(Some of you may have received an earlier version of this blog a few minutes ago that went out by mistake while I was working out it. I hit the wrong key. Sorry about that. This is the corrected version.)
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory is suing the Justice Department over its challenge to the LGBT bathroom discrimination law he recently signed.
I wonder if North Carolina citizens realize this lawsuit is not going to be free, that it will probably cost the state thousands of dollars before it’s done.
One of the little known facts about states engaging in “morals regulation” is the stunning costs involved.
These laws are challenged in court because they are always constitutionally questionable. This means Republican legislatures and governors are busy passing laws they know will cost the state thousands of dollars, even hundreds of thousands, to defend.
This is in addition to the billions states are losing in other ways because of their foolishness.
The amazing thing is that they are doing these things while perpetuating one of the great myths of our time, that Republicans stand for fiscal responsibility.
Here are a few facts that should put that lie to rest.
Former Kansas Attorney General Phil Kline spent millions of dollars filing lawsuits against Planned Parenthood, doctors, and other clinics to fight abortion rights. He eventually had his law license suspended for unprofessional conduct while pursuing Planned Parenthood.
In 2014 the state of Alaska spent over $100,000 defending its anti-gay marriage law at a time when it was facing a three billion dollar deficit.
In August of 2015 the state of Idaho paid out nearly $1 million in its defense of lawsuits involving a same-sex marriage case and defense of an anti-abortion law that was ruled unconstitutional.
South Dakota spent more than $750,000 defending its unconstitutional anti-abortion law in 2011.
Texas spent $650,000 trying to roll back abortion rights.
The state of Utah spent more than $1 million defending its anti-abortion laws in the 1990s.
There are many other examples I could name, but the point should be obvious: the business of “morals regulation” ain’t cheap.
It takes real brass for Republicans to insist their states cannot afford to extend Medicaid to help the poor get healthcare or must cut education budgets, then turn around and spend money in such frivolous ways.
Two prime examples are Kansas and Louisiana whose governors (Brownback and Jindal) implemented every economic policy Republicans have dreamed of enacting for years. Both states represent the pinnacle of the triumph of Republican economics.
And both are financially broke, reeling in a financial disaster that has put them on the verge of bankruptcy.
Both states have had their credit ratings lowered, forcing them to pay higher interest rates for money they have to borrow to pay their bills.
But as bad as things are in Kansas and Louisiana, Michigan’s Republican Governor Mitch Snyder may win the prize for economic disasters. The Flint water crisis he created is a financial and moral disaster, all the result of a desire to save money.
I think the facts are as clear as they can be. Republicans are nothing, if not financially irresponsible.
Given their track record you wonder why they keep passing “morals regulation” laws that force them to keep spending millions of dollars to defend them in court when they don’t have the money and don’t have to pass such laws in the first place.
I actually know the answer to my own question. They do it to please their evangelical supporters.
That may be the biggest scandal of all about what is going on in our nation’s politics.
linnposts.com 