| Of course the ring master circus leader Rick Perry and his Texas Taliban will never work on behalf of the great people of this extraordinary state that could potentially produce so many jobs, opportunities and futures, if given the chance by competent and honest leadership. If we had forward looking leaders Texas could boast about stellar 21st century projects like a high speed rail that would connect our far flung cities both efficiently and quickly. The air quality in this state would improve enormously. The project would create thousands of jobs and bring in much needed tax revenues. High speed trains with wireless service exist throughout Western Europe and Japan, to mention just a few places. China intends to build such a rail system too. But we cannot do it in Texas because the state has backward looking leaders who serve as slaves to their corporate masters in oil and gas.
The price for a gallon of gas in Houston, by the way, is $3.47 and going up.
Texas seems to love its addition to oil and gas.
As we know, there is a boatload of unrest and instability in the oil producing country of Libya. But high gas prices at the pump probably have more to do with Wall St. speculators than it does with Libya.
And this is one reason why the Texas GOP is driven by only the cutting part of its campaign promises. Its message is the same as that in Wisconsin. Republican politicians will keep fat cat happy by shifting financial burdens and suffering to ordinary, hard working Texans.
Job creation programs and a strong Texas and U.S. economy seem to have been thrown under the bus while the Republicans try to distract us with so-called wedge issues like abortion. The GOP has therefore focused on right wing fundamentalism, at least where women are concerned as well as indentured servitude status for the very privileged and those who are out of touch with mainstream Texans.
But the Texas GOP has always been about economic suffering and pain for the somehow perceived undeserving and so called others.
Today's Texas Republican Party agenda is Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy on steroids.
The budget cuts proposed by the Texas Taliban, by the way, will actually lose and not create jobs. Especially those in education.
I guess Rick Perry and his right wing tea party Republicans can at least hope that no voter will actually pay attention to the rather inconvenient facts.
The Texas GOP has already imposed more government, additional fees and extremist Christian fundamentalism on a woman's right to choose. It has threatened to cut schools and teachers. And now it wants to throw Granny out of her nursing home.
Medicaid is a state-federal funded program that provides health care assistance for children, pregnant women, disabled and elderly people. Senate and House budget proposals call for a 10 percent reduction in Medicaid spending to help close a budget shortfall, but the loss totals 33 percent when the loss of federal matching funds from the stimulus package is factored in, the association said. The stimulus funding runs out in June and won't be replaced.
Based on a survey to determine how dependent nursing homes are on Medicaid, the association estimates that 80 percent of the state's 1,054 nursing homes would close and more than 60,000 residents would lose care if Medicaid funds dropped by 30 percent. In the Houston-Galveston area, 65 out of 76 facilities would close and more than 7,000 elderly would lose care, the association said.
The Mean and the Mercy Free Texas GOP never fails to deliver.
Nationally, Texas ranks 49th for Medicaid reimbursement rates. The state's average nursing home rate is about $123 a day, and the average cost of care for nursing home providers is about $145 to $150 a day, according to the Texas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, which represents nonprofit nursing homes.
States receive matching federal dollars for Medicaid based on a formula that considers per capita income compared to the national average. For every dollar the state cuts, it loses $1.50 in matching funds.
Texas nursing homes are still trying to recover from a 3 percent funding cut in the current two-year budget. Any new cuts would be "inappropriate and unconscionable," said Malcolm Slatko, CEO of Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services on North Braeswood in Houston.
His facility would see a $1 million loss each year, which would drastically change how it provides services, he said.
The Texas GOP must be very proud of our stellar ranking status as the stingiest and meanest curmudgeons of them all.
Make Room for Granny.
Get that spare bedroom ready, folks.
Don't have one?
Add one on to the house or rent a bigger apartment.
Can't afford to do either?
Make your kids or unemployed relatives and friends double or triple up in one bedroom.
You've already done that?
You and the spouse or partner can always sleep in the living room.
Already doing that?
Oh boy.
Maybe you should write or talk to Rick Perry and your "representatives" in Austin and let us all know the response.
But some of you have already traveled to Austin to meet with Governor Perry.
About 35 Texans in wheelchairs, denouncing proposed state budget cuts, staged a sit-in outside Gov. Rick Perry's Capitol office late Tuesday.
Protesters with the disability rights group Adapt of Texas vowed to stay until they were removed or arrested.
Chief organizers Bob Kafka and David Wittie said the group also would disperse if Perry agreed in writing to its demand that Texas use all its rainy-day money and raise other revenue to avoid cuts to community-based long-term-care services. The Republican governor has urged lawmakers not to use any rainy-day money and opposes tax increases.
The expected outcome.
Some of them wound up getting ticketed, though it's not clear what for. Perry naturally snuck out the back like the coward he is, leaving his spokesperson to complain about how you're not supposed to use "disruptive" tactics to get a meeting with him. Oh, and now they've erected a barricade to keep those pesky wheelchair warriors out. Way to hide, Governor!
It seems that Rick Perry shares the same values with the dictatorial colleague in Wisconsin, Scott Walker.
So, Texas, how will we end the Perry circus? We can do it.
Bullies are cowards at heart. |
