federal funding of PP think it is possible to separate expenditures. Why is it easy for a private group to do but difficult for the DC government to do?

Actually, I think the persons opposing federal funding of Planned Parenthood believe that it is impossible to separate those funding streams. And many of those same people also backed the recent decision on DC policies, for the same reason.

On the other hand, I think that if PP fund raises specifically on the issue of providing abortion funds, it would be easy to keep that money in a separate pool. However, I am not sure whether they do so. DC, of course, can not do that.

They don’t do basic accounting in DC?

I am sure they do. However, there is an argument that money is fungible, and that federal funds enables city resources to be devoted to programs which wouldn’t otherwise be affordable.

 

[Suudy]

Actually, I think the persons opposing federal funding of Planned Parenthood believe that it is impossible to separate those funding streams. And many of those same people also backed the recent decision on DC policies, for the same reason.

That doesn’t make any sense. If the streams are inseparable, then government funding is going to abortion. If they are separable–as they claim they are since the tout that no government funds are going to abortion–then DC shouldn’t have any trouble separating how this is funded. They can’t have it one way with regard to PP funding and another with regard to DC funding.