The Hendricks County GOP Roundtable Breakfast has been postponed due to weather. The National Weather Service is predicting between 4 and 8 inches of snow to fall in Central Indiana overnight.
The breakfast will be held next Tuesday, February 16th, at 7:00am at Prestwick Country Club. The cost is $10.00. Going forward, the breakfast will be held on its regularly scheduled day, the second Tuesday of each month.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller was asked to review Democrats’ health care reform proposal and report back to Sen. Richard Lugar and Indiana’s Congressional delegation. His report was released today. Democrat’s version of health care reform is devastating to Hoosier taxpayers, and will be politically damaging to those who supported it… like every Democrat that Indiana sends to Congress. Just sayin’. Here’s a clip.
If the Senate health care bill before Congress became law, Indiana would bear substantial costs. The bill would add roughly half a million more Hoosiers to the Medicaid rolls and create unintended consequences for patients, taxpayers and Indiana’s medical-device industry, according to the Indiana Attorney General’s report on the proposal. — Attorney General Greg Zoeller
Zoeller goes on to describe, in detail, the specific issues that adversly impact the state. The bill has “serious constitutional issues” that stem from the individual mandate on all American’s to buy health insurance. Zoeller correctly states that, “never before has the federal government required Americans to purchase any good or service, nor has it regulated inactivity.”
The costs on Indiana taxpayers are unsustainable, especially given our current budget situation. Democrat’s proposal will add $2.4 billion in costs to the state Medicaid program, and shift to the federal government the savings the state currently receives from pharmaceutical rebates to the tune of $750 million. The proposed insurance exchange will add another $60-$80 million in costs on the state. Oh, and there are billions in new taxes on Indiana’s medical device industry that currently employs 35,000 Hoosiers.
Read the entire report by clicking here.
President Obama can’t seem to get his story straight on Republican proposals to solving America’s problems. In front of liberal audiences that are foaming at the mouth for a government takeover of everything, Obama accuses Republicans of having no ideas and labels us “The Party of No”. When he needs to pretend that he has an open mind and is willing to compromise, he claims to be closely examining our party’s proposals. Which is it?
What a year. Republican Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts, Congressman Buyer retires, and according to reports late today, former Indiana Senator Dan Coats will announce Wednesday that he will seek to challenge Evan Bayh. Politico is reporting:
Former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats plans to announce Wednesday that he will challenge Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh in November, a senior Republican official told POLITICO.
Coats held the seat Bayh currently occupies for 10 years before retiring in 1998. Since leaving Congress, he has worked as a lobbyist and served as U.S. ambassador to Germany during the George W. Bush administration.
“Coats deciding to run is a product of the environment we’re in right now,” the GOP official said. “This is a great opportunity for us. We have a real player on the field that they weren’t expecting us to have.”
Former Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman are already in the race on the Republican side. — Politico
Coats has exactly two weeks from today to collect the 500 signatures per Congressional District that it will take to get on the ballot. It’s hard to know if he can pull it together that fast, but he’s an immediate game changer for sure and will draw needed attention and money to the Republican primary and the race against Bayh.
State Sen. Brandt Hershman has officially announced his bid to succeed retiring Congressman Steve Buyer. There are several other candidates still considering a race, including Greenwood Mayor Charles Henderson. Here’s the media clip, courtesy of WISH-TV.
Republican state Sen. Brandt Hershman of Lafayette said Tuesday that he will run for the congressional seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Steve Buyer.
Hershman, 43, said he plans to file the necessary paperwork soon to run in the heavily Republican 4th District. He has been Buyer’s district operations director for all 18 years Buyer has been in office.
Buyer announced last week that he will not seek re-election because his wife, Joni, has an incurable autoimmune disease.
Republican Secretary of State Todd Rokita announced Monday that he is running for the seat. Two other Republicans, Cheryl Denise Allen of Martinsville and Mark Seitz of Indianapolis are also are running.
Purdue University biology professor David Sanders, who lost badly to Buyer in the 2004 and 2006 elections, is the only Democrat to announce a campaign. – WISH-TV
I think Sanders is about to experience some deja vu.
