I'm glad this issue was brought to light yesterday on talk radio.

[MrLabGuy]

Conservative talk radio was making fun of this part of the Democratic economic stimulus plan all day yesterday. It was a glaring example of Congress attaching a spending program to a bill designed for another purpose. Now if they can only do this with the other 400 Billion dollars in miscellaneous pork barrel spending we might be OK.


WASHINGTON -- Democratic leaders in the House have dropped federal funding for new contraceptive services and ongoing programs to stop sexually transmitted diseases from the $825 billion economic stimulus bill due to hit the floor Tuesday.

As originally written, the House Democratic bill included more than $300 million in funds to slow the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. It also included a provision -- the one that's drawn the most GOP fire -- that provides a 9-to-1 match of federal funds to state funds to provide contraceptives to poor women who qualified under Medicaid. It also would have provided the same contraceptives to women whose income was 200 percent of the federal poverty level, a significant increase in funding.