Texas Democratic legislators on the run:

You've probably read all about the 53 Democratic Texas legislators who bugged out of the state making a quorum impossible. The main reason was the re-redistricting plan which would have created a 10-seat reversal (from 17D - 15R to 20R - 12D) in the United States House of Representatives. While the story is interesting in itself (and what it says about Tom DeLay), we found this tiny item in a Los Angeles Times story about the fiasco:

Texas, though it spends less per capita than almost any other state, is in dire financial trouble, facing a $10-billion budget shortfall over the next two years. Many Texans, however, expect little more from their government than properly operating traffic lights, and raising taxes is tantamount to political suicide for Republicans.

The alternative to raising taxes, though, is a series of dramatic cuts in social services that have shocked even many moderates here.

The Republican leaders say they are trying to be good fiscal wards in difficult economic times. But they have proposed, among other things, reclassifying 56,000 elderly and disabled people so they are no longer "frail" -- making them ineligible for Medicaid.

An estimated 250,000 children from low-income families would be removed from the rolls of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Money set aside to replace antiquated textbooks in public schools has been cut, and teachers' health insurance benefits are expected to drop considerably.

[...]

Democrats also disagree with a host of other Republican legislation that is expected to pass, including one bill that limits damages in medical malpractice cases, restricts class-action lawsuits and shields some corporations from defective product claims.

This sort of thing should be red meat for the Democrats. Reclassifying disabled people so they can't get Medicaid? That ain't compassion.

What's amazing is that the Texas Republican party has been extremely conservative (by national standards), and yet Bush never got associated with them. Perhaps it's because the press wasn't paying attention.

posted by Quiddity at 5/13/2003 02:35:00 PM