Thursday, January 10, 2019

Texas can build that wall for you!

By Faith Chatham - Jan. 10, 2019

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick sucked up to POTUS today. Instead of funding Texas schools, adequately funding teachers’ retirement,  giving tax relief to property owners, repairing crumbling roads and bridges, or easing the Lone Star State’s gridlock problems, Patrick offered to help out President Trump.  Congress refuses to appropriate money for the wall, so Patrick piped up and said: “Texas can do it. We’ll build that wall and you can pay us back!”
Texas has the highest maternal death rate and the highest infant mortality rate in the nation and refused to expand Medicaid because it would “cost too much.” But Abbott has no qualms about spending taxpayer money to place most of our law enforcement personnel on the border despite 1. It is not the state’s responsibility 2. Illegal entry at the border is low 3. There is less crime on the border than any where in the state.  Now the Lt. Governor offers to have Texas finance and build Trump’s pipedream -— er, scheme and mentions that “you’ll have to pay us back.” 

Yep. If Congress refuses to authorize funding for the wall, there is no way they will authorize paying a state which builds it. There are many problems: right of way for one. Many of the ranchers on the border have been on that property for generations. They aren’t going to hand over their land without a bigger than Alamo sized battle. Even the Catholic Church and animal rights and environmental groups are standing against it. 

Patrick is noted for creating wedge issues to fire up his base. Usually he finds those which will not infuriate the deficit hawks. Oh, well. This session will be interesting to watch. I plan to plant myself in the gallery and watch as Senator after Senator from both sides of the aisle brings up his offer to loan money out of the budget to the Federal Government without any assurance that there will ever be authorization for it to be repaid, while he argues against their bills because there isn’t money in the budget to fund them.
If the GOP thinks they had problems in Houston in 2018, take Harvey funds and transfer them to the wall and they’ll find out what electoral problems truly are.

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