Capitol Chronicle: Patriotic Gore

The latest wrinkle in the hard right's determination to dismantle what's left of the social contract in Texas is House Bill 2292, filed by none other than the GOP's Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Burleson, Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth. Blandly captioned as "relating to state policy relating to financing of certain health and human services programs," the bill as drafted would "reorganize" what are now 12 health and human service agencies down to four, eliminating at least 1,400 state employees in the process.

The bill follows close on the heels of the Appropriations Committee's recent phantom "additions" to HHS programs of $2.75 billion -- still unfunded additions that yet omit roughly $3 billion more in programs the state's leadership insists the state can just do without. (Setting entirely aside the public health implications of the bill, politicians who never tire of subsidizing private-interest "economic development" appear determined, in the name of thrift, to vacuum somewhere between $10 billion to $15 billion from the state's economy over the biennium -- this is "conservatism"?)

But HB 2292 also contains a provision that, in a sane Legislature, should be a poison pill. It would effectively transfer the legislators' constitutional budgetary function to a rump committee of the Health and Human Services Commission, the Legislative Budget Board, and the governor, with the power to cut funding at will to "achieve necessary cost savings and efficiencies."

When the bill was denounced by Houston Democratic Rep. Garnet Coleman (bumped from his seniority seat on Appropriations by Speaker Tom Craddick's initial changes in the House rules), Wohlgemuth angrily dismissed any implication that the ongoing funding juggle is a "PR move," or that the bill undermines the budget process. Appropriations Chair Talmadge Heflin is nonchalant about this fundamental restructuring of the budget process. "No, we're not giving away authority," Heflin said. "We're working through a transition period. End of story."

Coleman is now demanding that the Republicans simply acknowledge that they are determined to end most state social services -- as their own caucus and lobbyist policy reports frankly and enthusiastically propose -- instead of pretending that they are "saving" health and human services by eliminating them. "They should at least not engage in this subterfuge against the public and their colleagues," said Coleman. "They are not 'adding new dollars' that don't exist, and they are not preserving programs by reorganizing them out of existence. They need to start telling the truth."

Gov. Perry's contribution to the debate last week was to repeat his brave mantra: "No New Taxes." He also made a point of identifying all those who say they'll be hurt by these draconian budget cuts as "special interests." "Special interests," in this context, is what the lawyers call a "term of art." It refers to "the people of Texas."

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A Majority of Three

The House also engaged in a spasm of mob patriotism last week, approving overwhelmingly HCR 75, authored by Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, and co-authored by almost everybody else in the building. The resolution (nominally nonpartisan) celebrates President Bush's war on terrorism, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and his putative support of the principles of the United Nations by going to war in defiance of an overwhelming majority of the members of that organization. (When the resolution was first proposed, some disgusted progressives asked, in all seriousness, whether it was illegal campaign advertising for Bush 2004.) Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, did manage to attach an amendment that defends First Amendment rights and acknowledges the patriotism of "those who exercise their rights under the First Amendment to speak their consciences" [against U.S. policy].

But it was left to Fort Worth's Lon Burnam and El Paso's Paul Moreno to make arguments of principle against the war, while dozens of members lined up at the front mic to out-flag-wave each other. Burnam angrily described the war as "illegal, immoral, and fiscally irresponsible," and offered a doomed substitute -- eventually withdrawn -- that focused at length on the Bush administration's neglect of both veterans' and public needs while pursuing a militaristic adventure in Iraq. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, responded that Burnam's description of the war as "illegal" is only his personal opinion. Burnam answered, "Actually it's the personal opinion of a majority of people in the world. They just don't happen to be in the Texas House of Representatives."

The resolution passed 136 to 3, with Burnam, Moreno, and Austin's Eddie Rodriguez voting no. There were six abstentions, also all Democrats: Austin's Dawnna Dukes; Houston's Harold Dutton, Jessica Farrar, Joe Moreno, and Rick Noriega; and Corpus Christi's Vilma Luna. Three citizens exercising their First Amendment rights by shouting briefly from the gallery and attempting to unfurl an anti-war banner were quickly hauled off to jail (see "Naked City").

Both the resolution as passed and Burnam's failed substitute are available at the Chronicle Web site, austinchronicle.com/news.

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An Education in Values

House Republicans managed to ram through radical tort reform by attaching the legislation to a much more popular medical malpractice bill. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, dished up some sauce for the gander last week by amending the otherwise "emergency" (and largely counterproductive) SB 14 homeowners' insurance reform to outlaw completely the notorious "skin tax": the longtime life-insurance industry practice of charging higher rates to people of color. Although the discriminatory pricing has been banned for some time, Ellis says some companies either refuse to make restitution or continue to charge the premium rate on policies sold before the practice was outlawed. Sens. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, and Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, are carrying SB 14, and they tried to object that Ellis' amendment, while admirable, was outside the bill's "core purpose." But this was an awkward row to hoe, and after some sharp words from Ellis (and exchanged threats of bill-killing points-of-order) the amendment passed unanimously.

Finally, former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett dropped by the Senate Education Committee to promote bills (SB 933 and HB 1554) enabling "virtual schools," whereby state universities would deliver "online content" and the video illusion of public education to home computers, thereby freeing students from the nuisance of social interaction and the schools from actual teaching. (Needless to add, the bills are also home-school voucher legislation in very thin disguise.) Deacon Bennett, now mostly famous for his sanctimonious, easy-reader versions of classic literature, told the committee, "This is not private schooling. This is public schooling. If you put funds into this program, you are putting funds into public education."

If the Lege agrees, it will also be putting funds into Bennett's pocket; he is the chair and frontman of K12, an online "education" company happily expanding into the burgeoning "free market" of hustling public education funds for private profit. No doubt K12's curriculum will feature stern but easily understandable homilies on brazen hypocrisy.