At a time when red states should be unified in making sure the travesty of lockdowns never happens again, Indiana Republicans are entertaining an overfunded public health bill that would fortify the power structure that allowed state bureaucrats to control citizens with error-ridden “science.”
The gargantuan post-Covid plan, which would increase annual public health spending by a whopping $150 million per year, seems like something that might come out of California or Illinois, not a solid Republican state such as Indiana. Yet its biggest proponent is Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, already unpopular within his own party for his overbearing Covid policies.
More money means more influence, and that’s why the public health bill, which centralizes more power at the state level, is so threatening. The pandemic transformed the power structure around public health, giving the stage to self-proclaimed expert bureaucrats who considered their authority more significant than the U.S. Constitution and shut down dissenting voices in the name of “safety.” It would be naive to expect that such new-found power would not seek a foothold with which to expand.
It is no coincidence that similar projects to pump up public health systems are underway in Maryland, Ohio, Washington, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma. This is happening as the World Health Organization is pushing a global pandemic accord and labeling those unwilling to unite with its unilateral approach as narrow nationalists.
Despite dominating the Indiana statehouse with a supermajority, Republicans seem overly hesitant to just say no to a permanent increase in the state budget that could skyrocket public
