Texas said they were going to bar Planned Parenthood and other affiliates of abortion providers from participating in Medicaid. Obama said no, or the administration would take away Texas’ funding, which would hurt 130,000 low-income women. Texas goes ahead does it anyway. Now what?
Who blinks first? And who wins if no one blinks? To me, this seems like a no-win situation for the Obama administration and one of those deals where you cut off your nose to spite your face. I would be surprised if he doesn’t back down.
Sounds more like Obama giving Texas the middle finger. I doubt he’s counting on Texas to send electors his way, so he doesn’t have any reason to back down. Texas on the other hand is going to get hurt by their own actions, and as usual back down. I wish they’d go through with their secession plans, or we just give the state back to Mexico.
Texas actually is not holding any woman hostage, as they will be referred elsewhere. What Obama is proposing is to say that if funds don’t go to the organization he wants them to go to, then he’ll take away the funding of for all low-income woman. He is literally willing to hold the funding of 10x more woman hostage for no other reason than he’s pretty much buddy-buddy with one of the organizations to be cut off. You can say whatever you will of that organization, but it’d be hard to paint Obama’s decision, if he goes through with it, as prudent or even remotely intelligent.
Really not seeing any reason for Obama to back down on this one. He’s not going to get any electoral votes in Texas anyway, caving might cost him support in states that are actually in play. Holding the line might help swing some Texas congressional races to the Dems. Looks to me like he’s negotiating from a position of strength.
It’s pretty well recognized that virtually any Federal money comes with certain strings.
Everything you say here, with a couple of minor word changes, applies equally to the State of Texas. The state is willing to end health care for large numbers of people simply because of a grudge against one organization that does not use Federal or State tax dollars for abortions.
What do you think of the argument that the Texas defunding of Planned Parenthood violates the Social Security Act?
Which is why Obama won’t back down. The principal that the Feds can make federal funding incumbent on State programs meeting certain standards is more important then who gets Medicaid money, I can’t see Obama (or any President of either party) giving in on that.
Also, when these programs are denied federal funding, I suspect the people complaining won’t be woman, but their doctors, who will keep trying to bill Medicaid for womans health exams and either get less money back or will rip a hole in Texas finances by having the whole thing covered despite less federal money to cover it.
Prediction, Texas waits till after the election and then either Obama looses and the point is moot or Obama wins and Texas cuts a deal for the program to be funded retroactively.
