Want a one-word rebuttal to the Teabaggers, GOP, Chamber of Commerce, and all the other snake-oil salesmen preaching the Austerity Gospel (TM) ?
"Texas" is your word.
More and more attention lately is being paid to the fiscal irresponsibility whose name is Rick Perry/Texas G.O.P.
Most recent diary on topic is here. [rec list]
In the local L.A. Times, Michael Hiltzik takes a look at how bad Texas has been screwed by Teabagger/G.O.P. fiscal policies.
http://www.latimes.com/...
(flip)
I recommend reading the whole article of course, but will post some excerpts here.
Billions of dollars in government red ink. Classroom spending near the bottom of national rankings and heading down. Desperate appeals to Uncle Sam for emergency funds to stave off cuts to the poor and elderly.
All this points to the obvious question: What's the matter with Texas?
Texas? Yes, the so-called Texas Miracle is in trouble. Unemployment soared and state tax revenue came in sharply below estimates during the recession, and the deficit mushroomed. California's Legislature has won national renown for its dysfunction, but Texas lawmakers know how to squeeze dysfunction until it squeals. The late Molly Ivins reported years ago that when a good-government group ranked the Texas Legislature 38th among the 50 states, the reaction among knowledgeable Texans was, "You mean there are 12 worse than this?"
Was there ever a time when the Texas budget was a model for others? It seems more likely that teabaggers and GOP are in love with the lack of a personal state income tax, thus enabling them to clutch more gold in their grubby little hands. There doesn't seem to be, however, much evidence that Texas is doing that great. Especially when Governor Perry, a wannabe teabagger, is on his knees begging Uncle Sam for more cash. Not to mention the time spent this year debating a Voter ID law, an anti-abortion measure, and a balanced-budget amendment for the U.S. Federal govt. In other words, Texas' legislature fucked up their own budget, but instead of fixing it, they'd rather tell women what to do with their bodies and tell Uncle Sam to balance a budget, when Texas legislators can't even do that for their own state! Good job, teabaggers.
More:
While Texas Gov. Rick Perry sucked up to the "tea party," declaring himself opposed to "government bailouts" and prattling about seceding from the union, he papered over his state's budget gap with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act funds, including increased federal handouts for education and Medicaid. So when you, the California taxpayer, hear talk of the Texas Miracle, you should take pride in having helped pay for it.
No wonder so many people hate Rick Perry, including some GOPublicans.
The supposed superiority of Texas over California in fiscal policy long has been a conservative article of faith. In 2009 the libertarian American Legislative Exchange Council published a report co-authored by the conservative economist Arthur Laffer underscoring the contrast. The report posited that "Texas' superior policies over the past several years are making the Lone Star State more resilient to the current economic downturn."
But Texas was hardly immune to the recession. From 2006 through 2010, the unemployment rate in Texas soared from 4.4% to 8.3%. Yes, that's a better showing than California, which went from 4.9% to 12.5%, but the difference may reflect the huge effect on California's economy of the popping of the housing bubble, which jumped our unemployment rate to a new magnitude and is likely to keep it there for a while.
(snip)
With a Republican legislative majority in Austin adamantly refusing to raise taxes to cover a shortfall estimated at as much as $27 billion over the state's two-year budget cycle, budget drafters are talking about shutting dozens of nursing homes, taking a hatchet to college financial aid and university budgets and paring K-12 spending by $5 billion a year.
This is the model that Teabaggers want to impose on the country at large. We don't have to ask what the result of that would be. Texas is already showing us. And without the government handouts that Texas has been receiving, they'd be in even worse shape.
Spin that, teabaggers......