One has to love Republicans when they trip over each other to contradict their own principals. Governor Pence of Indiana took a bold stance by making his third executive order not to introduce any new regulations in Indiana in 2014.
Republican Mantra: Regulations are bad. They kill jobs. They are complex (reminds me of Barbie saying "math is hard!") Reducing regulation promotes freedom. Yada yada yada. These themes are all in the governor's order.
I'm pretty sure this is because they would not want a little air pollution or contaminated water to spoil a big corporation's profit party.
Rep Lehman has a different tact. He decided to ring in the New Year with the introduction of HB1205. What does it do? It takes the currently unregulated industry of Lawsuit Lending (aka Legal Funding) and regulates it out of existence by ignoring any semblance of free market principals and creating an enforced price control structure that allows insurance agents taking no risk to earn more off of consumers than legal funding companies that are putting money out at high risk for unknown periods of time.
The catch is that big insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate do not like Legal Funding since it smells like something that might empower consumers in their legal struggles against big insurance companies. And Indiana Rep Lehman is an insurance industry lifer, and insurance agent is his day job.
So I am thinking that Rep Lehman's spin on the Republican mantra that Regulation is Bad is that Regulation is Bad if it impacts the smallest of profits of a Big Insurance company but good if it eliminates any competing interest to Big Insurance, especially if it might help poor people access money.
To see Governor Pence's resolution, go to this link:
http://www.in.gov/...