Alan Zendell, April 20, 2017

That’s not always the case, but today, Maryland was the first state in the country to assure that Planned Parenthood will not suffer from the loss of federal funds resulting from Trump’s order last week.  http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/327653-maryland-becomes-first-state-to-mitigate-planned-parenthood-funding-cuts?elqTrackId=bcbdd89641a44ad99c37d52839144072&elq=25d7b6635002408f8b7767049a7ed692&elqaid=13380&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=5547

In the same vein, I should say that I haven’t been a big fan of our Republican governor, Larry Hogan, but he did the right thing in signing the bill into law. The cynical among us might point out that if he’d vetoed it, the legislature would have easily overridden him, so he at least gets credit for appearing to do the right thing, whether or not it was his intention.

I suspect that Maryland’s action was exactly what Trump and Paul Ryan hoped would happen. It’s no secret that Republicans have always preferred shifting costs from the federal budget to states that are willing to foot the bill themselves. I’m glad Maryland stepped up, but I fear a return to the unregulated days when access to medical services varied greatly depending on which state you lived in. That’s just wrong.