Walker shames Planned Parenthood, but his jobs agency gave millions to fetal tissue research firm

Walker continues streak of hypocrisy in his run for president

When highly edited videos came out of Planned Parenthood organizers allegedly trying to pay for harvested fetal tissue, Gov. Scott Walker did his best to come out against the organization.

He highlighted his moves in Wisconsin to defund the organization, and said that videos like those that recently came out justified those actions.

“We defunded Planned Parenthood, which is particularly important these days in light of what we’ve seen on video,” Walker said during a campaign stop at Joey’s Diner.

Conservatives of all stripes -- and not just Walker -- continue to decry the videos as proof positive that Planned Parenthood is a rotten organization.

But just the opposite has come to light in recent days, as statewide investigations across the country have found absolutely zero evidence of any wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. Even the Department of Health and Human Services has found that the organization is “in compliance with all applicable legal requirements.”

Despite these assurances, Walker and other presidential contenders continue to use the videos as a catalyst to fight against their imaginary Planned Parenthood boogeyman.

That may soon be a problem for Walker. According to the Journal Sentinel, Walker’s flagship jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), gave substantial sums of money to a medical firm, which used the funds to do research on fetal tissue.

The state of Wisconsin has provided $750,000 in loans — and nearly $2 million more in tax credits for investors — to benefit a Madison biotech firm using tissues derived from aborted fetuses, practices that are being closely scrutinized by conservative lawmakers and GOP Gov. Scott Walker.

In a remarkable turn of events, Flu-Gen Inc. (the firm in question) has been a stellar borrower, unlike many other groups that WEDC has loaned to.

Flu-Gen is current in its loan payments to the state, with the $250,000 loan on track to be paid off by the end of the year.

This puts Walker in a very tough situation. His quasi-private jobs agency -- of which he served as chairman of -- lent state taxpayer dollars and gave away huge tax credits to a company that did work on fetal tissue.

Which is probably a good thing. Research on fetal tissue can do amazing things for the health and well-being of future generations of Americans. Indeed, this type of research has been in practice since the 1930s, and has led to many helpful discoveries, including the rubella and polio vaccines, as well as treatment for Parkinson’s disease.

But for Walker this spells political trouble with a capital “T.” He has called for more defunding of Planned Parenthood at the national level due to the controversies with these videos and fetal tissue research. Though the allegations held within them do not stand up to scrutiny, he has continued to call for tough action against the group.

Yet his own jobs agency, which he put into place at the start of his gubernatorial career, has contributed millions of dollars in loans and tax deductions to a research firm that specializes in fetal tissue research.

If Walker doesn’t want to sound hypocritical, he needs to defund and shut down the WEDC at once. But then again, when has Walker ever cared about not sounding hypocritical?