Joe Klein Shocker: Requiring Insurers to Cover Birth Control 'Major Overstepping of the State's Role'

March 4th, 2012 9:45 PM

Time's Joe Klein on Sunday took a position that is likely to shock people on both sides of the aisle.

In a discussion about birth control on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Klein surprisingly said, "Why, in a country where we don't require employers to provide health insurance should we require them to - those who do provide health insurance - to provide contraception? Now, I'm all in favor of contraception, but I think that this is a major overstepping of the state's role" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST: Guys, guys, I promised the viewers sex. We have to get to it. Joe, is it -- it seems clear that the raising of issues like contraception, Obama's -- you know, the issue with regard to the -- what Catholic charities could or could not provide, net-net, that is helping the Democrats, because it's making a lot of independent women say, wait a minute, we don't want people telling us what contraceptives we can use.

JOE KLEIN, TIME: Net-net, it's helping the Democrats. But I think Reihan [Salam] is going to faint when I say that I think that the strongest case that the Republicans have that's been obscured by all of this craziness is that the regulatory state has gotten out of control.

And so that when you bring it down to contraception, you ask yourself, why, in a country where we don't require employers to provide health insurance should we require them to - those who do provide health insurance - to provide contraception?

Now, I'm all in favor of contraception, but I think that this is a major overstepping of the state's role.


The regulatory state has gotten out of control? This is a major overstepping of the state's role?

Was that Time's Joe Klein or National Review's Reihan Salam who was also part of the panel?

Of course, there's a reason why this issue has "been obscured by all of this craziness."

The Left and their media minions have framed this from the start as Republicans trying to take away birth control.

What they've dishonestly done is make it appear that the GOP have initiated something that would reduce access to contraceptives.

Quite the contrary, it is the administration that has altered the landscape mandating that employers - even religious organizations - include birth control with their health insurance programs.

As this has never been required before, nobody has had anything taken away from them.

But sadly this is how the media works today. If someone proposes an additional entitlement beyond what currently exists, all opposition is falsely depicted as stealing from the citizenry.

This is the same tactic as declaring a reduction in the growth of an entitlement as being a cut much has been done countless times by the press with programs such as Social Security and school lunches.

For some reason in this instance Klein isn't playing ball.

Or was it just an off day?