HPI Interview: Mishler Finance Era
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V22, N43 Thursday, July 27, 2017 HPI Interview: Mishler finance era set Kenley announced his re- Son of a legislator from tirement this month, and Doc’s hometown is just Hershman could be seek- ing the 4th CD once U.S. fourth Republican to hold Rep. Todd Rokita officially joins the Republican U.S. appropriations portfolio Senate race. Mishler is a son in last half century of a legislator, hails from Bremen and was first By BRIAN A. HOWEY elected in 2004. Once on INDIANAPOLIS – State Sen. the fiscal track, he estab- Ryan Mishler becomes just the fourth Re- lished working relation- publican in a half century to take the reins ships with Kenley, Hersh- of the Appropria- man and House Ways tions Committee, and Means Chairman Tim Senate President Brown. Since 1970, only David Long hav- Republicans Larry Borst, ing appointed Robert Meeks and Kenley him to replace have chaired the appro- out-going Appro- priations portfolio in the priations Chairman Luke Kenley. Senate. Long’s sine die speech in April Mishler notes was a precursor to the coming change of that while Kenley and the guard when he suggested Kenley and Tax & Fiscal Policy Chairman Brandt Her- shman may have forged their last budget. Continued on page 3 A procedural Pence win By BRIAN A. HOWEY INDIANAPOLIS – Give Vice President Mike Pence credit for his tenacious pursuit of an Obamacare repeal and replace. When he intoned on Tuesday afternoon, “There are 50 yeas and 50 nays. The Senate being equally divided and the Vice president “We’re in! See you at the picnic votes in the affirmative,” Pence breathed new life in the health on Aug. 12.” reforms that many believed - U.S. Rep. Luke Messer, in a were dead last week. Just hours after the talks Facebook posting Wednesday collapsed, Pence was back on Capitol Hill seeking support for a unveiling his U.S. Senate procedural motion. Some of us campaign logo and website. saw it as the classic definition of insanity (i.e. trying the same He seeks to challenge U.S. thing over and over seeking to Sen. Joe Donnelly in 2018. get a different result). Page 2 But now we’re hearing talk that process. I will continue to work of a “skinney” Obamacare repeal and with my colleagues, on both sides of replace and Majority Leader Mitch Mc- the aisle, to come up with a solution Connell has vowed to accept amend- that provides long-term stability to our ments from all 100 senators, including healthcare system and gives each and the evil Democrats. every Hoosier the opportunity to ac- Pence’s victory on the pro- cess quality and affordable insurance.” cedural vote could be akin to the pro- The real historic flash oc- verbial dog catching the car, or even curred as McConnell and Johnson the billionaire mogul capturing the talked, when U.S. Sen. John McCain Howey Politics Indiana presidency. Once it’s captured, then returned to vote yea, just 11 days WWHowey Media, LLC 405 what? A dog can’t drive, and President after having brain surgery. Massachusetts Ave., Suite Trump seems to be trying to prove on It was McCain, who sported 300 Indianapolis, IN 46204 a daily basis that a scarlet red scar above he doesn’t know his left eye and seemed www.howeypolitics.com how to govern. tired, who stole the At the very show, but in doing so Brian A. Howey, Publisher moment he was upbraided his colleagues Mark Schoeff Jr., Washington beseeching Repub- and President Trump. Jack E. Howey, Editor lican senators to “Right now we aren’t give him a “win,” producing much for Mary Lou Howey, Editor Trump and Pence the American people,” Mark Curry, photography were undermin- McCain said. “We’ve ing “beleaguered” Attorney General all played some role in it. Certainly I Subscriptions Jeff Session, a Senate alum. And as have. Sometimes I make it harder to we’ve reported before, the Pence/ find common ground. Sometimes I HPI, HPI Daily Wire $599 Trump political wing is openly seek- wanted to win more for the sake of HPI Weekly, $350 ing primary opponents for recalcitrant winning. We need to learn to trust Ray Volpe, Account Manager Sens. Dean Heller and Jeff Flake. The each other again. Stop listening to the 317.602.3620 Senate is a place which places high bombastic loudmouths on the radio, email: [email protected] capital on decorum and honor. There television and the internet. To hell hasn’t been a physical caning on the with them! They don’t want anything Senate floor since Rep. Preston Brooks done for the public good. Our incapac- Contact HPI battered Sen. Charles Sumner on May ity is their livelihood. [email protected] 22, 1856. “We’ve been spinning our While Republicans lost U.S. wheel on too many important issues Howey’s cell: 317.506.0883 Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkow- because we don’t want to work with Washington: 202.256.5822 ski on the procedural vote, Pence and people on the other side of the aisle. Business Office: 317.602.3620 Company were able to lure Heller, Rob We are getting nothing done, my Portman, Mike Lee, Jerry Moran and friends, we are getting nothing done. © 2017, Howey Politics Mary Moore Capito back into the fold. Our health care system is a mess. As the vote headed for a Something has to be done.” Indiana. All rights reserved. tally, the most riveting conversation He lamented how President Photocopying, Internet forward- occurred between McConnell and Wis- Obama and Democrats pushed the ing, faxing or reproducing in consin Sen. Ron Johnson, who finally ACA through in 2010 on a straight any form, whole or part, is a voted yea as Pence looked on from party line vote, and said, “We violation of federal law without the podium. shouldn’t do the same with ours. Why U.S. Sen. Todd Young said, don’t we try the old way of legislating permission from the publisher. “Nearly everyone agrees that doing in the Senate?” nothing is not an option. Insurers He admonished McConnell, have fled the individual market and complaining that such social reen- premiums continue to rise without gineering should include committee any indication the law’s death spiral hearings, testimony from experts and will stop. Ultimately, it is imperative interested parties, describing a pro- that we fundamentally reform our cess that would normally take months, healthcare system and my vote to saying Senate leadership came up proceed to debate allows us to begin “with a proposal behind closed doors Page 3 in consultation with the administration, then the process he was criticizing, so don’t put springing it on skeptical members, trying to him in the ‘firm no’ column.” convince them that it was better than nothing. That column could be reserved I don’t think that’s going to work in the end, for Capito, Johnson, Susan Collins, Lisa and it probably shouldn’t.” Murkowski, Mike Lee, Jerry Moran and And that is exactly what will unfold Portman. today. What will happen in the Trump/ As for Trump and Pence, McCain Pence quest for a victory? “We’re hours blasted the president who once said he didn’t away from a series of votes that will respect POWs. “Whether or not we are of the culminate, we think, with a brand-new bill same party, we are not the president’s subor- to repeal part of the Affordable Care Act,” dinates,” he said. “We are his equal! Nather writes this morning. “Of course, “I voted for the motion to proceed to no one’s seen it. Senate Republicans don’t allow debate to continue,” he said. “I will not know where they’re headed, but they’re vote for this bill as it is today. It’s a shell of a putting the pedal to the metal to get there. bill right now.” Here’s where things stand this morning: But just to show how surreal every- McConnell is still working on the latest ACA thing is in Washington, McCain did vote for the unsuccess- repeal bill, after two other versions have already failed. ful repeal and replace later that evening. As David Nather Like its predecessor, this one — “skinny repeal’ — is also of Axios observed, “McCain was hard to read yesterday. On being written in secret with little to no outside input. This the one hand, he excoriated the Senate’s process, calling could all be over — somehow or another — in about 24 instead for a return to bipartisanship and regular order — hours. Not because Republicans agree on any one policy, and in that part of his speech, he didn’t sound like a guy or even on the broadest set of principles about what’s too inclined to support a bill in the end. But he gave that good or bad in the health care system, but because they’ll speech just a few minutes after voting to go ahead with run out of time."v I’ve known Doc Bowen from a young age. When I decided Mishler Interview, from page 1 to run, that was one of the first places I went. He had Brown were retired from their private careers, he is a these index cards and he told about things to do as a can- single dad and president of Mishler Funeral Homes and didate. His No. 1 rule was, “Never use your own money.” Bremen Monument Company. I sat there and I jotted When Gov. Otis “Doc” Bowen down notes as he went over died, Mishler announced the all these things.