Women Kicked Around By Governor Perry And Texas Policy Makers

Texas Republicans have refused to agree with the federal government’s goal of allowing provider choice for the Medicaid Women’s Health Program. The state’s actions are killing healthcare for women, and they are to blame. They have made it clear that they would rather discontinue the program than to let Planned Parenthood be involved.
I am disappointed that the state’s Republican leaders continue to play politics with women’s health. Tuesday, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Senator Rodney Ellis, Representative Sylvester Turner, Representative Carol Alvarado, and I discussed possible options with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and it is clear that the federal government stands by Texas women. They are working with us to keep these services open and to continue provider choice for women of limited income, but Governor Perry and the Republican leadership are determined to get in the way. I don’t know when it became OK for Republicans to use women’s health as a political football, but this needs to stop.

Below are this week’s news clips.

Texas
Houston Chronicle
In his statement on the Texas Budget Compact, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus set the right example. He made clear his total agreement with Perry’s compact – not surprising for the Republican speaker – but reiterated his refusal to sign pledges. As Straus shows, this isn’t an issue of Democrats against Republicans. This is about keeping all options open.
Texas Tribune
The State Board of Education has unanimously approved new K-12 math standards, despite objections from business leaders that they weren’t rigorous enough.
Texas Tribune
Texas health officials have delivered a proposal to the federal government that outlines their plans for transitioning the Women’s Health Program from a program primarily supported by federal funds to one that runs on state money.
My San Antonio
State officials will have to end a key women’s health program if Planned Parenthood wins a legal battle to continue participating, Texas’ solicitor general told a federal judge Thursday.
Austin Statesman
Bettie Naylor, a longtime Austin advocate and lobbyist for the rights of women and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, has died. She was 84.
National Politics
New York Times
President Obama begins an all-out push on Friday to get Congress to extend the low interest rate on federal student loans, White House officials said, an effort that is likely to become a heated battle along party lines.
Politico
Guns or bandages. That’s the choice House Republicans are framing for the White House in the early phases of a battle over budget cuts that will hammer the Pentagon later this year if Congress and President Barack Obama don’t slash other programs.
New York Times
President Obama is finding himself increasingly boxed in on the Keystone pipeline fight as more Congressional Democrats are joining Republicans in backing the project, which has strong labor support and could generate significant numbers of jobs in economically hard-hit states.
NPR
The past week’s political firestorm in the presidential race focused on stay-at-home moms, but two-thirds of women with young children now work. Nearly half are their family’s primary breadwinner. What some feel is being lost in the political debate are the challenges they face in the workplace.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign raised $12.6 million in contributions in March, adding to roughly $14 million his Republican Party brought in last month. But the combined figure puts Romney at a disadvantage with the man whose job he wants in November.
New York Times
Speaking publicly for the first time, George Zimmerman, the man accused of second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, briefly took the witness stand at his bail hearing on Friday and apologized to Mr. Martin’s parents.
L.A. Times
The unofficial start of the general-election campaign a week ago triggered a deluge of public polling on the President Obama-Mitt Romney matchup as quickly as research firms could crunch the data. Ten major outlets have now reported numbers. So what do we know so far?
Wall Street Journal
U.S. banks will have two years to bring their businesses into line with the "Volcker rule," the Federal Reserve announced, in an effort to calm bank fears that they would be forced to act before a July deadline.
Third Way
See where the taxes you paid are going
New York Times
The American Legislative Exchange Council – responsible for spreading "stand-your-ground" laws and voter ID restrictions to dozens of states around the country –announced that it will disband its Public Safety and Elections Task Force, the internal panel that was the impetus for those kinds of laws. ALEC will now concentrate on economic issues.
Wall Street Journal
The widening gap between America’s haves and have-nots (highlighted in a Journal article today) is fueling debate across the political spectrum. But here’s one less-appreciated take-way: It suggests getting a college education — and indeed, an advanced degree — might just be worth the hefty price tag.
Bloomberg
Here’s an unhappy observation about the minimum wage: Congress last increased the rate in stages in 2007, topping it out at $7.25 an hour in 2009, or $15,080 a year.
That amount, when adjusted for inflation, is actually lower than what a minimum-wage worker earned in 1968 and is too meager to offer anyone the chance to climb out of poverty, let alone afford basic goods and services.
Health Care
Wall Street Journal
Rights are nice, but someone has to pay the bills. Elected officials, not the Supreme Court, should decide who.
Bloomberg
While Washington wonks continue to bicker over health policy, positive change is occurring outside the Beltway.

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