Republicans Full of Bad Ideas

 A couple of weeks ago I wrote about some of the issues that school vouchers will cause if passed by the Texas legislature. That kind of ill-conceived law isn’t limited to education, nor to Texas. Unfortunately, Republicans in state legislatures around the country have some other bad ideas they’re filing bills on the recently.

In the Texas legislature, Republican State Representative Carrie Isaac, filed House Bill 2390, which would prohibit counties from putting a polling place at a college or university. This would seem to be a response to the 14% rise in registered voters among young people ages 18-24 over the last four years.

According to Common Cause Texas Voting Rights Program Manager Katya Ehresman, “We know young people who vote soon after turning 18 are far more likely than others to become lifelong, habitual voters. Texas Republicans seem determined to keep that from happening, despite the fact that Texas perpetually ranks at or near the bottom among all states when it comes to participating in elections.

Texas has the fastest growing population in the nation, largely led by young voters of color, and some politicians clearly see this as a threat. This bill is an unabashed attempt to manipulate the outcome of elections by suppressing the voices of our increasingly young and diverse electorate.”

Last week two Idaho lawmakers introduced HB 154 which would charge those who administer mRNA vaccines with a misdemeanor. The bill sponsored by Sen. Tammy Nichols and Rep. Judy Boyle says "A person may not provide or administer a vaccine developed using messenger ribonucleic acid technology for use in an individual or any other mammal in this state." Nichols said the bill is specifically about the two COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna.

In Florida, Republicans have instituted book bans in public schools and universities. 176 books have been removed from classrooms in Duval County, Florida, think Jacksonville. They were removed in the last year because of new laws passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. ABC News reports that upwards of 1 million books are now under review in Duval County alone. Among the books under review are titles on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and "Queen of Salsa" Celia Cruz. All these books are under investigation because of The "Stop W.O.K.E." Act, the Parental Rights in Education law, and House Bill 1467. The Stop W.O.K.E. Act makes the odd claim that teachers are teaching white kids that they're inherently evil racists and Black students that they're morally superior to their white counterparts. In reality Republicans just don’t want their grandchildren to learn that their grandparents were screaming death threats at six year old Ruby Bridges when she walked up the steps of the formerly all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans and had to be guarded by Deputy U.S Marshals.

Child labor law violations in the US increased 37% in fiscal year 2022 and the Department of Labor reported the problem has been going on since 2015. In 2022 688 children were found to be working in hazardous conditions. The Republican solution is to push to roll back protections against child labor. In Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio and Minnesota, Republican legislators introduced bills to extend the hours 14 and 15 year-olds would be allowed to work and some bills would expand the types of jobs children would be permitted to do as part of approved training programs, extend allowable work hours, and exempt employers from liability if these young workers are sickened, injured or killed on the job.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 23, 2023

School Vouchers Again!

 Back in 2017, then Speaker of the House, Joe Strauss told conference of school board members from across Texas in San Antonio “Somebody is going to pay for public education, it’s either going to come from the state or it’s going to from local property taxes. If we want real property tax reform we need real reform of school finance.” He explained that the way to improve public education and reduce property taxes is to increase state funding for education but legislation to offer state money for private school tuition is wrongheaded and counterproductive.

Gov. Abbott has claimed that “We can fully fund public schools while also giving parents a choice about which school is right for their child … giving them the choice to send their children to any public school, charter school or private school with state funding following the student.” If that were true then why have Republicans failed to fully fund public education in Texas for decades? The state portion of public education funding has been falling for well over a decade and is now about 45% of the funds needed for every child in public schools to get the limited education available. Texas K-12 public schools continue to suffer from high class sizes and under-paid teachers.

There are more than 342,000 children currently attending private schools in Texas so if the current $6160 per student amount is provided to those students then in order to continue that funding for children attending public schools the state must increase the education budget by $2.1 billion. Where will that money come from? That’s on top of the amount needed to provide the higher level of state funding needed to enable schools boards to reduce the property tax rates they have had to charge in order to adequately fund schools across the state.

In most of the state there are few if any non-sectarian private schools so if you’re not a member of one of the pre-dominant faiths in your area your children either won’t have the option to go to a private school or you’ll have to accept that they’re being indoctrinated in a faith other than your own. The real issue though is that taxpayer funding of religious schools is a direct violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The First Amendments state in part that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The 14th Amendment extends the same constitutional protections to state actions as well. In fact the 14th Amendment is what prevents the states from doing all the things that the federal government is prohibited from doing in the rest of the constitution such as search and seizure of your property without a warrant and the right to a trial by a jury of your peers. The Supreme Court long ago ruled against state funds supplementing teacher salaries at religious schools and that’s exactly what Gov. Abbott is advocating.

What Abbott is really advocating for is essentially subsidizing wealthier people sending their kids to elitist schools while making it tougher on everyone else.

Taxpayer dollars going to private schools is an attack on transparent, accountable governance, as private schools are largely unregulated and not required to hold public meetings, have boards elected by taxpayers, or publicly disclose spending or other records the way public schools must.

Republican voters might still be alright with their taxes going to Lutheran, Baptist, or Catholic schools but what about a fundamentalist Islamic school?

Call Representative John Kuempel’s office at (830) 379-8732 and tell him to vote no on vouchers.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 8, 2023

Republican Hostage Taking Again

The first thing to know about the “Debt Ceiling” is that it’s artificial and redundant since Congress passed a budget previously that authorized spending. Unlike every other developed nation except Denmark the United States has another step added in the process of funding government known as the “Debt Ceiling” which is simply the limit on the amount of money that the Treasury can borrow to fund government expenditures. The important thing to remember is that the expenditure was previously authorized and has already been committed or spent. It’s unfair to the employees of the government agencies and the companies that the agencies contracted with to then decide not to pay them, which is exactly why the debt ceiling is always raised in the end.

Once the federal budget bill is signed by the President government agencies then, have employees work to provide health care to veterans at VA medical centers, arrange for the construction of F-35 fighters, buy new tires for the vehicles driven by border patrol agents, contract for cleaning of government office buildings and so much more, all within the budget approved by Congress. All those people and companies then did the work they were hired to do. Those employees of both government agencies and private businesses and fairly expect to be paid for their efforts. Failure to allow the Treasury to borrow the money necessary to pay the bills already incurred is both ludicrous and disrespectful to all the workers who will be left unpaid.

Stalling and holding the debt ceiling hostage is a tactic repeatedly used by Republicans over the last 20 years attempting to revisit previously agreed to spending or as in the current case attempting to force the Democratic controlled Senate and White House to agree to accept draconian cuts to Medicare and Social Security. In the past they only thing they’ve been successful at doing is wrecking the nation’s credit rating as was the result of the 2011 standoff which led Standard & Poor's to cut the U.S.'s credit rating, a historic first. Should Congress fail to address the limit this time it will likely cause turmoil in global markets and trigger a worldwide economic downturn.

United States government debt holds a special place in the global economy due to near zero risk of default and is therefore considered “risk free”. The “risk free” status allows the Treasury to borrow at a lower rate than anyone else in the world. If the federal government defaults on its debts that special status will be lost and future borrowing will be more expensive.

Republicans want to change fiscal policy so they should do the responsible thing and pass legislation that does so without disrupting both the U.S. and global economies. Unfortunately for them the reduction in Social Security and Medicare benefits they’re pushing for are not popular with the electorate and certainly not acceptable to President Biden and the Democrat controlled Senate.

Congress should abolish the debt limit and replace it with the simple, common- sense rule that automatically authorizes any borrowing necessary to implement any fiscal legislation that affects the federal deficit. This “Gephardt rule” has been in place at various times in the past and should be made permanent.

As Nobel laureate and economist Paul Krugman puts it Biden and the Democrats should not negotiate with economic terrorists. We know we are going to have to raise the debt ceiling anyway, so why not do it without creating damage to the U.S. and world economies?

Published in the Seguin Gazette – January 25, 2023 

Rich People Are the Only Republican Priority

Just three days after Republicans took three days and 15 rounds of votes to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House they spent less than three hours to pass H.R. 23 which would defund the Internal Revenue Service by $7 billion a year. The vote was 221-210, with all Republicans voting for the bill and all Democrats voting against, three members were absent and one is deceased. 8 members of the Texas delegation co-sponsored the bill.

The significance of this is that the Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan agency that provides factual budgetary information so that Congress can make informed decisions, reported that the effect of the bill will be the loss of $18.6 billion in tax revenues so the net loss to the government is $11.6 billion. That’s money millionaire tax cheats will get away with not paying because the bill specifically takes the funds from the budget for auditing high income earners. For well over a decade you and I have been more likely to be audited by the IRS than people taking in a $400,000 or more. Late last year Congress passed legislation to significantly increase funding for staff who would be assigned to audit high income earners.

That’s right, upon taking control of the House Republicans first order of business was to protect wealthy tax cheats. Don’t let the bill’s name fool you, while the Nebraska congressman who filed the bill, Adrian Smith, named it the “Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act” nothing in the bill affects audits of small family businesses.

But that’s not the only pro-rich people action in H.R. 23, it also rescinds recently passed legislation that would require the Internal Revenue Service to allow individual and small business tax payers to file their taxes electronically directly instead of forcing us to use TurboTax or some other third party that gets to charge us $35 or more. Yeah, protecting wealthy tax cheats and big corporations’ opportunity to profit on people paying their taxes is the most immediately important legislation Republican members of Congress could think of.

The new Republican majority isn’t done with the taxes yet though; as part of the deal that was agreed to in order for Kevin McCarthy to get the votes he needed win the Speakership he committed to call a vote on H.R. 25 by Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter. In another episode of mis-naming bills this one is called the “Fair Tax Act of 2023” and would abolish the Internal Revenue Service, eliminate the tax code, replace income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes with a straight 23% national sales tax. Since most of us spend just about everything we earn that means we’d pay more national sales tax than we currently pay in national income taxes because we get deductions for ourselves, our dependents, mortgage interest, and possibly other things. Now I’ll admit that H.R. 25 has a “monthly tax rebate” that’s supposed to go back to taxpayers “based upon criteria related to family size and poverty guidelines,” but since it abolishes the IRS and doesn’t include any provision for an agency to figure out how money each person should get back or be responsible for sending them checks it just leaves working stiffs like you and me carrying all the weight of funding the federal government while the rich get off cheap.

My dad was right 50 years ago when he told me that the Republican Party is the party of the rich. They’re doing everything they can to prove him right.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 18, 2023

Republican Piety Only For Show

Republican politicians love to tout their faith, Christianity, and piety as if Democrats are somehow an evil cabal set on abolishing their religion. I know lots of faithful, devout Democrats, many are Christian but many are of other faiths as well. The differences I find between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to their faiths is that Democrats are more likely to actually behave as their scriptures instruct. A prime example is “Love thy neighbor as thyself” which appears repeatedly in both the Old and New Testaments. While the Old Testament tends toward a narrow definition of neighbor the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament broaden that definition through parables like the Good Samaritan.

If Republicans like Gov. Greg Abbott were really as devout Catholic he claims to be he wouldn’t have bused over 100 asylum seekers to Washington, D.C. to be dropped off on the street outside the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory on Christmas Eve without any warning to officials there. The three busloads of asylum-seeking adults and children left on the street in 18 degree weather, many without coats or other winter gear. It’s just a continuation of Republican political stunts complaining about migrants on the southern border but offering no solutions.

Real people are bitterly suffering for so our governor can score political points in his likely run for president in 2024. He’s already won re-election as governor so it can’t be for that. It’s disappointing that someone who claims to be a practicing Catholic so clearly violates the one of the most fundamental precepts of the faith. The nuns at St. Lawrence the Martyr and the brothers at Archbishop Rummel made it very clear to me during my 12 years of Catholic education that kindness to all those around you even those you don’t know is a foundational principle of the faith. How Greg Abbott doesn’t see the conflict between his faith and his actions is beyond me. It appears that he has allowed his ambition to be president to override the teachings of his faith.

I’m not the first to call Abbott out on his un-Christian behavior. 150 faith leaders of various denominations from around the country, including Republican states like Louisiana, Tennessee, Iowa, Missouri, and West Virginia, sent Gov. Abbott a letter pleading with him to stop his inhumane treatment of asylum-seeking migrants.

The letter is a powerful statement and reads in part “This crisis is not the byproduct of just Democratic or just Republican issues — it is the culmination of decades of decisions, intertwined in a web of blame that seemingly has no end. Many of us have, however, spoken to the migrants who have gotten off your buses. They told us how they fled places like Venezuela, Haiti, or Honduras, where their choices were to die there or chase the promise of a better life in America. Because while the immigrants of today are crossing up to nine borders to the United States, they carry that same spirit of the people who arrived here two hundred years ago on European ships. They face the same issue of death there or struggle here. We ask: which would you choose?”

I know that Republicans are found of asking why Joe Biden hasn’t visited the Mexican border. I’d ask those politicians if they’ve visited with any of the desperate migrants so they can learn about what caused them to flee in fear for their very lives.

Remember we are a nation of immigrants.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 4, 2023

Voting Republican is Deadly

Republican politicians typically talk about freedom, low taxes, and against big government. The result of their actions in support of those notions is often not in the best interests of their constituents not even the folks that voted for them or simply contrary their claims.

A case in point is the COVID-19 pandemic and the high proportion of deaths among Republicans versus Democrats. In research conducted by Yale University School of Management’s Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and Jacob Wallace and Jason L. Schwartz of the Yale School of Public Health they found that excess deaths during the pandemic were 76% higher among Republicans than Democrats in Ohio and Florida. In another study Mauricio Santillana, a professor specializing in epidemiology at Northeastern Univesity and a team of researchers studied 2,000 counties across the country and found that the median death rate for counties with the strongest Republican leaning was between 40% and 300% higher than the counties that leaned Democrat. Santillana believes this is symptomatic of a heavily politicized public health crisis. The combination of failure to enact strong public health measures and spouting misinformation was deadly. Lots of freedom and anti-big government rhetoric from the state’s Republicans including Gov. Abbott regarding mask mandates and lockdowns.

The Texas Tribune recently reported that “Fatal crashes in rural areas accounted for 51% of Texas’ 4,489 traffic fatalities in 2021, even though only about 10% of the state’s population lives in a rural area, according to data from the state’s department of transportation.” Many of those crashes are due to lack of safety precautions like shoulders or guardrails that are generally found on more urban highways. The high rate of fatalities is also due to high speeds and failure to wear seatbelts; think “freedom” rhetoric. Nationally the trend is similar though not quite as drastic as here in Texas. We all know that rural counties have mostly Republican voters and are run by Republican elected officials and that Texas is governed by Republicans at the state level so there are only Republicans to blame for this disparity. On the other hand they claim to be keeping your taxes low.

The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee report called for by the Texas legislature was delayed three months and released early in December. The report estimates that up to 90% of the maternal deaths may have been preventable. Severe medical complications from pregnancy and childbirth also increased drastically between 2018 at 58.2 per 10,000 and 2020 at 72.7 cases per 10,000 deliveries in Texas. Advocates for maternal medical care suggest the report was delayed for political reasons otherwise it would have embarrassed government officials right before the election.

Obstetric hemorrhage was the leading cause of pregnancy-related death in Texas, accounting for a quarter of cases. The most common cause of hemorrhage deaths was ectopic pregnancies, in which a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus. Left untreated, these nonviable pregnancies can rupture, causing life-threatening complications such as severe blood loss and sepsis. If the woman doesn't mis-carry the only treatment is an abortion. Given the state’s near-total abortion ban you can see where death is a very real possibility. Knowing who voted for and signed into law the Texas abortion ban there is no doubt who is to blame. Being a new mother in Texas is more dangerous to life and health than most other states. Republicans are pro-life unless you’re a pregnant woman.

Voting Republican is risking your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 28, 2022

School Vouchers Eliminate Taxpayer Control

School voucher supporters believe they will finally manage to pass a bill with backing from families displeased with public schools in the last two years over pandemic response rules and about how race and history are taught. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas GOP have already listed taxpayer-funded alternatives to sending a child to the local public school as a legislative priority for next year.

State Senator Mayes Middleton, R-Wallisville has filed the most comprehensive bill on the topic so far. Middleton claims “What my bill would do is it would empower every single parent in the state of Texas to choose which education works best for their children’s unique educational needs.” Middleton and other voucher advocates  fail to mention that such empowerment only applies to Texans who live in areas with such alternative schools or at least a population large enough to support one and transportation to get the child to that alternative location. Private schools also need not accept all children who wish to enroll.

HB 557 by Cody Vasut (R-Angleton ), HB 619 by Matt Shaheen (R-Plano), and SB 176 by Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston)​ are various forms of voucher bills that have one thing in common: diverting taxpayer dollars away from real public schools. HB 983 by Rep. Terri Leo-Wilson (R-Galveston) would remove the last sliver of local control that elected officials have regarding charter schools, which is where they are built or located. Leo-Wilson’s bill would allow charter schools to avoid the only smidgen of local oversight in existence since charters do not have elected boards, do not need voter approval for new buildings, and do not hold local meetings to determine where best to build for the community, the way real public schools do. Taxpayer dollars going to private schools is an attack on transparent, accountable governance, as private schools are largely unregulated and not required to hold public meetings, have boards elected by taxpayers, or publicly disclose spending or other records the way public schools must.

Vouchers are a fiscal drain on the public education system and those taxpayer dollars should go toward improving our neighborhood schools instead.

I’d like to see support of increasing teacher pay and decreasing teacher workloads, such as lower class sizes not just lower student to teacher ratios which still allow well over 30 students per classroom. We all need to recognize that continuing to allow teachers and support staff to be overworked to the point of burnout is counter-productive. Expecting teachers to provide the quality of education our students deserve without the resources they need is just asking them to find other jobs.

I don’t know about you but I’m not happy about the notion of my taxes going to pay someone teaching a religion class. I’m pretty sure that even Republicans would object to that if they considered that their taxes could go to paying for tuition to religious schools that aren’t Christian. Considering some of the intolerant remarks coming out of the mouths of Dan Patrick and his followers, how do you think they’d react to school vouchers to a Muslim school? Some of those folks might have a stroke.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 21, 2022