On August 18, while at a press conference on health care flanked by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) was asked about the health care town hall meetings across the country. Perry responded, “Here's the real issue: Americans are scared. I think for the first time in most of our citizens' lives, they're really scared about the future. And you know what? They ought to be scared.”
While many Americans oppose the health care overhaul proposed by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats, the greatest fear that most Americans have is losing control of their own health care decisions from government intervention.
But there’s a glaring problem with Gov. Perry’s recent criticism. On February 2, 2007, he issued an executive order requiring that all Texas schoolgirls receive a questionable vaccine, Gardasil, to prevent a sexually transmitted disease known as HPV. The effort would have cost $60 million for the state’s 170,000 eligible girls.
Doesn’t that sound like expensive government intervention into a patient’s health care?
"From the governor's perspective, it didn't take a whole lot of convincing," Perry’s Press Secretary Robert Black said at the time.
But it’s much worse than simple hypocrisy.
Gov. Perry knew his effort could not pass both houses of the Texas Legislature so he sidestepped them altogether in issuing an Executive Order. At the time, his spokeswoman, Krista Moody, boasted that the Governor had never rescinded an Executive Order.
Asked about the order, State Senator and Chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville) said, “The public has a right to testify on this issue, and the Legislature has a constitutional duty to be involved in this decision."
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (R-TX) said, “I don't think government should ever presume to know better than the parents.”
Opposition from conservatives and parents’ rights groups was both swift and fierce. Many believed such a requirement interfered with family decisions regarding health care and implicitly condoned premarital sex. Under the order, the vaccine would be required for all girls entering sixth grade in public schools (ages 11-12).
How did Gov. Perry come to decide that this specific vaccine, Gardasil, made by Merck, was so important that he must issue a statewide vaccine under Executive Order?
According to the Associated Press, Merck doubled their lobbying budget in Texas specifically for this effort and funded Perry allies. At the time, Merck employed three lobbyists in Texas, one of which was Mike Toomey, who was Perry’s Chief of Staff from 2002-2004. Additionally, Merck invested in Women in Government, an advocacy group of female legislators. That organization’s State Director was Dianna White Delisi, the mother in law to another former Perry Chief of Staff, Deirdre Delisi.
"Follow the money. It leads to Merck," said Cathie Adams, president of the conservative Texas Eagle Forum.
In fact, it appeared to lead directly to Merck. The Associated Press reported that on October 16, 2006, four months before the executive order was issued, Deirdre Delisi, then Perry’s Chief of Staff, and four members of the Governor’s staff met for an “HPV Vaccine for Children Briefing” on the same day that Merck contributed to the Governor’s reelection campaign. Indeed, other documents obtained by the AP showed that Perry’s office had already been meeting with Merck lobbyists as early as mid-August of that year on the vaccine.
Of course, Black, Perry’s Press Secretary, said that the Oct. 16 meeting and campaign contribution occurring on the same day was a coincidence. At the time, Black said, “There was no discussion of any kind of mandates.” But Perry issued a mandate little more than two months later.
On April 26, 2007 both houses of the Texas Legislature sent a veto-proof bill, requiring two-thirds majorities, to the Governor rescinding his mandate. Gov. Perry had suffered a severe political rebuke.
This month, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study on Gardasil that concluded "the net benefit of the HPV vaccine is uncertain" and that to date more than 12,000 adverse events had been filed with the government by patients, doctors, and Merck.
In England, The Times of London reported that a British mother whose daughter was partially paralyzed after receiving cervical cancer vaccine in the U.K. has been threatened with removal of her child if she continues to link the disease with the vaccination. Surely partial paralysis in a child is an unacceptable risk for this vaccine.
The evidence appears to suggest that Governor Perry interjected the government in private health decisions by rushing through a sweeping mandate for an unproven vaccine because his political allies had contributed to his campaign and lobbied his office.
As the health care debate rolls on, it’s important to not just watch what Gov. Rick Perry’s says, but what he does. Or at least what he tried to do. History has a way of repeating itself.
Matt Mackowiak is an Austin and Washington, D.C.-based GOP political and communications consultant and founder of Potomac Strategy Group, LLC, and was Press Secretary to U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison from 2007-2009.
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