Senate Committee Reinstates $50 Million in Funding for Discredited Abstinence-Only Education

The Gaggle (Newsweek): Abstinence-Only Education is Back, by Katie Connolly:

After weeks of railing against the price tag of health care reform, Senate Republicans managed to bond over pumping up the budget for one aspect of health care reform yesterday: abstinence-only education. Proposed by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch the amendment reinstates $50 million in funding for abstinence only education that President Obama had previously removed in his budget proposal earlier this year. Committee Republicans were joined by Blanche Lincoln (D. Ark) and Kent Conrad (D. ND) in voting up the measure, which passed 12-11.

I've been trying to think of a measured way to riff on this, but instead I'll be frank. It's an absolute waste of money. This is the sort of thing Republicans usually wail about - the federal government propping up a program where there is no evidence that said program works. Indeed, there's a mounting body of evidence that abstinence-only education is a categorical failure.