| In Texas we don't have nearly as many social programs as California because Texas Republicans have a real aversion to any kind of state assisted program that would help the people of Texas. God forbid should most Texans have access to affordable health care insurance. Those without it should never get sick, or if they do, they should die early as far as Republican lawmakers are concerned. And heaven help us if the state's poorest children should receive health insurance through the CHIP program. Let folks starve rather than make food stamps readily available to those in need. And let jobless families whose unemployment insurance benefits have expired go homeless.
Our schools are already in bad shape and if Perry gets his way and a two-third majority rule is implemented for any kind of tax increase, they will only get worse. Our roads and bridges, too, will get worse, if that is possible. I don't know about other parts of Texas but in Houston roads have become extended potholes. And the city's freeways are almost as gridlocked as those in southern California.
Schools, social programs and the overall state's infrastructure are falling apart because we have not had a sales tax increase since 1990. As we all know, Texas has no state income tax.
Our state sales tax, by far the state's largest revenue source, hasn't increased since 1990, when Gov. Bill Clements reluctantly agreed to a quarter-cent hike for school funding under pressure from the Texas Supreme Court.
In other major areas, we've had effective cuts.
In 2006, for example, Perry and the Legislature instituted a new tax on businesses with the notion that this would provide enough money to cut local school property taxes by a third.
But Perry was wrong and the experts were right. But of course we know that Republicans don't take too kindly to accurate math and facts.
Experts said the new tax wouldn't provide enough money to make up for the property tax cuts forced on the school districts, but Perry argued that the tax cuts would increase business activity so much that everybody would come out ahead.
The experts were right. The new business tax was several billion dollars short of making up the difference.
The 2007 Legislature covered the gap with a budget surplus based from inflated property values (meaning the state had to pay districts less under the old formula) and on high oil and gas revenues, explained Houston Rep. Scott Hochberg, the Legislature's resident school finance expert.
The 2009 Legislature largely made up the difference with billions of federal stimulus dollars.
Next year the state's "Rainy Day Fund" can expect to take a hit. And after that?
After that? If Republicans hold the majority it means that the people of Texas will have a much lower standard of living. Everything will become worse than it is today. Our children will be hopelessly under-educated and unable to compete in today's global economy. Republican lawmakers won't care b/c they have proved time and time again, that they are not interested in working for their constituents.
While Texas grows closer and closer to third world country status, things over in Europe where there are high taxes and evil doing social programs are going just fine. Folks don't have to die early or go bankrupt b/c they don't have health care insurance, for one thing.
In his article in the New York Times today Learning from Europe Paul Krugman sets the record straight on the quality of life there.
As health care reform nears the finish line, there is much wailing and rending of garments among conservatives. And I'm not just talking about the tea partiers. Even calmer conservatives have been issuing dire warnings that Obamacare will turn America into a European-style social democracy. And everyone knows that Europe has lost all its economic dynamism.
Strange to say, however, what everyone knows isn't true. Europe has its economic troubles; who doesn't? But the story you hear all the time - of a stagnant economy in which high taxes and generous social benefits have undermined incentives, stalling growth and innovation - bears little resemblance to the surprisingly positive facts. The real lesson from Europe is actually the opposite of what conservatives claim: Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works.
Actually, Europe's economic success should be obvious even without statistics. For those Americans who have visited Paris: did it look poor and backward? What about Frankfurt or London? You should always bear in mind that when the question is which to believe - official economic statistics or your own lying eyes - the eyes have it.
In any case, the statistics confirm what the eyes see.
Trust your lying eyes.
Social democracy works but God forbid should any Republican acknowledge this fact. Republican and Conservative ideology, as we've seen since Ronald Reagan, is an obvious and abysmal failure. You and I are living its pain day in and day out. We have been doing so for a long time.
Next time you hear lawmakers and teabaggers scream about taxes and social programs, stick your fingers in your ears and start singing. For all are selling you a boatload of ocean front property in the middle of the Sahara Desert.
|
