Singer Barbra Streisand has penned an impassioned plea to women to vote this November for the Huffington Post. The post, entitled, “What Is at Stake This November…and Why the Country Needs American Women to Vote,” reminds women “it only takes a few votes to make all the difference.”
So what is a stake? According to the singer, who lists all the things you’d expect from a progressive activist, just about everything. From equal pay to birth control, Streisand’s piece is a laundry list of progressive talking points from the “War on Women.”
She also dips into current events, writing, “By the way, if not for Republicans austere budget cuts, the NIH could have possibly had an Ebola vaccine by now.” Apparently the staffer Babs had pen her trope isn’t aware of the fact that President Barack Obama proposed cutting public health preparedness spending.
On the other hand, as the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported back in January:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will see an 8.2 percent budget increase for fiscal 2014, thanks to a $1.1 trillion spending bill announced by Congress Jan. 13.
This influx of cash will raise the CDC budget to $6.9 billion, which is $567 million more than it received in 2013. This is more than the agency anticipated, because the president’s fiscal year 2014 budget request for it was just $6.6 billion — a decrease of $270 million from fiscal 2012.
Yes, the budget for the CDC Congress passed was GREATER than the budget even the president was seeking for them – by $300 million.
Facts aside, Streisand concludes her piece by begging women — liberal women — to vote. Writing, “PLEASE EXERCISE YOUR POWER… ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SHOW UP!” (The bold and caps lock are hers.)
Her choice of words at the end, the “show up” part, is interesting. Streisand is of the philosophy of responsibility to others, to community and government taking care of the less fortunate. However, her own stepson’s plight tells a different story of how Streisand and her husband, actor James Brolin, aren’t showing up for Brolin’s son, Jess.
Jess Brolin is currently homeless, and was recently spotted digging for food in garbage cans around Ojai, Calif.
Streisand and Brolin, worth an estimated $500 million, have not helped their child get his life together. The Daily Mail reports Jess, “After losing his $800 per month apartment in 2011, the 41-year-old now lives on the streets and sleeps in vacant lots not 80 miles from his millionaire showbiz family’s home.”
While Streisand is a disciple of the progressive philosophy of redistribution of wealth, just how much of their personal wealth she and her husband are willing to redistribute to his son remains unknown. A spokesman told the Mail, “We have offered help and support and we continue to do so. We love him very much and only want what is best for him.”
A house or apartment is easily within the financial reach of the Streisand/Brolins, as is any cost of mental health treatment, though no need for any has been alleged.
Actor Josh Brolin, son of James, stepson to Barbra and brother to Jess, who played President George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s “W” movie, through a spokesman, told the New York Post that Jess is “gainfully employed and supports himself.”
No one, Barbra Streisand, James or Josh Brolin, or any of their spokesmen explained why Jess, if he is supporting himself, has been sleeping in vacant fields and been spotted rooting for food in garbage cans.