First Turner's claims about CHIP:
Though Turner said he would have preferred the addition of more kids, he
said passage of HB 109 is a huge success that’s directly attributable to
Democratic support for Craddick. “That would not have happened without
being a part of the leadership team,” he said. “I haven’t compromised my
principles.”
Other House Democrats weren’t so sure. They noted that in 2003, Turner
was part of the very House leadership team that cut benefit programs
like CHIP in the first place; though Turner fought many of those cuts,
he ultimately voted for the budget in 2003.
Nothing like raw ambition to kill the buzz when you are presenting yourself as a champion of the needy, is it?
Turner can rightly claim credit for several other successes. He secured
about $200 million for the System Benefit Fund, which helps poor
families pay electricity bills. The fund—which the Legislature raided
for other spending projects in 2003—has become a pet obsession for
Turner over the past four years. Though the fund is still hundreds of
millions short of its level before 2003, Turner said the $200 million is
a major success since the program “didn’t receive a dime” the last two
sessions.
On this item, I don' know if the reporter is right or I am. Let me quote from my earlier posting:
As for assistance on paying electric bills this summer, Burka spoke too soon. He wrote his piece on May 24th. That was then, this is now....
link
keyetv.com - AARP, Lawmakers Push For Help With Utility Bills
"According to Turner, "electricity rates are too high and families in my district cannot afford for their bills to go any higher."
[snip]
More than five million electricity customers are affected by utility deregulation.
Wednesday, several consumer groups and the AARP say they will petition the Public Utility Commission.
They will be asking for emergency protection to prevent utility companies from pulling the plug on any customer who can't afford to pay during the summer. "
http://keyetv.com/to...
Then there is Representative Rose, another charter member of the Iscariot 15:
Rose said his perch on Human Services allowed him to rewrite a major overhaul of the foster care system. The Senate’s version of the bill would have privatized a large
chunk of the state’s care for foster kids. Rose not only removed the
outsourcing from the House version, he negotiated a final compromise
package that contains little privatization.
(Tellingly, though, Rose was one of the Craddick Ds to abandon the
speaker in the session’s final week. He said he withdrew his support
because the House needed “to move toward the center.”)
On this claim, I think the reporter got it about right as far as I can determine, Rose did help a bad situation. Yet, there is this:
link
"With CPS, every year, the Legislature does the same thing," said Scott McCown, a former state district judge and executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an advocacy group for low-income Texans. "They adopt policies that can't be implemented because they don't provide the money."
For example, state policy says that children should meet face to face with caseworkers once a month. But this year, the Legislature set aside only enough money to ensure that 90 percent of children are seen every month. That's an increase from the 65 percent to 70 percent of children caseworkers see monthly now, said Darrell Azar, a spokesman for the state agency that oversees CPS.
Could more have been done with another speaker? We will never know. In fairness the lege is still very much in Republican hands, but damn, would it have been grand to flex our muscle and make any new speaker beholding to our votes on critical issues. Could any of the "more moderate" ( its hard to call them that since there are all Texas Republicans) been worse then Craddick?
There, of course, was the traditional 15 pieces of silver , I mean pork , for those who supported Craddick:
Then there was the pork. The Craddick Ds got plenty. Peña won $3 million
for a drug treatment center in Edinburg. The center “is the reason I
came here,” said Peña, who ran for office in 2002 after his teenage son
died of an overdose. Guillen touted the $150 million he inserted into
the budget for a mobile dental treatment program for poor areas. Peña
and Guillen represent South Texas, long ignored by state budget writers.
Said Peña, “I’ll be an old man, and I’ll still see those places—long
after everyone’s forgotten the words that [other reps] put out there.”
Worth it? A hard call. I can actually emphatize with these expenditures. The reporter forgot one piece of pork though:
link
For example, Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Houston Democrat who supported Craddick, got a $600,000 matching grant for renovations at the Sylvester Turner Park.
Turner defended the renovations at the 27-year-old park, including new restrooms to replace portable toilets.
"It's in a low-income area," Turner said. "Certainly the people in my district, especially people who cannot afford to go to Minute Maid downtown or the Texans' stadium, ought to have an opportunity to go to a neighborhood park."
Yeah, Mr. Turner. That it is named after you I am sure had nothing to do with it.
Adding to the discounting of the Iscariot 15's claims are their overclaiming :
In all, the Craddick Ds estimate they passed roughly 80 percent of their
proposals. Other Democrats such as Coleman contest that math. An
increase in Medicaid rates for providers and hospitals—which the
Craddick Ds listed among their successes—came about when a decades-old
lawsuit was settled. On higher education, numerous Democrats and rural
Republicans worked to kill a bill that limited the Top 10 Percent
university admissions rule. And it was a bipartisan coalition that
increased funding for state parks, not just Craddick Ds.
Additionally, there are their flat failures:
Then there are the items that the Craddick Ds utterly failed to deliver.
They had hoped to repeal the deregulation of university tuition that has
led to such high prices at Texas colleges. That will never happen as
long as Craddick, who maintains close ties to the University of Texas
System Board of Regents, remains speaker.
And the reckoning is upon them:
For Democrats who gave their support to the speaker, a day of reckoning
has yet to come. Three of the Craddick Ds—Kevin Bailey of Houston,
Robert Puente of San Antonio, and Peña—already have likely primary
challengers.
Discuss away.... |
