| The Texas GOP has been very busy this week. The most recently elected crop of newbies in Austin has bravely fiddled with earth shattering and crucially important decisions such as touching my junk and toilets in gas stations legislation. These and other edits emanating from Austin that will lose 335,000 jobs, apparently border on the brilliant, at least inside the Texas Republican bubble of far right thought that borders on cruelty.
Speaking of which the Texas Taliban has also imposed more restrictions and medical procedures on a woman's right to choose.
The Texas Taliban also has issues with one's right to vote. It demands that all of us show up at the polls with an official photo ID. In other words a driver's license, state issued ID card or a passport. Next thing we know women will have to show up with our husbands, baptismal certificates, marriage licenses and mortgages/and or deeds to homes in order to vote. And single women will be subject to passing a virginity test, no doubt.
Isn't it funny, too, how the Party that loves to wax lyrical about freedom also loves to take rights away from women and others while profiting from exploiting the others at the same time.
When one resides outside of the far right's bubble one has to wonder about the IQ levels of those who are so willing and determined to squander taxpayer time and money on such non relevant and mean spirited nonsense given the $30 billion budget shortfall that the GOP would rather not talk about.
Thoughtful, compassionate and creative thinking should be required. As should be integrity, courage and fortitude given the grave consequences of such a mind blowing deficit that has stunned most of us.
Sadly, one should not get one's hope up where courage and integrity are concerned. For this new crop of Republican lawmakers are operating on extremist far right ideological steroids.
At the same time that Republican lawmakers continue to bring shame and embarrassment to Texas by providing limitless material for late night comedy and global ridicule, the IQ and integrity challenged party is also cynically focused on a Slasheconomics mission that is poised to butcher school budgets.
The Texas GOP has fired teachers and by doing so it has willfully and knowingly deprived school children of the opportunity for quality education. The Texas GOP does not care that its mean, cruel and heartless decisions to cut school budgets will make it harder for the children of average, working class and economically challenged families to compete in a global job market place.
Minority Democrats are fighting back but oh well, the Republican Party has a super majority in place thanks to low information voters, non voters and Rick Perry who will sell his soul to the devil, time and time again, if need be by pandering to the fringe far right wing extremists in any group, in order to win elections and serve himself. As we know the Governor has already thrown his Republican House Appropriations chair, Jim Pitts under the bus by flip flopping on use of the Rainy Day fund.
So much for the brilliance of Rick Perry's Texas Miracle of small government and low taxes.
Austin - Today Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee unanimously voted against
HB 1, the Republican budget proposal for 2012-2013. HB 1 passed the Committee on a vote
of 18-7 and will be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks.
Democrats on the Committee spoke out against the proposal to cut funding for neighborhood
schools, make college more expensive, and eliminate basic services for children, seniors and
the disabled.
House Democrats have called on state leaders to fix the $10 billion permanent budget hole
created by the Republicans' 2006 tax plan and use a portion of the $9.4 billion Rainy Day Fund
to address the 2012-2013 budget, but the leadership has refused to do so.
Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin) said, "In many cases the cuts in health and human services
are making life and death decisions. Texas children, senior citizens and disabled Texans
deserve better. With inadequate resources, our school children are destined to a second class
education and unable to compete in today's global economy. This budget is unacceptable to
our constituencies who have sent us to ensure a first class education for our children, protect
our citizens, care for those who no longer can care for themselves and provide services to
those who have nowhere else to turn."
Rep. Craig Eiland (D-Galveston) said, "Texas is experiencing a budget shortfall, but cutting
funds to schools, the elderly and disabled is not the only way to address our problem. It is
important that we uphold the commitment to our citizens and not put the most vulnerable of
our population, like children, the disabled and the mentally challenged at risk. I will continue
to work throughout the rest of the session and any special sessions to have a bill with the
appropriate cuts that I can eventually vote for."
Rep. Eric Johnson (D-Dallas) said, "Just like so many Texas families, the state has put
money into savings for times of fiscal crisis. Texas Republicans are today demanding that we
make devastating cuts that will hurt Texas' school-aged, elderly, and disabled residents, cuts
that they would never suggest for their own families. It is unconscionable that such brutal cuts are being proposed while billions of dollars sit unspent in the state's savings account."
Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) said, "Not a single person showed up in our committee
and asked us to eliminate pre-k grants for our youngest schoolchildren and financial aid for
college freshmen, but that's what this budget does. Prior generations of Texans have invested
in educating children in our state, but this generation will drop the torch if this budget passes.
The budget is almost $8 billion short of funding our legal obligations to schools. These cuts will
destroy the infrastructure of education and health care that past generations have built for our children.
The Republican budget fails to uphold our obligation to our children and threatens to
end our state's prosperity. We can do better than this if the Republicans fix the recurring $10
billion hole they put in the budget with the 2006 Perry Tax Swap and eliminate tax loopholes
that litter our tax laws."
By the way, Governor Rick Perry has been busted and fined for cheating on his taxes but he said he did nothing wrong. I guess the devil did the cheating.
Given the most recent legislation coming out of Austin I am convinced that Rick Perry and the Texas GOP is incapable of competent and responsible leadership. Neither Rick Perry nor the GOP will do what is right for the people. And this is mostly because of its pathological aversion to taxes. Rather than increase taxes by one penny or God forbid ask billionaire corporations to shoulder a shred of their fair share of the tax burden, the GOP would rather destroy our society instead. Such societal destruction includes the ability for big oil and gas to write its own hydraulic fracture disclosure bills simply because it owns Texas lawmakers lock, stock and barrel. Of course the property owners in the natural gas fracking region of North Texas suffer the health and financial consequences of such ruthless decisions while corporate execs pile up the profits.
For themselves.
A Legislative Budget Board analysis released Thursday showed the state could lose 271,746 jobs in 2012 and 335,244 in 2013 - a combination of public- and private-sector positions - under the current House budget proposal, which cuts state funding by 12.3 percent for the next biennium.
The numbers seemed to rattle some lawmakers. "I've been trying to say this for over a year. I've been trying to say how our economy was bad, and how our shortfall was going to be affecting Texas, and nobody seemed to believe me. But I think reality is probably setting in on that," Jim Pitts, the Waxahachie Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, told the San Antonio Express-News.
But other Republicans, like Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, faulted the analysis for not including how GOP-opposed measures like raising taxes might affect unemployment numbers. "You cannot expect to grow the economy and create jobs by growing bigger government," Dewhurst said in a statement.
Do you see what I mean? It is all about failed old rationales that got us into this unnecessary and horrible mess in the first place.
Texas, we need a paradigm change.
It is no small wonder why voters across the U.S. are feeling a bit of buyer's remorse with Republican leadership.
Update. It seems that our cousins the Brits also have issues with mean austerity economic measures and incompetent and/or dictatorial leaning leadership
#GOPSlasheconomics#TXPhotoID#TXtaliban |
