Texas on the Brink

Perry won re-election last year by touting the strength and health of Texas under conservative governance, a familiar strategy he has consistently repeated since taking office in late 2000. Perry again used that theme for his State of the State address to the Texas Legislature in early February. Perry's bottom line assessment of the state of the state is that it's all good. Contrary to Perry's rosy superlatives, it's not all good in Texas, according to the fifth edition of "Texas on the Brink," an annual review by the Legislative Study Group that ranks the state on dozens of factors ranging from health insurance to voter turnout. (PDF)

Texas on the Brink 2011: Blessed with land, rivers, oil, and other abundant natural resources, early Texas welcomed everyone from cattle ranchers to braceros, from cotton farmers to Chinese railroad workers. These pioneers built a great state, and together we fulfilled a destiny.

From humble beginnings, we built a state with the firm belief that every Texan might rise as high and as far as their spirit, hard work, and talent might carry them. With education and determination every Texan might achieve great success – home ownership, reliable healthcare, safe neighborhoods, and financial prosperity.

In Texas today, the American dream is distant. Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured children in the nation. Texas is dead last in the percentage of residents with their high school diploma and near last in SAT scores. Texas has America’s dirtiest air. If we do not change course, for the first time in our history, the Texas generation of tomorrow will be less prosperous than the generation of today.

Without the courage to invest in the minds of our children and steadfast support for great schools, we face a daunting prospect. Those who value tax cuts over children and budget cuts over college have put Texas at risk in her ability to compete and succeed.

Perry's office released a 2011 budget plan (PDF) that largely resembles those put forward by the state House and Senate in recent weeks. Those plans cut $31 billion in spending from the Texas budget, which will result in the firings of tens of thousands of teachers, closure of community colleges, eliminate tuition support for 60,000 college students, closure of correctional facilities and firings of correctional officers and drastic cuts state services for the poor, elderly and young and those with mental health problems.

The Texas Tribune pulls a few facts from the report to give a look at how Texas compares to other states, before the $31 billion in spending cuts called for by Perry and Texas Legislature:

At the bottom:

• Tax expenditures per capita (47th)
• Percent of population 25 and older with a high school diploma (50th)
• Percent of poor people covered by Medicaid (49th)
• Percent of population with employer-based health insurance (48th)
• Per capita spending on mental health (50th)
• Per capita spending on Medicaid (49th)
• Percent of non-elderly women with health insurance (50th)
• Percent of women receiving prenatal care in first trimester (50th)
• Average credit score (49th)
• Workers' compensation coverage (50th)

Near the top:

• Number of executions (1st)
• Public school enrollment (2nd)
• Percent of uninsured children (1st)
• Percent of children living in poverty (4th)
• Percent of population uninsured (1st)
• Percent of population living below poverty (4th)
• Percent of population with food insecurity (2nd)
• Overall birth rate (2nd)
• Amount of carbon dioxide emissions (1st)
• Amount of toxic chemicals released into water (1st)
• Amount of hazardous waste generated (1st)

Republicans Push To Defund Planned Parenthood

A new Republican bill defunding Planned Parenthood would cut millions of dollars in funding for contraceptives, reproductive health counseling and cancer screenings.

The measure would eliminate all $327 million in funding for Title X, a family planning program that began 40 years ago under President Richard Nixon. And while Planned Parenthood receives millions of dollars from the program, Title X funds cannot be used for abortion services.

"Unbelievably, the House Leadership has set its sights on abolishing a program that provides lifesaving and preventive care to millions of women and saves taxpayers money by helping women plan their families," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. "This is an extreme proposal, and the new leaders of the House are pushing it forward at great risk to women and at their own political peril." (Another statement by Richards on Elimination of Title X Family Planning Program)

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The bill's sponsor, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), framed it as an effort to deny government funding for abortions.

"The time has come to deny all federal funding to Planned Parenthood of America," Pence said. "I've authored the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, which would deny Title X funds to Planned Parenthood or any other abortion provider and Congress must act and act now to move this important legislation."

Jodi Jacobson, editor-in-chief of the reproductive health news site RH Reality Check, reports that "Title X provides millions of women across the country with access to basic primary and preventive care, such as lifesaving cancer screenings, contraception, STI testing and treatment, and annual exams."

The pro-abortion-rights group NARAL said the legislation would lead to more unwanted pregnancies by cutting funding for contraceptives.

"The new anti-choice House leadership now wants to take away birth control and cancer screenings from millions of American women and men," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL. "While these politicians attack abortion coverage from every angle, they now want to deny funding for birth control, even though that’s the best way to prevent unintended pregnancy. Americans will not stand for this blatant hypocrisy."

The "Sting" That Wasn't: Right-wing Media Hype Bogus Version Of Planned Parenthood Video Story

Following right-wing group Live Action's first release of a video allegedly "exposing" Planned Parenthood's "cover-up of child sex trafficking," conservative media have rushed to accuse Planned Parenthood of engaging in criminal activity. In fact, at least two weeks before the video of the sting operation in a New Jersey Planned Parenthood was released, Planned Parenthood reported to the FBI a "potential multistate sex trafficking ring" and later fired the employee behaving improperly in the video.

O'Reilly Forgets To Report That Planned Parenthood Contacted Authorities After "Sting"

While promoting Live Action's latest undercover video from a Planned Parenthood office in New York, Bill O'Reilly claimed that Planned Parenthood employees "aren't interested" in reporting "statutory rape." However, O'Reilly never acknowledged that Planned Parenthood contacted the Justice Department after visits from Live Action, and he also falsely claimed that Planned Parenthood profits from performing abortions.

National Wireless Initiative

In a speech outlining his new National Wireless Initiative to expand wireless access and innovation, President Obama compared the effort aimed at connecting 98 percent of Americans to "next-generation, high-speed" wireless to past infrastructure projects such as building railroads and highways that also were aimed at advancing the nation's economy.

"This isn't just about a faster Internet or being able to find a friend on Facebook," Obama said during a speech at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Mich. "It's about connecting every corner of America to the digital age."

His National Wireless Initiative calls for generating funds from the auction of spectrum that would be provided by federal government users and through a proposal that would encourage broadcasters to give up some of their spectrum in exchange for a share of the proceeds from the auction of those airwaves.

In this White House White Board, Austan Goolsbee, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, explains the National Wireless Initiative.

Some of this funding would go to help build a national interoperable broadband network for public safety and to help provide wireless broadband in rural areas. The plan also contemplates that $9.6 billion would be left over for deficit reduction.

"Now, access to high-speed internet by itself won't make a business more successful, or a student smarter, or a citizen more informed. That takes hard work. It takes those late nights. It takes that quintessentially American drive to be the best," Obama said. "But we have always believed that we have a responsibility to guarantee all our people every tool necessary for them to meet their full potential."

President explained how this initiative will benefit rural America in his speech given in Marquette, Michigan:

For our families and our businesses, high-speed wireless service, that’s the next train station; it’s the next off-ramp. It’s how we’ll spark new innovation, new investment, new jobs.

And you know this here in Northern Michigan. That’s why I showed up, in addition to it being pretty and people being nice. For decades now, this university has given a new laptop to every incoming student. Wi-Fi stretched across campus. But if you lived off-campus, like most students and teachers here, you were largely out of luck. Broadband was often too expensive to afford. And if you lived a bit further out of town, you were completely out of luck, because broadband providers, they often won’t build networks where it’s not profitable, just like they wouldn’t build electrical lines where it wasn’t profitable.

So this university tried something new. You partnered with various companies to build a high-speed, next-generation wireless network. And you managed to install it with six people in only four days without raising tuition. Good job. Good job, Mr. President. By the way, if you give me the name of these six people there’s a whole bunch of stuff in Washington I’d like to see done in four days with six people.

So today, this is one of America’s most connected universities, and enrollment is near the highest it’s been in 30 years.

And what’s more -- and this is what makes this special -- you told nearby towns that if they allowed you to retrofit their towers with new equipment to expand your network, then their schools, their first responders, their city governments could use it too. And as a result, police officers can access crime databases in their cars. And firefighters can download blueprints on the way to a burning building. And public works officials can save money by monitoring pumps and equipment remotely.

And you’ve created new online learning opportunities for K-12 students as far as 30 miles away, some of whom some of whom can’t always make it to school in a place that averages 200 inches of snow a year.

Now, some of these students don’t appreciate the end of school [snow] days. I know Malia and Sasha get really excited about school [snow] days. Of course, in Washington things shut down when there’s an inch of snow. But this technology is giving them more opportunity. It’s good for their education, it’s good for our economy. In fact, I just came from a demonstration of online learning in action. We were with Professor Lubig and he had plugged in Negaunee High School and Powell Township School in Big Bay.

So I felt like the guy in Star Trek. I was being beamed around across the Upper Peninsula here. But it was remarkable to see the possibilities for these young people who are able to, let’s say, do a chemistry experiment, and they can compare the results with kids in Boston.

Or if there’s some learning tool or material they don’t have immediately accessible in their school, they can connect here to the university, and they’re able to tap into it.

It’s opening up an entire world to them. And one of the young people who I was talking to, he talked about foreign policy and what we were seeing in places like Egypt. And he said, what’s amazing especially for us is that now we have a window to the entire world, and we can start understanding other cultures and other places in ways that we could never do without this technology.

The initiative to extend high speed internet connectivity to the entire nation will also stimulate job growth and thereby, the economy.

MOMocrats Blog Talk Radio - 02/09/2011

MOMocrats muse on the continuing drama in Egypt, the effect of the Tea Party on the GOP, and the assault on women's health in the Federal and state legislatures. With panelists Cynematic, Jaelithe Judy and Donna Schwartz Mills. The program follows a short commercial message. Listen to internet radio with MOMocrats on Blog Talk Radio

What Republican Economic Policy Has Done

Another excellent by Ted McLaughlin at Jobsanger: This is what the Republican "trickle-down" economic policy has done to income growth in the United States. As you can see, between 1948 and 1979 the bottom 90% of the population got 67% of the growth in income while the top 10% got about 33%. That's a little unbalanced, but not outrageously so, and the result was that the economy worked for everyone -- which is what it's supposed to do.

But then Reagan was elected in 1980 and he started to institute the era of "trickle-down" economic policy -- the idea that if the rich are allowed to make enormous profits they will share that money with everyone else. It was a stupid idea, and nothing trickled down to anyone -- it just went into the bank accounts of the rich and sat there.

By the time Bush was president the full effects of the "trickle-down" economic policies were being felt. And they had a devastating effect on income growth for most Americans. During the Bush years (2000-2007) the top 10% had ALL of the growth in income (and about 3/4 of that income growth went to the top 1%), while the bottom 90% of Americans actually had their income drop.

This is the primary cause of the current serious recession being experienced by most Americans (the financial bungling on Wall Street was just the trigger -- not the cause). So what do Republicans think is the solution to this mess. Well, more of the same. They just forced a massive tax giveaway to the rich which increased the deficit by nearly 50%. Now they say the deficit must be cut, and of course, they want the burden of those cuts to be born by the bottom 90% of the population.

I can't believe anyone can think this is fair. Allowing all income growth to go to the top 10% is simply indefensible. "Trickle-down" economics must be discarded (and never tried again), and the richest 10% of Americans must be asked to shoulder their share of the burden by paying more in taxes. This must be done to fund education and job creation to help the bottom 90%.

Some will scream that this is "income redistribution". Americans have been propagandized into thinking that the redistribution of income is a bad thing (and synonymous with socialism). What they don't realize is that all economies redistribute income, including capitalist or "free enterprise" systems. The "trickle-down" economic policy of the Republicans redistributed income away from the bottom 90% of Americans, and put it all into the hands of the top 10%.

It is time to reverse this trend and institute policies that will insure a more equitable distribution of income for all Americans. Continuing current economic policy will only make the country's economy worse.

Nancy Pelosi: Women's Rights Face Greatest Threat 'In Our Lifetime'

Huffingtonpost: Women's reproductive rights are being seriously threatened by the Republican Party, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who said she is worried that many women are complacent about the possibility that they will lose the right to make their own reproductive choices.

"They're advancing extreme legislation," Pelosi said Thursday during a conference call with reporters. "It's dangerous to women's health, disrespects the judgment of American women -- I don't know if they even gave that a thought -- and it's the most comprehensive and radical assault on women's health in our lifetime. It's that bad."

There are three pieces of legislation that U.S. House Republicans are currently trying to advance to limit abortion access. Arguably the most high-profile of those is H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act, introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.). Current law already bars federal money from being used to directly pay for abortions, but H.R. 3 would also deny tax credits and benefits to employers who offer health insurance to their staff if that coverage includes abortion access.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) has introduced H.R. 217, which would deny federal family-planning funds under Title X to groups that offer abortion access -- a measure that would devastate groups like Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, a bill introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), H.R. 358, would allow hospitals to turn away women who need to terminate a pregnancy in order to save their own lives. Federal law currently requires hospitals receiving Medicaid or Medicare funding to provide emergency care to all individuals, regardless of the patient's ability to pay. If the facility can't provide the necessary care, it must transfer the patient to someone who can. Under Pitts' bill, hospitals would not have to perform abortions or even transfer the pregnant woman.

Pelosi said Pence's bill could come up for a vote in the House as early as next week. While it's likely that Republicans, who are now in the majority, will have enough support to pass the three measures, she said there might be some Tea Party-affiliated members who will realize that abortion access is different than access to family planning and contraception.

Texas: Last month Gov. Rick Perry placed on his list of emergency items for lawmakers to fast-track legislation requiring women seeking an abortion to watch a sonogram image and hear the heartbeat. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, who admits he is adamantly pro-life and would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, filed Senate Bill 16 requiring women to watch and hear the sonogram heartbeat.

Patrick isn’t hiding his hope that if the bill passes, it will prompt some women to change their minds, “My belief is that some women, when they see that sonogram and see that baby and hear that heartbeat, if they choose to do so, may change their minds and say ‘You know what? That’s my baby.’”

Opponents of Patrick's bill, including several doctors, said this morning that the bill is an overreach that would erode the relationship between a patient and a doctor. They said it's a potential waste of resources if the patient has already had a sonogram performed by her primary care physician. The ACLU of Texas in a statement said: “If ever there was an example of government overreach, here it is. If this bill becomes law, government will essentially be in the doctor's office with the women of this state.”

While Republican lawmakers seek to force women to have unwanted children, they turn their backs on those children once they are born. As Republican lawmakers cut $31 billion from the state budget this session they are giving little thought to children in need.

Foster children in Texas could have trouble finding placement in foster care because of budget cuts proposed by Texas lawmakers, the commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services, told Senators Tuesday.

The Senate's current draft budget does not provide funding for caseload growth and would force investigative caseworkers to take on 15 percent more cases, Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein, said. The proposed budget also would cut funding to the Relative and Other Designated Caregiver program and reduce CPS units by 66, which means the department may not be able to offer financial assistance to families adopting children under the proposed Senate bill. Heiligenstein said these subsidies have historically been a good tool for encouraging families to adopt.

Texas State Republican lawmakers also plan to cut education by 10 percent and health and human services by 7.7 percent. Lawmakers will also cut 13 percent from spending on higher education and cut funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program and food stamps.

"We have to make this issue too hot to handle," said Pelosi, adding, "I would like to make the fight in the House and see where some of these Republicans are -- maybe we could win it on Title X. I can't believe that everybody who is anti a woman's right to choose is anti-birth control and contraception and family planning. But we don't know that, and we don't have any idea -- or I don't, anyway -- where the Tea Party people come down in all of this."

The minority leader said educating the public about the proposed legislation is important, "because win or lose in a given day, they'll be back, because this is their cash political cow for certain aspects of their constituency. So I think what we have to assume is they'll pass whatever they want in the House. We have to make it easier for the Senate to reject all of this because we know how masterful Republicans are at misrepresenting."

Both Pelosi and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, stressed that they believe H.R. 3 amounted to a tax increase on women and small businesses, given that a large majority of employer-based plans currently offer some coverage for abortions.

"We've been hearing from many businesses who say, we are struggling right now to provide insurance policies for our employees," DeGette said. "The last thing we need is to have our tax benefits taken away because it's a tax increase and it's going to cost us more."

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) rejected that argument in an interview with The Huffington Post at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday. King said that businesses should just offer health care without abortion, and cost increases won't be an issue.

"They save premiums, and they can deduct them," he said. "So I would say no, that's a specious argument from my view. Maybe they [Democrats] have got some more detailed way to make that argument. Here's something I have discovered around this town: Human beings have an infinite capacity to self-rationalize. That's what the Democrats are doing. If that's the best argument that they have, the next thing they'll do is just start calling names."

King argued that the Pence bill wasn't a distraction from the GOP focus on spending and the economy. "It is an economic and a moral issue, so anytime you can kill two birds with one stone, we ought to do that," he said. "And if we can kill the whole flock with one rock, we ought to do that."

New U.S. Claims For Unemployment Benefits Dropped To 2-1/2 Year Low

Reuters:

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a 2-1/2 year low last week, offering assurance that the labor market was strengthening despite January's poor jobs numbers.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 383,000, the lowest since early July 2008, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 410,000. The prior week's figure was revised up to 419,000, from the previously reported 415,000.

According to Reuters, the rolling four-week average is now at 415,500, a drop of 16,000. Overall, 9.4 million Americans are receiving assistance from unemployment programs.

All told, the economy added roughly 1.3 million private-sector jobs in 2010. For comparison purposes, note that the economy lost nearly 4.7 million private-sector jobs in 2009, and lost 3.8 million in 2008.

With that in mind, here is a chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of Bush's Great Recession through January 2011. The image makes a distinction -- red columns point to monthly job totals under the Bush administration, while blue columns point to job totals under the Obama administration. (Chart from Washington Monthly)

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Rachel Maddow: The Bikini Graph on Job Gains April 2010

A Strategy Of Giving Republicans Enough Rope?

"If the president is willing to do what I and my members would do anyway, we’re not going to say no," McConnell said at a breakfast hosted by Politico's Mike Allen on January 26th.

Mitch McConnell (R-KY) seemed to say If Obama Acts Like A Republican, We Can Negotiate With Him.

Last December President Obama and Republican leaders in Congress compromised on what to do about Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires that had been set to expire this year.

The compromise was to extend Bush's tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires to 2012 - the Presidential election year.

President Obama caught a lot of flack caving to the right, particularly from his progressive base, for the tax deal he cut with Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts in exchange for, among other things, an extension of unemployment benefits. (Under Obama Taxes Reach Lowest Level Since Truman)

On Wednesday President Barack Obama and Republican leaders in the House had a lunch meeting at the White House to find some more common ground compromises. Obama considered the meeting with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and his top two deputies "constructive" and cited general agreement with them on the need to reduce spending and the deficit, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, said the lunch discussion was "fairly robust" and that the meeting demonstrated general agreement on the need to seriously cut spending -- a top priority of House Republicans.

The day following Wednesday's meeting between GOP House leaders and President Obama’s the top news item is that Obama's proposed 2012 budget will cut several billion dollars from the government’s energy assistance fund for poor people, officials briefed on the subject told National Journal. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, would see funding drop by about $2.5 billion from an authorized 2009 total of $5.1 billion.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that a Republican proposal to cut home heating oil counted as an "extreme idea" that would "set the country backwards." Schumer has not yet reacted to Obama's proposed cut. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., declared: “The President’s reported proposal to drastically slash LIHEAP funds by more than half would have a severe impact on many of New Hampshire’s most vulnerable citizens and I strongly oppose it." A spokesman for Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., declared similarly: “If these cuts are real, it would be a very disappointing development for millions of families still struggling through a harsh winter.” In a letter to Obama, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., wrote, "We simply cannot afford to cut LIHEAP funding during one of the most brutal winters in history. Families across Massachusetts, and the country, depend on these monies to heat their homes and survive the season."

Billion of dollars must be cut from the government’s energy assistance fund for poor people in large part because Bush's big 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires were extended to 2012.

But one (perhaps unintended, perhaps intended) consequence of extending Bush's tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires for two more years seems to be emerging as Democrats start to hammer the jobs message.

The December deal seems to have taken away one of the GOP’s main talking points on the jobs and unemployment issue according to a US News Op-Ed, "Obama Tax Deal Left GOP Without Jobs and Unemployment Answers," by Robert Schlesinger:

Congressional Democrats have started lashing House Republicans about their lack of focus on jobs, noting that the new majority’s first few acts have been sops toward the base like healthcare repeals and a raft of abortion-restricting provisions. Wednesday Democrats launched a “When Are the Jobs?” website. [Read Robert Schlesinger: GOP Falling Into the Same Healthcare Trap That Snared Democrats]

But what answer could the GOP have? Tax cuts have become the alpha and omega of GOP economic policy, but they played that card even before they took control of the House when Obama agreed in December to extend Bush's tax cuts.

Having more or less gotten what they wanted with the Bush tax cuts they’re not in an especially strong position to go back to the tax cut well--especially in this fiscal environment. Still it's surprising that with an economy that remains soft they are not even making a pro forma rhetorical attempt at cutting the individual tax rate.

Instead House leadership is faced with a rank-and-file [Tea Party] uprising on the right demanding more spending cuts. While the GOP has tried to decouple tax cuts from the budget deficit, even they can’t with a straight face make a new tax cut pitch in the face of the dreaded "Obama deficits" ... not that the party can credibly claim new status of deficit hawks after their tax deal added hundreds of billions of dollars to the budget deficit.

What they’re left with is a “cut-and-grow” program that even Republicans admit isn’t selling.

Here’s the GOP’s problem: the idea that cutting government spending will necessarily lead to job growth might be a given in conservative ivory towers, but its logic isn’t obvious to most Americans.

And if they want to know how easy it is to sell notions that require more than one bumper sticker to explain, they can ask the Democrats how the healthcare reform debate turned out.

After 30 years of trying, cutting taxes to stimulate the economy and create jobs, has never worked.

But, during the Bush years Republicans cut taxes while at the same time more than doubling the size of the federal government. The Republican "cut and grow" approach to stimulate the economy turned budget surpluses to budget deficits and ballooned the federal debt to $13 trillion. Democrats are just as angry about Bush's $13 trillion federal debt as anyone marching in the Tea Party movement!

TX House Speaker Joe Straus Names Committees

Speaker Joe Straus announced appointments to House Committee positions today. With House Committees staffed the various committees can begin to consider legislation in earnest. Progress of the various House bills that have been filed can be tracked on the House Calendars.

The House Appropriations Committee chaired by Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, will immediately begin to consider a proposed 2011-2012 budget the Legislative Budget Board sent to House members last month. (available to the public online)

The Legislative Budget Board’s budget proposal released to House members last month will cut $31.1 billion from current spending, even before accounting for population growth.

The budget, drafted for the House, will slash education funding by $9.8 billion, while the student population is projected to grow by 80,000 students each year. Several primary and secondary education programs are recommended for elimination, including: pre-k early start grants; Texas reading, math and science initiatives; criminal history background reviews; and science labs.

Higher education is slated to lose $1.7 billion in funding including significant cuts to the Texas Equalization Grants and Texas Grants student aid programs.

Other budget recommendations include reducing prison populations through early release of prisoners, cutting Medicaid reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and nursing home by 10 percent, and eliminating family practice and rural public health physician rotations.

The Elections committee chaired by Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, and the Select Committee on Voter Identification and Voter Fraud chaired by Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, will take up the Voter Government Issued Photo Identification bill. Keying off Gov. Rick Perry's declaration that this legislation is an emergency, the Senate last month voted to bypassed the usual committee process and turned itself into a committee of the whole to pass voter identification legislation (SB14) on a party line vote. The Committees will consider the House's version - HB624.

The idea behind this legislation is that to combat in person voting voter impersonation fraud voters must present Government Issued Photo Identification to election clerks.

Any voter who does not have a photo ID, or who election clerks consider does not look like his or her ID photo will not be allowed to vote a regular ballot. Those voters will only be allowed to cast a provisional ballot. Those voters who do vote a provisional ballot must then present their Government Issued Photo Identification to the County Election office by the sixth day after the election or their provisional ballot will not be counted.

The Redistricting Committee chaired by Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, will take up the task of redrawing various district lines. The decennial census for Texas totaled to 25,145,561 people living in the state in the first half of 2010 for a 20.6% increase over the 2000 population count, courtesy of the burgeoning Texas Hispanic and Black populations.

Based on the 2010 Census count of 25,145,561 people, the ideal population of a Texas congressional district is 698,488, the ideal senate district is 811,147, the ideal state house district is 167,637, and the ideal State Board of Education district is 1,676,371.

Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution calls for a census of the nation's population every 10 years to apportion the U.S. House of Representatives seats among the states. The 2010 apportionment winner is Texas with four additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Texas also gains four more presidential electoral votes and will be eligible for a greater share of federal money for various services and programs.

While the Texas House Redistricting Committee will begin preliminary work this week, serious redistricting efforts can't take place until the Census Bureau releases its detailed census breakdown. The Census Bureau expects to release the detailed county and block level population data needed to redistrict in late February or early March. (Census data release schedule - Texas redistricting information)

Committee Chair Assignments:

Committee	Chair	Party	City
Agriculture &Livestock	Rick Hardcastle	R	Vernon
Appropriations	Jim Pitts	R	Waxahachie
Border &Intergovernmental Affairs	Veronica Gonzales	D	McAllen
Business &Industry	Joe Deshotel	D	Beaumont
Calendars	Todd Hunter	R	Corpus Christi
Corrections	Jerry Madden	R	Richardson
County Affairs	Garnet Coleman	D	Houston
Criminal Jurisprudence	Pete Gallego	D	Alpine
Culture, Recreation &Tourism	Ryan Guillen	D	Rio Grande City
Defense &Veterans' Affairs	Joe Pickett	D	El Paso
Economic &Small Business Development	John Davis	R	Houston
Elections	Larry Taylor	R	Friendswood
Energy Resources	Jim Keffer	R	Eastland
Environmental Regulation	Wayne Smith	R	Baytown
General Investigating &Ethics	Chuck Hopson	R	Jacksonville
Government Efficiency &Reform	William Bill Callegari	R	Katy
Higher Education	Dan Branch	R	Dallas
Homeland Security &Public Safety	Sid Miller	R	Stephenville
House Administration	Charlie Geren	R	Fort Worth
Human Services	Richard Peña Raymond	D	Laredo
Insurance	John Smithee	R	Amarillo
Judiciary &Civil Jurisprudence	Jim Jackson	R	Carrollton
Land &Resource Management	Rene Oliveira	D	Brownsville
Licensing &Administrative Procedures	Mike Hamilton	R	Mauriceville
Local &Consent Calendars	Senfronia Thompson	D	Houston
Natural Resources	Allan Ritter	R	Nederland
Pensions, Investments &Financial Services	Vicki Truitt	R	Keller
Public Education	Rob Eissler	R	The Woodlands
Public Health	Lois Kolkhorst	R	Brenham
Redistricting	Burt Solomons	R	Carrollton
Rules &Resolutions	Ruth Jones McClendon	D	San Antonio
Select Committee on Election Contest	Todd Hunter	R	Corpus Christi
Select Committee on Oversight and HHS Eligibility System	Fred Brown	R	College Station
Select Committee on State Sovereignty	Brandon Creighton	R	Conroe
Select Committee on Voter Identification and Voter Fraud	Dennis Bonnen	R	Angleton
State Affairs	Byron Cook	R	Corsicana
Technology	Aaron Peña	R	Edinburg
Transportation	Larry Phillips	R	Sherman
Urban Affairs	Harold Dutton Jr	D	Houston
Ways &Means	Harvey Hilderbran	R	Kerrville

For Complete Committee Membership Rosters, Click Here.

Gov. Rick Perry's State of the State Speech

Gov. Rick Perry boasted about the strength of the Texas economy and downplayed the $27 billion Texas budget deficit during his State of the State speech Tuesday.

Perry won re-election last year by touting the strength and health of the conservative Texas economy, a familiar strategy he has consistently repeated since taking office in late 2000.

"The mainstream media and big-government interest groups are doing their best to convince us that we're facing a budget Armageddon," Perry said in the speech in the House chamber to representatives and senators. "Texans don't believe it, and they shouldn't.".

But, away from the television cameras and microphones, Perry's office released a budget plan (PDF) that largely resembles those put forward by the state House and Senate in recent weeks.

Those plans cut $31 billion in spending from the Texas budget, which will cause layoffs for tens of thousands of teachers, close of community colleges, eliminate tuition support for 60,000 college students, close correctional facilities and lay off correctional officers and a drastically reduce state services for the poor, elderly and young and those with mental health problems.

In 2010 the state created only 230,800 new jobs to replace the 359,000 jobs lost in 2009. The Texas Workforce Commission reports the unemployment rate in Texas was 8.3 percent in December, up from 8.2 percent in November. Layoffs caused by the $31 billion cut in state spending will continue to deepen Texas' unemployment rate, which is already at 22-year highs. The state layoffs will also cause even more Texas families to lose health insurance coverage and Texas already leads the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance. The state ranks last in the country in percentage of adults with a high school diploma and the cuts to education will lead to ever more students dropping out of school.

The governor also called on state lawmakers to quickly approve a list of "emergency" proposals. These include implementing stricter voter identification requirements, requiring women seeking an abortion to first view a sonogram, targeting cities that provide sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, strengthening the rights of property owners in cases of eminent domain and calling for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Perry's bottom line assessment of the state of the state is that it's all good.


Gov. Rick Perry State of the State Speech