OBAMA AND NEEDLE EXCHANGE

Look, I know Barack Obama has a lot on his mind. I said that before,
when his Justice Department filed a brief favoring the Defense of
Marriage Act, even though thecandidate Obama had come out solidly
against it. Obama's stance on issues of interest to the LGBT community
has always been a little iffy - yes, he says the right things, but it
sounds darned pro forma to me. Well, pro forma is OK as long as the
forma takes the form of form, but so far it hasn't.

Since then, Obama has taken steps to mollify gay folks - "Say, wanna
come to dinner at the White House? We'll have fresh greens!" - but
somehow he has not backed down an inch on the "DOMA is good for you"
stance. Of course, he doesn't say that; his Justice Department says
that.

But now we have another thing. I know he's got the whole health care
mess to wade through, and it's not at all clear whether that is even
possible, but this is a health care issue, and he doesn't even have to
go through Congress to change the policy. The issue is needle exchange.

OK, so the policy affects mostly junkies, although there may be a few
diabetics and hemophiliacs thrown in. But in general, the health care
policy of the United States was: We'd prefer if people did not die
unnecessarily. (Some of my hard-left colleagues will mention needless
wars of aggression as an exception to that policy, but that's a whole
different deal. On foreign policy matters, Obama seems to be doing
pretty well. Think of how many countries we haven't gone to war with!
So refreshing.)

Junkies are not an influential political pressure group. The Junkie
PAC (J-PAC) keeps forgetting to show up to its own caucuses. But
still, a lot of people - including, you know, former community
organizers - are upset about people dying on the streets or taking up
room in the ERs with entirely preventable diseases like HIV/AIDS and
hep C and other blood-borne pathogens.

Needle exchange - clean needles for old ones, come one, come all - can
help prevent that. It can lower health care costs. It can save lives,
even perhaps the lives of people who have not made the best choices.
And it's cheap, and it's easy. Candidate Obama was all for it.
President Obama - not so much.

The last Bush budget contained a ban on providing any money for
needle exchange programs. It was expected that the proposed Obama
budget would lift that ban, but no such luck. Here's a quote from
Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim: "Obama's budget includes language
that bans spending federal money on needle-exchange programs.

"White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said the administration isn't yet
ready to lift the ban - but Obama still supports needle exchange."

See, he supports it in the theoretical sense. He can make a case for
it. It's just that he doesn't support it in the real world. At least,
not yet. What is this, fear of nasty Republicans? According to the
polls, the electorate at the moment despises Republican politicians.
The more we learn, the worse it gets. Serial adultery among
presidential hopefuls - check. Weird secretive Christian groups
controlling legislators - check. Lecturing a Latina Supreme Court
nominee about bias - check. They've had quite a run at being loathsome
and, I am happy to report, people loathe them.

(This, by the way, leaves a lot of perfectly reasonable
non-adulterous, non-cultish Republicans wondering what happened, and
being tarred by the same brush. It's too bad. Remember when being a
Republican meant being for small government and free markets? Those
days are gone, my friend.)

And, according to Rachel Maddow just last week, the White House has
now taken Obama's opposition to needle exchange off the president's
Web site. It's the miracle of the Internet; now you see it, now you
don't. Policy? What policy?

Some people think that needle exchange is immoral; it's just making
life easier for people who can't take the time and effort to get a
grip on their own addictions. Well, three things: 1) Being addicted to
drugs you need to inject is not an easy life or a fun life; it's
filled with self-loathing and disease, and often with crime as well.
2) Needle exchange makes life a lot easier for some of the noblest of
our citizens, including ambulance drivers, cops, nurses and doctors.
3) Many people have addictions; some of them have chosen their
addictions unwisely. How morally superior do you need to feel?