On the recordMarch 1, 2011
There are smart cuts and there are dumb cuts. The majority's continuing resolution, the reception it has received, suggests that it's full of dumb cuts. It has been rejected by pretty much everybody. Outright rejection to concerned hilarity is how it's been greeted by investment banks, by economists, by people who think about this stuff. But there is something worse than a dumb cut, and that's a counterproductive cut. In a misguided effort to reduce the number of abortions in this country, the Republican majority zeroed out title X funding for Planned Parenthood. I have a Planned Parenthood office down the hall from my congressional office in Bridgeport. I see women coming through there mainly to learn about birth control, to be responsible about their reproductive lives, to be tested for STDs. Remember, 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's activities is abortion. There are estimates that zeroing out title X, which the majority has done, will cause 400,000 more abortions in this country. That's counterproductive, it's wrong, and I would urge this House to reject a very bad idea.
