Governor Rick Perry Lays a $30 Billion Rotten Egg on Texas

by: Libby Shaw

Wed Feb 02, 2011 at 11:18 AM CST

Rick Perry makes no apologies for the misery he will inflict. In fact the Governor refuses to acknowledge his $30 rotten egg.  

What about the budget? The truth is that the Texas state government has relied for years on smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of sound finances in the face of a serious "structural" budget deficit - that is, a deficit that persists even when the economy is doing well. When the recession struck, hitting revenue in Texas just as it did everywhere else, that illusion was bound to collapse.

The only thing that let Gov. Rick Perry get away, temporarily, with claims of a surplus was the fact that Texas enacts budgets only once every two years, and the last budget was put in place before the depth of the economic downturn was clear. Now the next budget must be passed - and Texas may have a $25 billion hole to fill. Now what?

Given the complete dominance of conservative ideology in Texas politics, tax increases are out of the question. So it has to be spending cuts.

Yet Mr. Perry wasn't lying about those "tough conservative decisions": Texas has indeed taken a hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens. Among the states, Texas ranks near the bottom in education spending per pupil, while leading the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance. It's hard to imagine what will happen if the state tries to eliminate its huge deficit purely through further cuts.

I don't know how the mess in Texas will end up being resolved. But the signs don't look good, either for the state or for the nation.

How will the mess in Texas end up?  Quite brutally, unfortunately.   This is the outcome of economic policies that are business friendly to a fault and one in which average everyday people have few safety nets to fall back on when times are tough.  

I guess we should expect the misery we vote or fail to vote for.
 

Governor Rick Perry Urges Republican Voters to Abandon Public Schools

by: Libby Shaw

Thu Jan 27, 2011 at 08:48 PM CST

While reluctantly admitting that Texas faces fiscal challenges the Governor refused to acknowledge a $30 billion deficit. It seems that Texas does not do shortfalls much less deficits. But Mr. Perry did concede that the budget was such that school funding would be deeply cut.  The Governor assured those present that the solution to the school budget crunch is the creation of more affordable private Christian elementary and secondary schools.

Now I know most of you present here have already enrolled your children in some of our state's finest private schools. But I want to make private schools more accessible to Republican Christian families that cannot afford to pay high tuition and for those who cannot home school their children. In a city like Houston private school tuition can cost between $10,000 to $25,000 per year per child.

In a Q&A following the Governor's talk a member of the press corps asked how much funding would be cut from school budgets.  Mr. Perry's response:

Vietnam War Dodger Senator Cornyn Demands Decorated Veteran Noriega's Military Records?

by: Libby Shaw

Sun Feb 17, 2008 at 04:23 PM CST

Now why would our distinguished junior Senator from the great state of Texas want to examine the military records of the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Lt. Col. Rick Noriega?

For what purpose?

I think we all can guess at the reason.   Let's put it this way. Cornyn dodged the Vietnam War when he could have served in the military, but he instead actively sought a way out.  Lt. Col. Noriega, on the other hand, enlisted in the National Guard in the 1980's in response to the Iranian hostage crisis.  He later served in Afghanistan as a result of 9/11 and the war on terror.  

But this is an election year and it obviously has dawned on Cornyn that he had chosen to shirk his walk while Lt. Col. Noriega has walked his.  And so now we have a threatened and scared Republican Senator who will fabricate smear for the sole purpose of saving his own scared and sorry derriere.  

I don't think any of us will ever forget the relentless and unconscionable swift boating of John Kerry in 2004, who unlike Bush, did serve in Vietnam.   And Bush supporters smeared Kerry mercilessly for it. Yes, folks, this is the sick, twisted and toxic manner in which Republicans and their supporters thrive. The pathetic cowards will smear and demonize decorated war heroes. GOP smear mongers have no honor. They don't even know its meaning.  

Like W., Texas U.S. Senator Cornyn did not serve in the Vietnam War.  Both men were of military age at the time and as we know, both are right wing war hawks today. And yet neither was willing to fight in a war themselves when they had every opportunity to do so. While W. his behind his Daddy's clout and buddies to dodge Vietnam, Cornyn bailed out by using a loophole in the law.  

Clueless about the hard and real consequences of warfare, an inept Mr. Bush distracted us from the real war on terror by fabricating an unnecessary debacle called Iraq.  His equally oblivious and war dodging soul mate, Mr. Cornyn has blindly and routinely supported W. in his irresponsible quest that has undermined our military as well as our national security.  70% of Americans believe Iraq is a mistake and not worth the price.  So much for putting chicken hawks in high positions of power that involve decision making about warfare, our military or our national security.  Not to mention the inconvenient truth about our now busted and seriously overdrawn national piggy bank.  

It is apparently so easy for swaggering war dodging chickens to send others off into the killing and maiming fields and squander our national treasure while the chickens roost safely at home completely insulated by bastions of personal financial protection and fortresses of political power.    

A couple of months ago progressive bloggers, Vince Leibowitz, Hal Heitman, and I put our keyboards together to do a little research on Cornyn's military history, or rather, the lack thereof.  We knew given Cornyn's age that it is likely he had to have participated in the mandatory Vietnam War draft lotteries of the 1970's  During the time in which so many men Cornyn's age were drafted into military service we wanted to know why the Senator was neither drafted nor did he enlist.  

Vince had discovered an article written in the San Antonio Express News on October 20, 2002 (Section A, page 12) that revealed Cornyn avoided the Vietnam War draft by obtaining a student deferment in 1970.

In 1970, Cornyn requested and received a student deferment from the draft, which was abolished shortly before he graduated in 1973.  

"There was a lot of soul-searching going on and a lot of questions about our nation's role in the world," he said. "Ultimately, I turned out to be pretty much a chip off the old block."