Friend Crush…

So I have a total friend crush on Amanda Robb, who just wrote this op-ed piece in the New York Times about the battles over the State Childrens’ Health Insurance Program (S-Chip) and how the Democrats tried to lure Republican support by adding more abstinence-only sex ed. The D’s proposed an additional $28 million for the abstinence-only, bringing the total to $200 annually. This for a program that, by all evidence, totally doesn’t work at all, shocker, shocker, aghast, really?.

S-Chip failed in congress today (Bush had vetoed the bill and the house didn’t get the need 2/3 vote to override him). At first I was pretty cheesed (again), even though everyone expected this outcome. But now, after reading Robb’s piece, I am not so sure it’s a bad thing. Except that the abstinence “compromise” will probably be part of the next version, too.

And the really shite thing? With that $200 million, the government could buy an insurance for 150,000 kids. Fiscal conservatives might be afraid of state-funded health care, but they should be appalled by wasting that kind of money on an “education” program that does diddly squat (insert analogy to Iraq here).