In September 2008, then-Candidate Obama, in his first
\nPresidential debate with Senator John McCain, pounced on his rival when McCain raised the hard-hearted suggestion of freezing all government spending with the
\nexception of defense, entitlement programs, and veteran\u2019s affairs, to reduce the deficit.\n<\/p>\n
\nObama countered with a now-famous and punchy one liner:\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThe problem is you\u2019re using a hatchet \nThis week, the President seems to have taken up the hatchet \nThe issue is that the President\u2019s retort was not just a It was the modern equivalent of President Lincoln\u2019s line \nObama\u2019s quip underscored that \nThe real truth is that the President has not really, \nFor those of us who work on behalf of sexual and \nThis week, the President also made one of the most remarkable \nBut that tough decision needs to recognize that our public health system in \nAnywhere. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In September 2008, then-Candidate Obama, in his first Presidential debate with Senator John McCain, pounced on his rival when McCain raised the hard-hearted suggestion of freezing all government spending with the exception of defense, entitlement programs, and veteran\u2019s affairs, to reduce the deficit. Obama countered with a now-famous and punchy one liner:\u00a0 \u201cThe problem is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nwhen you need a scalpel.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nand embraced the McCain approach. It\u2019s not quite his \u201cread my lips\u201d moment, but it has \u2013 at best \u2013 the
\npotential for the most fundamental of disappointments.\n<\/p>\n
\nreally well constructed and pithy punch to McCain\u2019s cold-as-steel demeanor \u2013 an
\nappeal from the compassionate candidate who knew and understood the challenges
\nof the everyday American. No, it
\nwas, first and foremost, a profoundly moral statement. It was meant to underscore that the
\nPresident viewed domestic needs as not just important, but a fulfillment of the
\nsocial contract we have with one another as Americans and he saw a federal
\ngovernment shirking its responsibilities at home.<\/p>\n
\nthat the role of government is \u201cto do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by
\nindividual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves."\n<\/p>\n
\nthe government was not performing its primary function in the way Lincoln
\ndescribed. In fact, Obama went on
\nto say that "There
\nare some programs that are very important that are currently underfunded,"
\nObama said.\n<\/p>\n
\nfully taken up the McCain proposition. Not fully. The President
\nwill not propose that everything \u2013 every line in the federal budget \u2013 get
\nfrozen in time for his proposed three-year timeframe.\u00a0 Instead, there will be a mixture of things that are cut,
\nflat funded, or even given increases. And while such outcomes are always the product of the budget process,
\nthe 2011 federal budget he will propose next week is unique in that wherever
\nprograms fall along the fault lines of the top line spending freeze, it will
\nsay volumes about the moral vision of the President and his Administration.\n<\/p>\n
\nreproductive health who have one hand in public health and the other in social
\njustice, we\u2019re nervous.\u00a0 <\/span>We\u2019re
\nnervous because the issues we care about most have languished for the better
\npart of a decade as the federal government failed to meet the unmet need to
\nsecure sexual health in our country.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Instead, STD prevention and services funding has stalled, causing clinic
\nclosures and impacting the ability of people to access prevention and treatment.\u00a0 <\/span>HIV funding has fared a bit better, yet
\npeople with HIV or AIDS are once again on lists across the country waiting for
\ngovernment support to access live-saving medications.\u00a0 <\/span>Family planning funding has limped along but its increases \u2013
\nwhen they came \u2013 paled in comparison to the billion dollars spent on wasteful
\nprograms like abstinence-only-until-marriage during the same time period. This has created the most striking lack
\nof adequate services from coast to coast. So no one should wonder why we have 19 million new cases of STDs every
\nyear, or an HIV epidemic worse than we ever thought possible, or rising rates of teen and
\nunintended pregnancies.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nstatements of any President in recent memory when he said, \u201cI\u2019d rather be a
\nreally good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.\u201d I don\u2019t think it was the insincere
\ngesture of a politician struggling for purpose or seeking consolation. This is the real thing.\u00a0 <\/span>It is character in the truest sense of
\nthe word and the same type of self-sacrifice that forces this good man to make
\nthe tough decisions for a nation that, in the end, may ultimately cost him
\nanother term \u2013 including his decision to fix the fiscally bankrupt house of
\ngovernment he inherited from a previous Administration.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nstates across the country, as well as our sense of social justice, demands that
\nthe budget the President proposes not shirk from the moral obligation to do the
\nright thing on sexual health. Sure, discretionary spending is rather small in the overall picture, but
\nit is the<\/em> critical source of funding
\nfor sexual health programs.\u00a0 <\/span>We
\nsimply cannot afford a cut from the budget scalpel anywhere on sexual and
\nreproductive health programs. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n