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But under a state law taking effect Wednesday, Henry and other eligible women won't be able to get care at Planned Parenthood clinics — which treat about 44% of the program's patients — or other facilities with ties to abortion providers, meaning those women will have to find new health-care providers.

The $40 million program is at the center of a faceoff between conservative Republican lawmakers and the federal government, which provides 90% of the program's funding. Although Texas already forbids taxpayer money from going to organizations that provide abortions, the law will cut off clinics with any affiliation to a provider, even if it's just a shared name, employee or board member.

Well, here's a problem. Medicaid funding has some conditions tied to it, and Medicaid funding provides about 90 percent of the baseline funding for the Texas Women's Health Program.

Via Huffington Post:

Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO), wrote Texas health officials a letter on Thursday explaining that the state broke federal Medicaid rules by discriminating against qualified family planning providers and thus would be losing the entire program, which provides cancer screenings, contraceptives and basic health care to 130,000 low-income women each year.

"We very much regret the state's decision to implement this rule, which will prevent women enrolled in the program from receiving services from the trusted health care providers they have chosen and relied upon for their care," she wrote. "In light of Texas' actions, CMS is not in a position to extend or renew the current [Medicaid contract]."

The federal government pays for nearly 90 percent of Texas' $40 billion Women's Health Program, and nearly half of the program's providers in Texas are Planned Parenthood clinics. But the new law that went into effect earlier this month disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions.

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Washington DC - I arrived at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, around 9:30 a.m. People snaked around turnstiles waiting to get their badges certifying they had paid the $195 adult entrance fee.

Upstairs, the student line was much longer. They only had to pay $35. It's important to get young blood into the Grand Old Party.

They had paid to see the stars of the conservative movement. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt, Marco Rubio, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, even Sarah Palin has come out of hibernation and is scheduled to speak on Saturday.

There was talk of an Occupy infiltration and the finely dressed attendants were on the lookout. One man, wearing a cowboy hat and wielding a digital camera approached a police officer outside, "have you seen any occupiers?" he asked. "No," the officer responded.

Around noon I was sitting in a chair near the VIP room. Rick Perry was scheduled to speak at 1:20 p.m. in the Marriott ballroom. Three tall white men wearing suits and earbuds were seated across from me. One was standing. They briefly discussed security.

"I asked him if he wanted a walkthrough... and he said, 'I'm drunk, I don't care,'" said the older looking gentleman, who had apparently talked to the person he was securing.

Another one said, "Thanks for taking one for the team Rick."

After Perry gave his speech I attempted to ask him if he preferred bourbon or scotch, but he ignored me.

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At the beginning of the day, I started off at an event called "How to raise money... the easy way" put on by the Leadership Institute, a Republican training organization.

The speaker, Joel Mowbray, told the audience of mostly young men that "You make up a lot of ground with one $10,000 donation."

He said that there's no such thing as altruism and when a big donor cuts a big check the donor is looking for access.

"Asking for money bestows a level of credibility onto the campaign," said Mowbry, "It says I believe in my campaign." He told the audience the only two things a candidate should be doing is asking for money or asking for votes. Noted.

From there, I went to the massive Marriott Ballroom, which has been adorned with giant television screens, a huge stage and thousands of chairs, all filled, for Marco Rubio's speech.

The Florida Senator took the stage to loud applause. He made a speech about American Exceptionalism, how important it is that the U.S. remains the most powerful country in the world, a point Republicans often make.

"What happens if we diminish because we can no longer be the greatest country in the world?" asked Rubio.

"The greatest thing we can do for the world is be America," said Rubio. He added that we have to be an example for other countries, "the shining city on the Hill" he said, quoting Reagan, who took the line "city on a hill" from the Bible and made it shiny.

Reagan symbolism is all over CPAC. Pictures of him hang in the main lobby, stickers of his face are handed out and many speakers tied their speeches back to him.

Male CPAC attendees almost universally wore suits and females wore dresses. There were booths for ALEC, Tea Party.net, Hot Air, the NRA, Citizens United Productions, the Washington Examiner and Newt 2012, among others. One booth was selling Santorum sweaters. Surprisingly, I didn't see any Ron Paul supporters, despite the fact that his fans rushed the event last year to give him a strong victory in the 2011 CPAC straw poll.

I saw a number of people sporting Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum stickers, but I didn't see one person outwardly supporting Mitt Romney. In fact, during one speech in the Marriott Ballroom a speaker mentioned Mitt Romney and a female in the audience yelled out, "Mexican!"

In another room, much smaller than the Marriott Ballroom, I attended a panel discussion on labor unions. At this one, four men discussed the repeal of SB5 in Ohio, Scott Walker's actions in Wisconsin and heaped praise on Chris Christie. I arrived a little late, but I caught the gist of the conversation.

"I don't think revolution is too big of a word to use to describe what Chris Christie is doing," said Kevin Mooney, a reporter for the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, 'the leading voice for free markets in Louisiana.'

F. Vincent Vernuccio, a speaker from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that after the repeal of SB5, an-anti collective bargaining bill, Ohio would have to build a Berlin-style wall to keep people in. He said they'd flock to Indiana and Wisconsin, two states that have fought unions.

He said the failure in Ohio was the messaging, "We have to get our messaging together, we have to get our funding together and we have to break up the bills."

I walked out and went up the escalator to get a late afternoon lunch. As I rode the escalator up, Hot Air was interviewing Michelle Bachmann. She was in an all white dress.

As I was leaving I caught this guy talking about the tea party:

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As the outcry grows over Mitt Romney's shockingly low 15 percent tax rate, his bitter rival Newt Gingrich rushed to his defense. "My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes," Gingrich declared," It's to let everybody pay Mitt Romney's rate." Of course, as with his marriage vows, Newt isn't telling the truth. As it turns out, Gingrich has proposed a new capital gains tax rate - zero - that would almost eliminate Mitt Romney's already meager payment to Uncle Sam.

In South Carolina yesterday, Gingrich for once passed on an opportunity to take Mitt Romney to task. As ABC reported:

"We can confirm that I paid a 31 percent rate, and although let me be clear, the 21st century Contract With America has an optional 15 percent for every American," Gingrich said at a press availability in South Carolina. "My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes. It's to let everybody pay Mitt Romney's rate. And so I'm not going to criticize Mitt Romney. I'm going to say, shouldn't we all have the option of a flat tax at the same rate he was paying."

But that's not what Newt has actually proposed. His optional 15 percent flat tax rate is for ordinary income, not capital gains. And it is the capital gains rate which, thanks to the "carried interest" exemption for private equity managers, accounts for the minimal tax bill Mitt Romney pays on the millions he continues to earn each year from his former employer, Bain Capital.

In a nutshell, President Gingrich wants Governor Romney to pay 15 (and not 35) percent on his regular income and nothing on the millions in investment income that makes up most of his cash flow.

Here's how Gingrich's scheme for a budget-busting payout works for denizens of the gilded class like Mitt Romney. Like his former rival turned supporter Rick Perry, taxpayers could choose to pay an optional flat tax rate (15 percent in Newt's case, 20 percent in Perry's proposal). The corporate tax rate would be slashed from 35 percent to 12.5 percent. Like, Perry, Gingrich would eliminate the capital gains tax altogether. (As the Washington Post recently explained the impact of the already historically low 15% capital gains tax rate, "Over the past 20 years, more than 80 percent of the capital gains income realized in the United States has gone to 5 percent of the people; about half of all the capital gains have gone to the wealthiest 0.1 percent.")

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Well, I called it.

I kept telling people that the Secessionist would flame out on the national stage unless his handlers ran the Palin playbook and kept him away from the media and the debates. Oh well. As the Secessionist would say, "Oops."

Here are some highlights of the worst presidential campaign ever.

8/13/2011: The Secessionist announces his candidacy at Erick Erickson's RedState Book Burning Gathering. In his speech, he complains about the "injustice" that too many Americans don't pay income taxes.

8/16/2011: The Secessionist calls the Bush-appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve a traitor and suggests he'd be lynched if he visited the Lone Star State.

8/28/11: The Secessionist, repeating the charge he made in his book, calls one of the most successful and popular federal programs a criminal conspiracy and "a monstrous lie." Who needs to win Florida, anyway?

9/7/11: In his first debate, the new front-runner whines that he feels "like a pinata" and says global warming is a hoax because of Galileo or something.

9/13/11: The Secessionist gets attacked in his second debate for forcing "little girls" to be injected with an STD vaccine (socialized medicine!) -- and makes it worse by telling Michele Bachmann that he can't be bought off for a lousy $5,000. $10,000 is another story.

9/22/11: The Secessionist tells his fellow Republicans they "don't have a heart" if they disagree with his decision to give children of undocumented workers in-state tuition. He also completely blows a pre-scripted attack on Willard. This effectively ends his campaign.

10/5/11: The Secessionist announces he's raised $17 million in the third quarter, demonstrating how many incredibly stupid Republicans there are.

10/18/11: In yet another debate, the Secessionist weirdly brings up his Achilles heel -- immigration -- and tries to attack Willard for hiring "illegals." Of course, everyone knows he and his corporate masters have had their share of "illegals" working for them for decades.

11/9/11: The Secessionist, who had been struggling in the debates, has arguably the worst moment in any presidential debate, ever.

12/8/11: The Secessionist runs viciously anti-gay ad in Iowa wearing the same jacket Heath Ledger wore in Brokeback Mountain.

12/9/11: The Secessionist rambles about the "eight" Supreme Court justices -- which he also can't name -- and then says how awesome he's going to do in the "New Hampshire caucuses."

12/19/11: The Secessionist calls the deceased leader of North Korea, "Kim John the Second." Really.

1/3/2012: The Secessionist finishes fifth in Iowa.

1/10/12: The Secessionist finishes fifth in New Hampshire, with 0.7 percent of the vote. He seems to suggest he's suspending his campaign, then sends out a bizarre tweet and takes it back.

1/19/12: The Secessionist quits. Everyone points and laughs.

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Since repeal of the Affordable Care Act is Job One on every Republican candidate's to-do list, it's worth looking at their own relationships to the health care industry, particularly the profiteering angle.

The Health Care Renewal blog has a terrific summary to begin with. Here's the short version. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have ties to health care companies who have profited from, or in some cases defrauded, the government.

Mitt Romney

While at Bain Capital, Mitt Romney led the takeover and investment in Damon Corp. The Boston Globe reports via Deseret News:

Perhaps the most legally thorny was Bain Capital's 1989 purchase of Damon Corp., a Needham medical testing firm that later pleaded guilty to defrauding the federal government of $25 million and paid a record $119 million fine.

Romney sat on Damon's board. During Romney's tenure, Damon executives submitted bills to the government for millions of unnecessary blood tests. Romney and other board members were never implicated.

More than a decade later, when Romney was in pursuit of the Massachusetts governorship, his Democratic opponent Shannon O'Brien accused him of lax oversight at Damon and failing to report the fraud.

Romney replied that he had helped uncover the illegal activity at Damon, asking the board's lawyers to investigate. As a result, he said, the board took "corrective action" before selling the company in 1993 to Corning Inc.

But court records suggest that the Damon executives' scheme continued throughout Bain's ownership, and prosecutors credited Corning, not Romney, with cleaning up the situation. Bain, meanwhile, tripled its investment.

Romney personally reaped $473,000.

Shades of Rick Scott, perhaps? While Romney wasn't CEO of Damon Corp. it seems clear that at the very least he overlooked or turned his head to what they were doing with regard to Medicare fraud. It seems clear that there was no plot or directive from Romney to commit fraud, but it's troublesome that a man heading a company where the "creative audit" was part of their approach to taking over these companies didn't identify the pattern of fraud taking place.

If he and his staff couldn't identify it when they sat on the Board of Directors of the company, is there some reason we should believe he would identify and cure fraud and waste within the government's Medicare system?

Rick Santorum

After his resounding defeat for the Senate in 2006, Mr. Santorum joined the board of Universal Health Services, Inc., along with several other large corporations. Bloomberg News has the details on Universal Health Services:

Outside of his employment contracts, Santorum’s greatest financial gain came from $395,414 in director fees and stock options he listed in a recent financial disclosure.

The fees and options came from King of Prussia-based Universal Health Services Inc., a publicly traded health-care management company that was sued in 2010 by the federal government for alleged Medicaid fraud.

From the Justice Department press release.

The United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia have filed a False Claims Act complaint in the Western District of Virginia against Medicaid providers Universal Health Services Inc., Keystone Marion LLC and Keystone Education and Youth Services LLC, the Justice Department announced today . These entities did business as the Keystone Marion Youth Center, a residential facility in Marion, Va., which receives Medicaid funds to provide psychiatric counseling and treatment for boys ages 11-17. The United States’ and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s complaint alleges that the defendants billed Medicaid for inpatient psychiatric care that was not provided, in violation of federal and state Medicaid requirements, and falsified records to cover up their serious violations.

The PsychCrime blog lists numerous complaints against UHS, alleging that their for-profit approach to health care has endangered or cost the lives of people entrusted to their care.

While Rick Santorum can claim he's one degree of separation away from actual wrongdoing, his profit-taking on the backs of poor people shouldn't go ignored. This is part and parcel of the Republican attitude toward health care; that is, it's all an enterprise that exists to make and take profit from people. Well, people, and the United States government. It's all up for grabs.

Remember that the next time one of these sanctimonious jerks starts talking about how desperate they are to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

[h/t GoozNews and US Health Crisis]

Willard's new ad, which he's started running in South Carolina, is a counterpunch on all the Bain attacks he's taken from his rivals -- and it's very likely to be effective.

Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich have been the hardest on Romney over his record at investment firm Bain Capital. Perry calls it "vulture capitalism." Gingrich has urged Romney to hold a press conference solely to discuss his business dealings.

On Thursday, Perry lost a key South Carolina donor to the Romney campaign over his remarks. Ex-Perry supporter Barry Wynn said Perry's attacks were "like fingernails on the chalkboard."

Republican New York Rep. Michael Grimm also released a statement saying the attacks would have a "negative effect on the party."

"When GOP candidates, especially those who identify themselves as conservatives, use phrases like 'vulture capitalism' or adopt leftist rhetoric, they are jeopardizing the strength and unity of the party," he said.

In addition to never criticizing Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh, a Republican must never say mean things about any corporation. They're people after all -- and they have feelings, too.

Of course, Willard's ad also includes this audio and graphic:

OBAMA: FREE MARKETS ON TRIAL

Yeah.

I suppose Obama is putting "free markets on trial" on the same wingnut planet where he's apologized for America, raised taxes, nationalized the energy industry -- and surrendered to the terrorists.

Dear New York Times: feel free to call that a lie.

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Republican primary seasons are usually so boring. They either go after each other on a personal level, or by the time South Carolina rolls around there's a nominee apparent and they close ranks around them.

Not this time. Not by a long shot. It's clear that Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry consider this a personal crusade, which is why the scorched earth strategy has been launched in a big way. The 28-minute video on KingofBain.com is a devastating indictment of capitalists like Mitt Romney who strip assets from businesses and allow them to die, after transferring pension liabilities to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

To say it's got Rudy Guiliani and Rush Limbaugh's knickers in a twist would be an understatement. Rudy was just about out of his body Thursday morning on Fox and Friends, calling Newt a student of Saul Alinsky and equating his actions to "something Barack Obama would do." There's an insult.

Rush, on the other hand, has a real problem. He cannot stand Mitt Romney, doesn't think he's any kind of real conservative, but like all good Republicans, he was ready to suck it up and let Mitt have the nomination. Now we have Newt Gingrich tossing a neutron bomb into the middle of the primary while Sheldon Adelson simultaneously funds and distances himself from it, and well...sit back and watch the fireworks.

Even though all fists were shaken in Newt's general direction, Rick Perry should not go unnoticed. Today one of his major donors, Barry Wynn, withdrew support and gave it to Mitt. Perry's response was entirely self-destructive and personal. Specifically, he said "If they want to cut and run, that's their problem." Now Wynn isn't just your ordinary run of the mill Republican. In addition to being a major donor, he's also Jim DeMint's treasurer. Yes, that Jim DeMint. Mr. UberConservative kingmaker guy. I'm not sure if Perry believes in what he's doing or he's just taking things personally enough to melt down and self-destruct. Whatever the case, it's entertaining.

According to at least one poll, it's working. A new InsiderAdvantage poll shows Newt in a statistical tie with Mitt Romney in South Carolina. Watch out, Mitt.

Republicans have a wide variety of conservative white males vying to be their nominee. No really. Bear with me:

They have former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich summing up the worst of the ‘90s GOP. Not only did he shut down the government during his tenure, he attempted to oust a president for doing what Gingrich was doing at that very moment. The Speaker investigated Bill Clinton for hanky panky with an intern (a paid one – FYI – oh the ‘90s were a golden age) while Gingrich was messing around with a Capitol staffer; soon to be his third and current wife, Callista.

I’ve stopped using the word “hypocrite” for people like Gingrich. It’s a 75-cent word no one cares about. A better term is “fraud.”

Gingrich enjoys going after people for the things he’s guilty of; like when he said we should lock up Congressman Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd. Gingrich described them as “the politicians who profited from the environment and the politicians who put this country in trouble.” This was before it was disclosed Gingrich was paid $1.6 million by Freddie Mac for what any reasonable person would call lobbying. (He maintains it was anything from being a celebrity to being a historian that “earned” such a paycheck.)

He’s now attacking Mitt Romney for “making people unemployed” at the leverage buyout firm Bain Capital, while not mentioning Gingrich was on the advisory board at a competing leverage buyout firm Forstmann Little after his stint as Speaker.

Fraud.

But don’t worry, Republicans also have a sample of the worst of their party from ‘00s: Rick Santorum. Now Santorum believes your uterus doesn’t have a right to privacy. If Santorum has his way, women’s private parts are up for public scrutiny and federal regulation. He’s also bravely stood up for states being able to ban birth control and not wanting to make black/blah people’s lives better by giving them someone else’s money.

But Santorum ranks among the worst of the Bush Era because of a blah spot on the Grand Old Party called: The Terri Schiavo case. In 2005, Schiavo was in a decades-long vegetative state; her husband wanted to abide by her wishes and not keep her alive by artificial means. Her parents disagreed. They went to court. Then Congress got involved. Then the President of the United States at his home in Crawford boarded Air Force One on Easter to fly to Washington to sign legislation to “save Terri.”

Santorum was at the bedside of Terri Schiavo (uninvited) to make a national spectacle of himself. How’d he get there? Walmart corporate jet. Why was this Pennsylvania senator in Florida? Outback Steakhouse fundraiser. So an industry toady uses his corporate favors to publically moralize our most intimate issues? He’s pro-life, with the caveat of being pro-er-big-big-business.

A few months later in that same year, nearly 2,000 Americans died in Hurricane Katrina without a special session from Congress or a visit from Santorum. It’s hard to embrace the sanctity of life while corpses float along the streets of an American city. Santorum lost his seat by 17 points the next fall.

So worst of the ‘90s, worst of the ‘00s and just to add diversity - the cartoon of an absurd GOP future: Rick Perry.

All that really needs to be said about Perry is he was finally able to list all three agencies he’d cut while president and got a nearly standing ovation from an otherwise subdued New Hampshire crowd last Saturday at ABC’s debate. As they say in Texas, Perry is all hat and no…

“Uh … I can’t … sorry … oops.”

Which leads us back to the 1 percent (tipper) representing, Mitt Romney. Because all the other candidates remind us of bygone ethics violations, shameful hysterias, China or Ron Paul, the GOP looks like they’re stuck with Romney. But they do not love him.

His campaign has been like the rehearsal dinner for an arranged marriage: kind of sad, kind of inevitable – fun to watch from another party.

Cross posted at tinadupuy.com

Record turnout is expected for New Hampshire's GOP race. Also, just in...early exit poll data shows that nearly 7 out of 10 GOP voters in New Hampshire are very worried about the economy.

The only real questions tonight are who comes in 2nd, and then who comes in last? Results are coming in quickly this evening...

7:36 pm EST and most New Hampshire polls are now closed. As you can see in the graph, Mitt Romney is in the lead, but Ron Paul is really starting to rack up the votes. Rick Perry is barely a blip, not even hitting 100 votes yet tonight.

Also, according to an exit poll...19% of today's voters didn't decide who to cast their vote for until today.

State: New Hampshire

Type of election: Primary

How it works: Straight-ahead process where voters go to the polls and vote via traditional secret ballot. The primary is a modified open contest meaning that voters registered independent or 'decline to state' can vote in either the Republican or Democratic primaries. The state will award 12 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Official election results: New Hampshire Secretary of State

Republican candidates: Michele Bachmann (she suspended her campaign after the ballot was finalized), Herman Cain (he suspended his campaign after the ballot was finalized), Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

Democratic candidates: Barack Obama

Previous performance: In 2008, Romney finished second in the Republican primary to John McCain, receiving 31 percent of the vote. Paul finished fifth with 8 percent. Obama finished second in the Democratic primary with 36 percent, losing to Hillary Clinton by three percent.

Newspapers: Concord Monitor, Nashuah Telegraph, New Hampshire Union Leader, full list

Television stations: Full list

Other websites: 2012 New Hampshire Primary

Progressive blogs: Bank Slate, Blue Hampshire, Democracy for New Hampshire, Miscellany Blue, New Hampshire Labor News, Susan the Bruce

Progressives on Twitter: Dean Barker, Blue Hampshire, New Hampshire Labor News, William Tucker

Media blogs: NH Journal, James Pindell, Shira Schoenberg, Dean Spiliotes

Latest polling: Most recent from each polling organization: