Sunday School 5/8/22

A governor, a state official, a member of Congress, and a US Senator walk in to a classroom - well, four classrooms - to talk about abortion. We'll take them in that order.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves talked with Jake Tapper in the State of the Union classroom. Mississippi has a 'trigger law' that will make all abortions illegal, except in cases of rape or where the mother's life is at risk; currently around 3500 abortions are performed annually. 

Reeves said that his state has "started doing the hard work of what a post-Roe-Mississippi will look like," and that if a majority of the SCOTUS justices are going to overturn Roe

we must understand that, while this is a great victory for the pro-life movement, it is not the end. In fact, it is just the beginning. And the beginning is we must show that being pro-life is not just about being anti-abortion. And so, in our state, that -- the work that is being done goes in two directions.

He said they have to do whatever they can to "make it easier on those moms who may be in unwanted pregnancies" and so, 

...I have signed legislation to provide help and resources and money to the 37 pregnancy resource centers that are located in every region of our state. We want to make sure that we get those individuals, ladies and women and expectant mothers, the help that they need from a health care standpoint, but it's not just about the health care. It's about other resources that are available to those moms.

And, the other piece of making things better while forcing women to bear unwanted children is about "the next phase of the pro-life movement."

And what we're trying to do is focus on making adoption easier in Mississippi. We're focusing on improving our foster care system... we're investing in that system over $100 million to improve technology at the Department of Human Services and at our Child Protection Service (CPS).

Tapper gave some grim Mississippi stats: the highest rates of infant mortality and child poverty in the country; no guaranteed paid maternity leave; a rejection of extended paid post-partum care through Medicaid; and a "long-running federal lawsuit" against CPS. He asked why anyone should believe Reeves saying he's concerned about taking care of these babies, or the women. Reeves said he didn't want to hide his state's problem, he wanted to fix them.

It's due in large part to poverty. And so we are focusing every day on fixing the challenges that are before us... when you talk about these young ladies, the best thing we can do for them is to provide and improve educational opportunities for them... We have got to continue to work to provide workforce opportunities, jobs for these individuals. But to do that, they have got to improve the quality of their skills. And we as a state are investing heavily in that.

In 2012, Mississippi was 47th in spending on education; in 2022, the state is ranked 46th; it plans on investing $49M in American Rescue Plan funding in education over the next couple of years. And, the state has only the $7.25 federal minimum wage. Notably,

The 2019 Mississippi Minimum Wage Act, or Senate Bill 2150, aimed to gradually increase the Mississippi minimum wage to $10 an hour by 2022, but this proposal died in committee. In 2021, Mississippi lawmakers continue to debate if and how the state should go about increasing the minimum wage. With Mississippi being the last state to not have a law requiring equal pay for women and men, there is still much discussion to be had.

Seems there's a tough row to hoe there... Maybe taking care of those other things first would make sense? 

Down the hall in the Meet the Press classroom, Michigan's AG Dana Nessel talked with What's-his-name. Her state also has had an abortion ban on the books since 1931; the ban would go into effect when Roe is overturned. Nessel has said she won't enforce that law, but she can't prevent the 83 prosecutors in the state from doing so. She called the law "incredibly draconian and strict," saying it has "virtually no exceptions - no exception for rape, for incest, no exception for medical emergencies." 

Not only that, but there's also a law against selling any drug or combination of drugs "designed expressly for the use of females for the purpose of procuring an abortion," with misdemeanor penalties in play. There's a registry requirement (name of purchaser, date of sale, and the name - and residence - of the prescribing physician.) Nessel also agreed with What's-his-name that even when a woman has a miscarriage, doctors may not want to perform the standards procedures to remove the fetus for fear they could end up in prison. 

To protect female Michiganders of child-bearing age, 

... I think each and every eligible voter in the state should be signing on to the you know, Reproductive Rights for All petition, and then coming to the polls and voting on it in November and voting for every pro-choice Democrat up and down the ticket, whether it's for federal office or for state office.

She'll also fully support lawsuits going to her state's Supreme Court arguing that the right to an abortion is a fundamental right in the Michigan Constitution "under our equal protection clause, under our due process clause...even if the US Supreme Court decides otherwise.  

She'd like to see both a constitutional amendment and a favorable decision from the state Supreme Court.

Let's be clear: women in my state, and in states all over America are going to die because of this position. And I heard the Mississippi governor when you interviewed him, he refused to answer the question of whether or not he would sign a bill completely outlawing the use of birth control. That is not in line at all with how Americans see their rights. And politicians do not belong in our doctor's offices. They don't belong in our bedrooms. And they should not be making these kinds of decisions on behalf of the American public and on behalf of women across America.

Moving south down the hall we meet Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who talked at length with Margaret Brennan in the Face the Nation classroom. Grace has been outspoken about being molested at 14 and raped at 16, and that she's pro-life, with exceptions for rape victims. Mace said the fetal heartbeat bill that South Carolina passed has exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother, in part because she told her story.

I felt it was really -- a really important story. A story that's often missed and not told because women are afraid. And you can even see in public comments and on social media when I talk about it, the ways in which that I get attacked for telling that story. And one of the things that I think, you know, partially that's missing in this conversation is that, when you have victims... And it's important for -- for some of us to step forward and tell those stories that are often missed in all of this as well.  

She said she would support Congress passing a bill with those protections, but that what people are missing is that if Roe is overturned, 

it's not an all-out federal ban on abortion, but it puts it back into state legislators and into Congress. You saw Congress a couple of years ago ban late- term abortions, for example. And so, what this does is it puts it back to the states, it puts it back into Congress to deal with and figure out.

They talked about polling; Brennan noted national polling shows "a majority of Americans want to kind of keep the status qu0, but "more than two-thirds of Republicans say abortion should be generally available or available with stricter limits" and wondered if it's a mistake to "just paint this as pro-life, pro-choice?" 

Mace (correctly, I believe), pointed out that "some of the polling is murky, too." It depends on "how you ask the question and who's paying for the polling." And, she gave examples of where we're more liberal on this than they are in Europe, and that it seems, based on some polls, that only 25% - 30% of Americans support abortion without restriction.

Finally, we turn to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who stopped by the This Week with George Stephanopoulos classroom to talk with Martha Raddatz about some of the political aspects of the Alito Draft. You know, things like "Do you believe there should be a litmus test? The Democrats have several candidates who do not support abortion rights." Klobuchar didn't gasp, which is more than I can say for myself. 

Instead, she talked about the Dems being a party where people recognize the difference between their personal beliefs and the rights of women to make their own personal choice. And, she added,

I think what you see in our party, is a party that is clearly pro-choice. It believes that a woman should have a right to make her own reproductive health decision when it comes to abortion. That is a position of our party and I think you see it in primary (after) primary. That matters to our voters, certainly now more than ever.

Next question? Senate Dems are going to push for a vote to codify abortion rights, "but it's almost certainly going to be blocked..." That being the case, Raddatz wondered about the options abortion rights advocates - and Democrats - have. Klobuchar said

If we are not successful, then we go to the ballot box. We march straight to the ballot box. And the women of this country and the men who stand with them will vote like they've never voted before because this is 50 years of rights in a leaked opinion where Justice Alito is literally not just taking us back to the 1950s, he's taking us back to the 1850s. He actually cites the fact that abortion was criminalized back when the 14th Amendment was adopted. And so this is a really extreme thought.

And, Raddatz asked if abortion rights should be "the principal issue for Democrats at the ballot box." The senator said "it will not be the only issue." She mentioned the economy, the president's leadership vis-à-vis Ukraine, preserving our democracy, and the extremism the Rs are showing as issues that matter to voters.

But, clearly, when... especially a new generation of women are looking at this and saying, wait a minute, my mom and my grandma are going to have more rights than I'm going to have going forward? I'm going to have to look at a patchwork of states laws with 15 of them already looking to ban medication abortion, which is what people do online and things like that. They're going to look at this and say, what world do I live in?

So, yes, "it's going to be a major issue going into the fall." 

And the final question from Raddatz: in states where abortion would "almost immediately be banned" if Roe is overturned, polling shows most adults "believe abortion should be illegal in most or all cases." Doesn't that mean the laws reflect what the people want?

Klobuchar said, like many people, she thinks 

why should a woman in Texas have different rights and a different future and a different ability to make decisions about her body and her reproductive choices than a woman in Minnesota?

She asked, rhetorically, about putting yourself in someone else's shoes, no matter how hard it might be, and thinking about "a waitress in the middle of Texas who has to make a decision...she's going to quit her job to get on a bus and go 250 miles" to have an abortion.

Those are the kinds of things that are going to be happening. It's especially going to fall on the backs of poor women, women of color. This is just wrong. And that is part of why Justice Blackmun, who is a Republican-appointed justice no less, made that thoughtful decision, looked at the Constitution and said, the right to privacy includes the right for women to make a choice like this.

Four people, all coming from different places, talking about one of the most contention issues we have. 

See you around campus. 

Sunday School 4/4/21

I dropped in on the State of the Union classroom yesterday, where Jake Tapper talked with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, That Guy from Vermont, Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). The state of our union, Tapper said, was "unironically engaged in infrastructure week."

Secretary Granholm was asked about the infrastructure bill, focusing the bill on "what everyone can support," and about there being more money for electric vehicles than for roads and bridges. She justified the spending allocations, pointing to both energy security and tackling climate change as necessary parts of the bill. 

And when Tapper asked if it was OK with her and with President Biden to "again have a bill pass with zero Republican votes," Granholm pointed out that over 80% of Americans favor infrastructure investment - Ds, Rs, and Is - and the president is inviting Rs to the table, telling them if they don't like something, come up with a better plan to make it happen. She also pointed out that Biden was sent to Washington to "do a job for America" and if we want infrastructure spending, jobs, and us to not lose the global race, then that's what he's going to do.

However, his sincere preference is -- his open hand is to Republicans to come to the table and say, if you don't like this, how would you pay for it? If you don't like this, what would you include? So much of this, though, includes priorities that Republicans have supported. So, I hope that Democrats and Republicans can be on a final vote yes on this bill, on this package.

And on the tax increases needed to pay for it? She pointed to a study showing that almost 20% of fortune 500 companies paid zero taxes after the Trump tax cuts, which points to the underlying unfairness of the tax code.

And so, what Joe Biden wants to do is to say, corporations should pay their fair share. In the same way that a plumber and a teacher would have to pay 22 percent of their income or 24 percent of their income, corporations should have to pay their fair share too, to invest in America.

 Next up? TGFV, who was asked whether the Biden plan goes far enough in terms of tax increases and the Green New Deal. He said he thinks it's a "serious proposal" and that "every American" understands our infrastructure's falling apart; "the vast majority" of Americans understand that climate change is an existential threat; and "most Americans" know we have a housing crisis. And the bill addresses all of that.

But does it go far enough?

I think that, for example, as you indicated, in terms of climate, we're probably going to want to put more money into that area. I think there's a lot of work that has to be done in terms of health care, the high cost of prescription drugs, making our colleges affordable for young people, and dealing with student debt. So, right now, I think, at an unprecedented moment, the president has given us a serious proposal. A lot more work has to be done in that regard.

As TGFV says, "it depends on what you call infrastructure." He thinks we have "a crisis in human infrastructure" and mentioned child care, expanding Medicare benefits to include dental, vision and hearing services and he also pointed out that we're behind the rest of the world when it comes to this stuff. And when Tapper suggested adding more to the bill would make it even harder to get Republican support, he didn't seem to care. There may be some differences of opinion among the Dems, he said, 

But I do believe, given the crises the country faces and the need to create millions of good-paying jobs, the need to expand health care, to guarantee health care to so many more people today who are uninsured or underinsured, the need to take on the pharmaceutical industry and lower the high cost of prescription drugs, I think you are going to see the Democratic Caucus coming together and pass very, very significant legislation.

We'll see. 

Gov. Reeves didn't really add a lot to the conversation on the infrastructure bill. While he said his state would love a share of the money, he said the bill was more like a giant tax increase, or like the Green New Deal, than it was an infrastructure bill. And when he was specifically asked how to pay for it? "... by seeing significant improved economic growth," for one thing.

We saw that throughout the Trump administration, because the policies were pro-business, they were pro-growth, and revenues improved. Now, unfortunately, during those four years, like the four years before that, they did not in Washington get control of spending. They feel as if the debt doesn't matter. You're looking at a debt burden today of nearly $30 trillion for Americans. And what's ultimately going to happen -- and it's already happening -- as interest rates rise, the share of our annual budget that goes to pay for interest expense is going to rise from what is already an enormous level of 15 to 20 percent of all federal revenues goes to pay interest expense. That is not sustainable over the long term.

Tapper said that didn't answer how to pay for it; rather, it "actually provides examples of how it's even more complicated than that." And he's right.

Finally, Rep. Omar was asked about the Derek Chauvin trial and "what it's been like" watching the trial and reliving the trauma that so many folks are feeling. She said it's really hard, both wanting to avoid watching, and wanting to watch and hear from the witnesses. She said the feeling of helplessness they've all expressed resonated with her.

That is a feeling that we know really well here in Minneapolis when it comes to police abuse. And I remember feeling helpless 20 years ago when I witnessed police officers unload three dozen rounds on mentally ill Somali men in the middle of the street. And so, it's been -- it has just unearthed so much trauma for many of us, but we have each other, and we're going to get through it.

And what about a hung jury or not guilty verdict, is Minneapolis prepared for that? 

So, the community is on edge about that. We have seen justice not delivered in our community for many years. And I think that there is a lot of confidence in Attorney General Keith Ellison and the prosecutors in this case. But we are all eagerly awaiting to see how this trial shakes out. It's been really horrendous to watch the defense put George Floyd on trial, instead of the police office -- the former police officer who's charged with his murder.

I have to agree with her on that.

See you around campus.