Breaking: Mitch Daniels to sign bill defunding Indiana Planned Parenthood

posted at 6:07 pm on April 29, 2011 by Allahpundit

The politics of this were easy, the policy a bit more complicated. It wasn’t a simple choice of “cut ‘em off or don’t cut ‘em off.” Federal law provides that a state can’t be selective in allocating Medicaid funds to medical providers who serve Medicaid patients. By signing the bill, Daniels would be taking a risk that the feds will withdraw the state’s Medicaid funding entirely as a penalty. By not signing the bill, he’d be signaling to social conservatives who are already suspicious of him over the infamous “truce” comments that he won’t go to bat for them if he’s elected president. What’s an aspiring national candidate to do?

Looks like he’s running:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said today he will sign a controversial bill that cuts off government funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Indiana will become the first state to take such an action.

“I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position,” said Daniels, a Republican…

Daniels said he commissioned a review of services in Indiana and “can confirm that all non-abortion services, whether family planning or basic women’s health, will remain readily available” in all of Indiana’s 92 counties.

His message to Planned Parenthood as the screaming begins: “Any organization affected by this provision can resume receiving taxpayer dollars immediately by ceasing or separating its operations that perform abortions.” Exactly. We’re constantly assured by the left that abortions are only the teeny-tiniest insignificant little part of the services that PP provides. Should be easy for them to go cold turkey, then, if they’re keen on that Medicaid money. Nevertheless, to no one’s surprise, they’re already planning a court battle.

As I say, though, politically this was an easy call. He’s got a ready answer now for any social cons who challenge him on his “truce” remarks — the proof’s in the pudding — and as Philip Klein smartly notes, the attacks he’ll inevitably draw from the left on the bill will only boost his credibility with the base. He should make his decision within the next two weeks, now that the Indiana legislative session is almost over. When he does, he’ll have a campaign “kitchen cabinet” already in place and ready to go, with Haley Barbour sure to come aboard sometime sooner rather than later. Exit question for veteran HA readers: You know who this doesn’t help? Mitt Romney!


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I ain’t got no cigarettes…

Liam on April 25, 2013 at 6:10 PM

Two hours of pushin’ brooms
buys an 8 by 12 4 bit room
I’m a man of means by no means……

King of The Road…..

BobMbx on April 25, 2013 at 6:16 PM

Damn….I forgot the words.

No phone, no lights, no motor car, not a single luxury.

Let the Me Generation discover that anthem and we’re all in trouble.

BobMbx on April 25, 2013 at 6:14 PM

They already have. Who the hell do you think watches those stupid Survivor “reality shows”?

clear ether

eon

eon on April 25, 2013 at 6:19 PM

Also, don’t forget sheer sadism. It’s already been established that progressives have very low regard for people other than themselves, so it’s entirely reasonable to expect that they will seek to inflict as much pain as possible on everyone else for their own edification.

eon on April 25, 2013 at 6:13 PM

And that is precisely where I aim, knowing your own accuracy-of-pen.

Sadists are weaned out of all Special Forces units worldwide. Not just because they’re generally undesirable, but mainly because sadists are inherent cowards.

Pretty much liberals, when you get down to it. For example, rather than start a Gay Scouts thing, homosexuals want courts to make the Boy Scouts take them in — “Daddy! He’s hitting me!”

Liberals never got past fifth grade, emotionally-speaking. We see it all the time with the trolls here and, worse, among the politicians.

There is something very seriously wrong with liberals.

Liam on April 25, 2013 at 6:22 PM

Two hours of pushin’ brooms
buys an 8 by 12 4 bit room
I’m a man of means by no means……

King of The Road…..

BobMbx on April 25, 2013 at 6:16 PM

~buys you a whiskey with a beer chaser~

Liam on April 25, 2013 at 6:24 PM

The burn, she is a-coming.

Midas on April 25, 2013 at 6:16 PM

Yep. The proggies might manage warmth in the Winter, but in the Summer they will find ‘cool’ is kind of hard to improvise.

slickwillie2001 on April 25, 2013 at 6:24 PM

we just get more and more like North Korea everyday. How wonderful.

kirkill on April 25, 2013 at 6:25 PM

~peeks up from behind my couch, cocking an eyebrow~

Liam on April 25, 2013 at 5:34 PM

You’re fine, luv. :-)

Resist We Much on April 25, 2013 at 6:43 PM

You don’t think that the enviro-proggies would shut down Natural Gas exploration and fracking if they could find a way?

Oh, hell yes. Read that enviroturd’s remark about replacing coal with ‘renewables and conservation’.

And it’s only because the US is still just a little bit ungovernable, that there’s enough friction between federal and state and private interests to let some actual good things happen around the edges, that we’re in danger of being energy self-sufficient.

The watermelons got control over the UK back in the Blair days, and between what their own government did and what authority they ceded to the EU they’re kinda hosed right now.

JEM on April 25, 2013 at 6:52 PM

Duke Energy Spokesman Lew Middleton says since 1990, Duke has spent about $2.8 billion to upgrade its Indiana facilities so they comply with EPA regulations.

“These units here at Wabash River—units two, three, four and five—are some of the oldest that we have in our system,” Middleton says. “When you do the economic analysis, it just does not make economic sense for us to install the pollution controls that would be necessary to meet the new EPA standards.”

There are some sobering numbers in there. A single employer in one state has spent enough to cover Barack Obama’s deficits for two years simply to catch up traditional technology with science which was unimagined when they constructed the plants and is still beyond the reach of most. Progress is being made, but apparently not on the government’s schedule.

Emphasis mine. For your statement to be correct, the amount spent would have had to have been $2.8 Trillion, not $2.8 Billion (which barely covers a day’s worth of deficits nowadays, I believe). I think that you simply misread the amount.

Theophile on April 25, 2013 at 7:08 PM

but he sure loved the comfort and laying around holding our TV remote the whole time he was staying for free in our horribly anti-environment house.

dentarthurdent on April 25, 2013 at 5:57 PM

Awww, the lil fella was just trying to put you at ease and help assuage your guilt…which you must have felt for being so greedy and environmentally unaware.

//

Solaratov on April 25, 2013 at 8:32 PM

My leftist friends all want coal to die. They excoriate Margaret Thatcher for “what she did to the coal miners,” but putting them all out of work here is fine.

You know what I want? I want them all to freeze in the dark. Barring that, I want them to get stuck in elevators during brownouts. Barring that, I want their latte money to go for trying to pay for electricity.

When the old and poor start dying, THAT will be okay with them because it’s for the (idiotic) cause.

Alana on April 25, 2013 at 8:37 PM

Awww, the lil fella was just trying to put you at ease and help assuage your guilt…which you must have felt for being so greedy and environmentally unaware.

//

Solaratov on April 25, 2013 at 8:32 PM

Well, he did bring beer along – but only the crappy IPAs he liked best – never anything the rest of us liked.
That made me feel soooo much better….

dentarthurdent on April 25, 2013 at 9:42 PM

When things start collapsing, resources by definition will be less than needed to keep everyone alive. That is just reality. Those who have prepared as best they could are going to have to make some choices. You are not going to be able to support those who are truly “useless eaters”. Leftists always assume that they are going to be the ones making the choice of who lives and who dies. In the last ditch, it is going to have to be those who prepared who make those choices.

Under no circumstances should Leftists, including those who voted for Obama or other Democrats, be sheltered, fed, or supported. Even if they are family. Someone who comes begging for help in a car with the Obama logo on it need to be seen off with deadly force. If the State comes to take your surplus, they need to be resisted, and the surplus destroyed rather than allowed to fall into their hands. If they are trying to ship it to a Blue area, the means of transport needs to be sabotaged, and the surplus either liberated or destroyed.

There is one advantage. Even in Blue states, most of the enemies of the Constitution live in urban areas. Cities, in the absence of utilities and a constant supply of food [most cities have a 3 day supply in stores and warehouses] will become deathtraps; and Leftists acting like the spoiled children that they are, will riot and kill their own.

If you rescue the Left, they will repay you if they survive by killing you and yours.

When things fall apart, giving quarter is suicide.

Subotai Bahadur on April 26, 2013 at 1:16 AM

If you rescue the Left, they will repay you if they survive by killing you and yours.

When things fall apart, giving quarter is suicide.

Subotai Bahadur on April 26, 2013 at 1:16 AM

I am more than willing to stand guard, secure the perimeter, and ensure that nothing goes in and nothing comes out. It is my duty.

tom daschle concerned on April 26, 2013 at 1:49 AM

This is an ignorant article. Utilities in the US are doing cartwheels they are so happy they can stop using coal. Natural gas is cheaper, more clean, and more flexible than coal. The natural gas revolution is killing coal. Cheaper energy and cleaner air…thank you natural gas!

ZippyZ on April 26, 2013 at 9:38 AM

If you rescue the Left, they will repay you if they survive by killing you and yours.

When things fall apart, giving quarter is suicide.

Subotai Bahadur on April 26, 2013 at 1:16 AM

I am more than willing to stand guard, secure the perimeter, and ensure that nothing goes in and nothing comes out. It is my duty.

tom daschle concerned on April 26, 2013 at 1:49 AM

Keep the looney posts coming gents. Your crazed right-wing ideas are a great sort of amusement. You must really enjoy clinging to your guns at night. Maybe you should express your feelings to a licensed therapist. Remember… happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

ZippyZ on April 26, 2013 at 10:28 AM

Keep the looney posts coming gents. Your crazed right-wing ideas are a great sort of amusement. You must really enjoy clinging to your guns at night. Maybe you should express your feelings to a licensed therapist. Remember… happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

ZippyZ on April 26, 2013 at 10:28 AM

You poor sodomite with your tertiary stage syphilitic brain. It really is a shame.

tom daschle concerned on April 26, 2013 at 3:14 PM

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