Gov. 'Dumpling' Strikes Back

Republicans in Raleigh (and a few old-boy Democrats) like to call Gov. Perdue "Dumpling" behind her back (here and in dozens of other places).

Nothing soft and sticky sweet about The Guv lately. She just vetoed that giant piece of GOP time-wasting named House Bill 2, the “Protect Health Care Freedom” act (otherwise known as "Stick a Finger in Obama's Eye Act of 2011").

Saturday afternoon, Perdue called H2 "superfluous" and unconstitutional. "This is an ill-conceived piece of legislation that's not good for the people of North Carolina," the governor said. "Therefore I veto it."

The Guv shows very heartening signs of moving from "Dumpling" to North Carolina's Iron Lady.

From Laura Leslie at WRAL:

In an advisory letter to the governor last week, Attorney General Roy Cooper called the measure unenforceable and unconstitutional. “State legislatures cannot pick and choose which federal laws the state will obey,” Cooper said, “even those laws we don’t like or agree with.”

Cooper also warned Perdue that H2 could cost the state millions in federal Medicaid funding, saying one provision in the bill would ban state Medicaid providers from paying an HCR-required fee for a new anti-fraud program.