Burnt Orange Report
News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas
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Burnt Orange ReportNews, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas |
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July 30, 2003Let's Make a Deal?By Andrew DobbsSo Rick Perry has decided that the best way to denounce the Killer D Senators would be to lie to the people of Texas. This article from the Houston Chronicle quotes Perry as saying: Perry... (blamed) Democrats for also walking out on health care issues he hadn't added to a special-session call. "We could have spent that money to boost Medicaid payments for home care services, to help pregnant women receive Medicaid services, to expand health insurance for children of working families, to provide HIV medications for afflicted Texans, to train new doctors, or to address a number of other health and human services needs," Perry said after the Democrats fled. Democrats and Republican Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said they found the governor's newfound interest in health care spending surprising. Strayhorn had been rebuffed when she repeatedly asked Perry to let lawmakers appropriate the money for health care during the first special session. You see, in a special session the legislators can only work on legislation that the Governor says they can. For instance, if/when Perry calls a session to deal with school finance the legislature won't be able to work on water rights legislation- it isn't allowed. This particular call has only one issue on the docket- congressional redistricting. For Slick Dick Perry to accuse Democrats of skipping out on HIV patients and pregnant women is a lie. Not misleading, not deceptive, not any other nice word- a goddamned lie. While we should point that out, it suggests that Gov. Perry might be interested in freeing up $800 million for social services. It also looks like Dewhurst might be interested in a more modest plan as Charles points out. This might all add up to an interesting alternative scenario. Let's say that Dewhurst agrees to put out the modest map and both Perry and Craddick promise to keep it intact in the conference committee. We would lose maybe 4 seats, a strong maybe in that we might be able to keep them as we already have 21 GOP districts and we do fine. Let's say we also got Perry et al to agree to use this extra money to restore cuts made to CHIP and other vital programs. We have them make a public announcement- Rick Perry, Tom Craddick, David Dewhurst and Gonzalo Barrientos standing together saying we'll let the Armbrister Map pass and we'll fund social services. Everybody is a little happy and as soon as Perry signs the new map into law a couple of dozen federal law suits get filed. Chances are any map will be ruled illegal and tossed out. Win, win, win for the Dems. I don't know that I support this idea- if the law suits don't work the Democrats end up a lot worse off and we lose the ability to call them a bunch of cheating weasels- we made a deal with them. But I'm not sure we can keep holding out as the 11 senators will have to come home eventually and when they do the GOP will ram redistricting down our throats. This is a solution we should keep in mind for when the rest of our options run out. Kids get to go to the doctor, AIDS patients get their medicine, the poor and needy in Texas keep the services they've come to count on and we have a map that stinks, but that is stomachable. If we can kill the plan, by all means we should; but if we can't we must be ready to make some sort of deal so that we don't come out completely battered and bruised. Posted by Andrew Dobbs at July 30, 2003 02:30 PM | TrackBackComments
"Dewhurst, who has been praised by some Senate Democrats for his bipartisan approach in presiding over the Senate, was trying to work out a compromise with two of them even as they were about to secretly leave the Capitol for their boycott Monday, Beckwith said. "He had no idea that they had two planes waiting on the tarmac even while he was negotiating with them in good faith," Beckwith said." All he needs to make a quorom is two of them. "Even so, Dewhurst has continued to talk with those two senators, whom he would not identify, since they have arrived in New Mexico, Beckwith said." Just two...and the rest are left holding the bag in Albuquerque. Posted by: Mark Harden at July 30, 2003 08:38 PMWait - Armibrister is still here. We only need ONE to come back, right? Wonder which of the two will cut his pork barrel deal first? There's certainly no need for Perry to surrender as suggested in Andrew D's post. Time is definitely on the side of the Republicans now. Posted by: Mark Harden at July 30, 2003 09:10 PMActually Mark it's not. Unless you can the DOJ to approve whatever map comes out of the conference committee in 90 days. Otherwise the judges will keep the current lines in place. And that's if the Dems come back from NM.- Posted by: pc at July 31, 2003 09:40 AMPost a comment
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