Texas Republicans promised to address the $27 billion budget shortfall through budget cuts only, and without the use of the so-called Rainy Day Fund or without raising new revenue. Republican lawmakers have talking about spreading the pain and sharing the burden, but the truth is that the burden of the budget cuts (which were created by the way due to the policies of Texas Republicans over the last decade) is not being shared equally among all Texans. In fact Republicans are placing a significant burden on future Texans. Through deep cuts in education Republicans are placing the burden of their failed economic policies on the backs of future generations.
The Texas Independent reports that the House budget proposal would reduced public education funding by $3.1 billion (9.1%). This would also include a budget cut to the Foundation School Program which would be $9.8 billion below scheduled formula requirements after accounting for student population growth, and cutting other programs by two-thirds, including teacher incentive pay and pre-K grants, in addition to increasing the maximum student-teacher ratio in elementary schools. The Senate budget proposal would provide more funding for public education; $500 million more to the Permanent School Fund (leaving a shortfall of $9.3 billion), plus $400 million to help salvage funding for programs in areas including pre-K, high school completion and college readiness.
There are three ways to become a citizen of the United States. You can be a naturalized American citizen; where a foreign born individual meets several requirements and then is granted citizenship. If you are born outside of the United States but at least one of your parents is a United States citizen then you can become a citizen through Jus Sanguinis (Right of Blood). The most common way to become a United States citizen is through Jus Soli (Right of Birthplace), which was codified by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, there is now a movement to repeal the 14th Amendment, and remove the right of individuals born within the United States borders to automatically become citizens.
During times of economic recession, it is often "the other" that is blamed for the hardships of the many. During the Great Recession "the other" has taken many different forms, but one of the most common is undocumented immigrants. A common refrain is that undocumented immigrants "take American jobs," even though economic studies have shown that undocumented immigrants actually have a positive impact on the native workforce. Not to mention that American corporations have done far more damage to the American worker through outsourcing than undocumented workers ever could have done. The economic situation has lead to an atmosphere of hate, as the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented the rising tide of hate towards Latinos and the increasing activity of nativists lobbies and organizations.
Despite their reverence of the United States Constitution, which often times border on worship, prominent Republican leaders have called for the repeal of the 14th Amendment. Politico reported that Republican Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and David Vitter of Louisiana proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would put new limits on citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The proposal would remove Jus Soli from anyone who is born in the United States whose parents are not citizens, legal permanent resident or active duty military members. In a statement Vitter said that the number of undocumented immigrants entering the country is escalating because of "children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. are granted automatic citizenship," and that "closing this loophole will not prevent them from becoming citizens, but will ensure that they have to go through the same process as anyone else who wants to become an American citizen."
Since the Great Recession began after the financial crisis in 2008, the narrative has been that Texas has weathered the storm better than the rest of the states. However, since Texas budgets biannually, the last budget was passed only a few months after the recession began in 2009. The effects of the recession are now being felt in full affect in the budget that will be passed in 2011. Having a budget crisis in a pro-business, low-regulation, low-spending, no-union, Republican-dominated state goes against the narrative. As Yglesias notes, "keeping taxes low by simply not having taxes be high enough to pay the bills is in the best Texas conservative tradition of George W Bush but it doesn't work for state government during a recession."
Texas has maintained an unemployment rate below the national average throughout the recession. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Texas currently has an unemployment rate of 8.2% compared to the national average of 9.4%. But, Krugman notes that on his blog that when you compare the unemployment rate in Texas and New York they are statistically similar. However, Avent notes that the two states are different because of the dramatic difference in their respective labor markets, and that a large share of the rise in the unemployment rate in Texas is due to migration. Although, Krugman responds that the unemployment comparison is relevant because "in terms of personal hardship, in terms of people looking for jobs but not finding them, Texas has done essentially no better than New York." So far it has just been a policy debate among economic policy wonk bloggers.
Then Krugman writes about "The Texas Omen" in his bi-weekly New York Times column, during which he expands on the subject of Texas and points out that it is the state where conservative economic policy has most completely been put into practice. Then Williamson takes issue with Krugman assessment of Texas, and says in his National Review post that "no, Paul Krugman, Texas is not broke." Williamson continues, "keep your pants on, professor. Texas is not going to have a budget shortfall." So, what's the deal?
The Great Recession has affected everyone's budget. From the federal government to the millions of Americans unemployed, budgets across the nation have been affected by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. State budgets have been also hit hard by the recession. A recently released survey by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers found that states currently face a combined $41 billion in budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2012. According a report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, state tax revenues were 8.4% lower in the 2009 fiscal year than in 2008, and an additional 3.1% lower in 2010, while the need for state-funded services did not decline.
Already during the last fiscal year those states dramatically cut their budgets, raised taxes, and relieved heavily on the $43 billion in federal Recovery Act funds to close those budget gaps. Over the past three fiscal years, states have closed $230 billion in budget gaps, and they done it by making significant budget cuts in education, social services and public safety, the state workforces and reduced aid to local governments. These cuts are having a disproportionate affect on the working and middle class, as services that they depend on are being either cut altogether or dramatically scaled back.
Despite the rhetoric of Texas Governor Rick Perry describing Texas as being relatively unaffected by the Great Recession, the state is facing a significant fiscal crisis. There is a debate about the actual size of the budget shortfall, and the numbers vary from anywhere between $15 billion and $30 billion depending on who is making the estimate. Governor Perry is touting the estimates of State Senator Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) which predict a budget gap of $15 billion or less.
The Legislative Budget Board has adopted a plan to cap the growth in the discretionary spending in the state budget at 8.92% in the budget that will be written in the next legislative session. Cuts of 5% from state agencies produced about $1.2 billion in savings in the 2010-11 budgets, although certain agencies were exempt. It appears that agencies will be expected to cut their budgets by another 2-3%. Reportedly approved cuts from earlier this year, together with the agencies' proposals to reduce spending by 10 percent in the next budget, would produce an estimated $4.2 billion in savings in the 2012-13 budgets.
While Texans are opposed to raising revenues through new taxes and want lawmakers to cut the budget to address the shortfall, a Texas Tribune poll also finds that Texans do not want lawmakers to cut the budgets of popular programs. Texans want to protect public and higher education, health care services for children and elderly, and the prison system from budget cuts. However, in all likelihood at least two out of three of those programs are going to face massive budget cuts. This seems to be consistent with the current American political character: we want to keep popular government programs but we don't want to have to pay for them.
While the most important issue facing the 82nd Texas Legislature is the budget, which is projected to have a shortfall of about $25 billion, but the one issue that may create the largest debate is immigration. During the campaign immigration was an issue that many Republican candidates campaigned on in Texas, and a new wave of conservative Republican legislators will be bringing those campaign issues to the Capitol. Many veteran Republican lawmakers in the Texas Legislature will also have the opportunity to address pieces of legislation that Democrats were able to block during the 81st Texas Legislature.
According to a recent Gallup poll, only 7% of the country believe that immigration or illegal aliens is the "most important problem facing the country," although 11% self-identified Republicans felt that it was the most important problem. The economy and unemployment were the top two most important problems facing the country among those surveyed, and that represented 58% of the responses. However, in Texas voters seem more focused on the border than their paychecks. According to a Texas Tribune poll, the economy was named by only 14% of those surveyed as the most important problem facing Texas. Among those surveyed 21% said that border security was the most important issue, and 19% said that immigration was the most important issue.
To date there has been 487 pieces of legislation pre-filed in the Texas Legislature, and over twenty different bills and resolutions have been pre-filed that are either directly or indirectly associated with immigration policy. Due to the number of pieces of legislation I will be looking at them in two parts, one part a look at the legislation pre-filed in the Texas House of Representatives and another part a look at the legislation pre-filed in the Texas Senate. I will also be looking at the pieces of legislation based on different categories, and high lightening bills within those different categories.
If the Republican Party's message during the midterm elections could be distilled into one word it that it has been campaigning against it would be: spending. The Republicans have been campaigning against spending without identifying any particular spending they would actually like to reduce. Except there is one particular program that they have been campaigning against: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Otherwise known as the stimulus.
In February of 2009 Congress passed the Recovery Act and President Obama signed it, with the intent to prevent the Great Recession from turning into the Great Depression 2.0. While Republicans have criticized the Recovery Act for being ineffective, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report that stated that the stimulus raised the gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7% and 1.8%, and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. Not exactly as ineffective as the Republicans claim. However, over the last year and a half the Republicans have consistently criticized the stimulus as ineffective, and the economy's achingly slow recovery coupled with persistently high unemployment has contributed to the public's overall negative view of the stimulus.
But, while the Republicans openly opposed the Recovery Act in Congress and criticized it in public, many of them worked behind the scenes to secure funds from the stimulus for their own districts. The Center for Public Integrity reported this week about a expansive letter writing campaign, where Congressional Republicans who voted against the stimulus sent letters to federal agencies requesting stimulus funds for projects in their districts. The Texas Observer reports that of the 22 Congressional Republicans from Texas, at least 16 officially requested stimulus funds from federal agencies.
Saying no only goes so far. The Congressional Republicans obstructionism has been purely a political strategy, but it is a shortsighted political strategy with no long term vision. Perhaps that is because that Republicans have no long term vision, and that their campaign agenda amounts to nothing but clichés and platitudes. Over the course of the primary campaign season we have heard Republican candidates use phrases like "pro-growth," and "free enterprise," and "lower taxes," and "less spending," and of course "smaller government." These candidates have spent most of their time informing voters about everything that they're against, but they haven't spent much time explaining to voters what they support. Some may argue that Republicans don't have a coherent narrative for a policy agenda because they do not have one. However, the real reason they don't have a coherent narrative might be because they do have an agenda, and the policy ideas that Republicans are advocating are to simply double down on the failed economic policies that lead to the Great Recession.
This year Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) introduced the Economic Freedom Act of 2010, which among other things would eliminate the tax on the capital gains of individuals and corporations; reduce the maximum corporate income tax rate to 12.5%; allow a permanent and unlimited expensing allowance for depreciable business assets; and reduce payroll tax rates for employers, employees, and self-employed individuals in 2010, permanently repeals the estate taxes. According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress, what this proposed legislation amounts to is a $10 trillion giveaway to corporations and placing a further burden on working and middle class Americans. For all of the Congressional Republicans talk about budget deficits, this legislation would add $7 trillion in deficits over the next ten years. When you consider Republican support for extending the Bush Administration 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, the Republican economic agenda would add $10 trillion to the deficit. How does the legislation proposed to pay for these policies? By repealing TARP and using the remaining stimulus funds. However, that would only pay for about 5% of the cost of the legislation, which disproportionately benefits the wealthy. The average middle-class taxpayer would receive a tax cut of $467, compared to the average taxpayer in the richest 1% receives a tax cut of $157,500.
Then there is the Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010, which was introduced this year by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). While Congressman Jordan's legislation would simply disproportionately benefit the wealthiest of Americans and add trillions of dollars to the budget deficits, Congressman Ryan's legislation would also increase the tax burdens on the work and middle class and make significant cuts to the social safety net. Basically not only does Ryan want to dismantle the policies that kept the Great Recession from turning into the Great Depression, he wants to dismantle the policies that where created because of the Great Depression to protect the most vulnerable of Americans. According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Roadmap would reduce by half the taxes of the richest 1% of Americans and the tax cuts would increase the further up the income ladder you climb. The richest 1/10 of 1% of Americans (whose incomes exceed $2.9 million a year) would receive an average tax cut of $1.7 million a year. How would these massive tax cuts be offset? By taxing working and middle class Americans. A new consumption tax on most goods and services, and this would shift the tax burdens so considerably from the upper class to the middle class that people with incomes over $1 million would face much lower effective tax rates than middle-income families would. When you consider that the Roadmap makes drastic changes to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, discontinue the Children's Health Insurance Program, radically reduce federal spending, the picture becomes clear that Ryan's plan is a roadmap to the Gilded Age.
"The courts won’t end the controversy over Arizona’s anti-immigration law, only leadership will."
Every seat at the Rose Marine Theatre was taken last night. Sitting next to me was a stylishly dressed, middle-aged Anglo woman who has clearly seen success in her life. She said what I’ve been waiting years to hear — “it’s time people who look like me start speaking out.”
That was the impact of 9500 Liberty, a documentary by filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park, that chronicles the experiences of Prince William County, Virginia, when they passed an ordinance identical to SB 1070 — even written by the same right-wing, anti-immigration think tank.
At the invitation of my friend State Representative Lon Burnam, I hosted 9500 Liberty’s Fort Worth premiere on the very day SB 1070 was supposed to take effect before a federal court thankfully said otherwise. The movie drew a crowd that was equal parts Anglo, African American, and Hispanic. This was so much more than a movie premier; this was a community dialogue.
The documentary takes an interesting turn — not just when the city of Manassas suffers economic hardship and foreclosures as people move out of town, but when an unlikely pair of middle class moms start showing up at council meetings and doing their own research, become bloggers, and yes, become political activists. Their actions gave courage to others.
So I started thinking to myself, who in Texas is inspiring others to speak out?
This week the Congress passed a $34 billion dollar extension of benefits to Americans who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks, and these benefits where passed along party lines with the Republicans in the Senate blocking the benefits for weeks. Congressional Republicans argued that the benefits should not be passed unless a corresponding amount of budget cuts could be made, however, another argument that Republicans have offered is that unemployment benefits themselves are a disincentive to find work. At a time when long term unemployment is high than at any time since the Great Depression, and there are five workers applying for every one job these arguments seem ludicrous. The unemployment benefits will help 2 million struggling Americans, and the extension of benefits will last through November.
The idea that unemployment benefits will unacceptably add to the deficit is a relatively weak argument, considering that the fall in consumer demand if unemployment benefits are not extending in the long run will add more to the deficit in lack of tax revenue. Also, it seems a bit disingenuous for Republicans to lecture anyone on deficits or government spending. According to analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, significant causes of our current deficits where due to the 2001 and 2003 Bush Administration tax cuts (which by the way Republicans are still arguing doing not need to be paid for with corresponding cuts in the budget). The other idea that unemployment benefits are a disincentive for people to find employment is another weak argument when you consider that there are not enough jobs for American workers. What these arguments are about is plain and simply politics.
The campaign for TX-17 looks as though it will go a full twelve rounds, but Democratic Congressman Chet Edwards told Politico that he is ready for a fight.
"Every year the [RNC] predicts my demise. I'm lean and mean and have earned the support of Republicans and independents, as well as Democrats."
As Left of College Station reported last week, Edwards is facing a Republican opponent who recently won a divisive and expensive primary and runoff. While the Edwards campaign has been gearing up for reelection, the Flores campaign now has the challenge of transitioning from primary to general election campaign mode. While the district is predominately Republican it takes more for a candidate to win an election here than an R next to their name in the ballot box. Edwards has spent ten terms in Congress, and has faced well funded Republican opponents before. Like these previous campaigns the Flores campaign is attempting to paint Edwards as a liberal, and to connect him to President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"Texans across the 12 counties of this district are chomping at the bit to vote out Chet Edwards and fire Nancy Pelosi, as evidence by more people voting in the March 2010 GOP primary than did for the GOP nominee in November 2006."
