Promises Branstad didn’t keep

So our governor's words have come back to haunt him, and this time the punches are coming from his right.

In 2010, candidate Terry Branstad said he thought groups that 'promote” abortion, such as Planned Parenthood, shouldn't get state money, even if those dollars aren't spent on abortions. He knew that would sound really good to anti-abortion conservatives.

But as someone who already had served four terms as governor, he should have known he couldn't deliver. As the governor and aides have said in recent days, public funding Planned Parenthood gets is mostly through indirect contracts to provide Medicaid services, governed by federal rules. There's no Planned Parenthood line-item for the governor to strike, and the feds have made it clear states can't deny Medicaid funding for approved services.

That doesn't matter one bit to The Family Leader and its chief, Bob Vander Plaats. The group has mounted a campaign aimed at pushing Branstad to keep his 'promise” and defund Planned Parenthood. Secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials in other states matter-of-factly discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue for medical research have poured gasoline on the fire.

So Branstad's in a tough spot of his own making. Will he play by the rules and weather the storm or take some sort of legally dubious, surprise executive action to placate his critics? We'll see.

But this isn't new. If the governor's word were a stock, it hardly would be a blue chip offering. And if The Family Leader is incensed about an unkept promise, it needs to get in line.

Branstad promised, also in 2010, to create 200,000 jobs in five years, and isn't anywhere close. We're also still waiting for our 25 percent income boost and those world class public schools.

Branstad repeatedly has promised an 'open, honest and transparent” administration. He closed a juvenile home and two mental health facilities without a word to 150 elected lawmakers. Ditto with his decision to privatize the Medicaid program. And as more details emerge, his Board of Regents' University of Iowa presidential search hardly looks anything like open, transparent and honest.

The governor, of course, disagrees, while doubling down.

'I think the process was a very open process and there many people included. But the final decision is that of the Board of Regents,” Branstad said Monday in Cedar Rapids.

Branstad was in town to sign an executive order creating a new office to fight school bullying, among other initiatives. His long drive to make schools safer stands in stark contrast to the disappointments listed above. He's been a strong public advocate, initiated an open dialogue and sought legislative action. No empty rhetoric or blindside edicts. What a concept.

But Branstad isn't alone. Anybody paying any attention to the presidential campaign knows we're in a golden age of unkeepable promises.

Depending on which candidate you're hearing at a given moment, the next president will build a border wall, deport 12 million people, abolish the Supreme Court, erase Obamacare, rip up trade agreements and swiftly defeat all of our enemies. The hottest Democratic hopeful vows to provide single-payer health care and free college to every American. Somewhere, in the fine print, there must be an assumption on both sides that their political opponents and supporters will be raptured to Neptune after the election.

The governor's 2010 overselling spree simply was ahead of the current curve. And hey, he won a sixth term in a landslide.

So who can blame him? Well, maybe Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, who might have to run on his record in 2018 - speaking of haunting.

l Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@thegazette.com