Texas Lege willing to lose 300,000 jobs to avoid tax increases
“The Republican leaders have committed themselves to the idea that tax-cutting always improves an economy. Anything that contradicts this is inherently wrong.”
Abby Rapoport for The Texas Observer
Texas’ political leaders have never been known as a reflective bunch. If you wanted to be kind, you’d call them do-ers rather than thinkers. But the GOP leadership team at the Capitol this year takes it to a whole new level. When news first arrived in January that the state’s budget crisis was even worse than expected, with a $27 billion shortfall, no one—and by no one, I mean the governor, the lieutenant governor or the speaker of the House—reconsidered their plan to cut government to the bone and keep taxes scant. When that plan yielded a draft budget full of drastic cuts to education and health and human services, we were told that those who worried about the impact were alarmists, “doomsayers” in Gov. Rick Perry’s words. Like I said, not the most reflective bunch. You’ve got a philosophy, you stick with it, no matter how extreme things get.
If nothing else could shove the leaders from the land of ideological purity back into the realm of reality, you might have thought the Legislative Budget Board had done it on March 24. The LBB, an apolitical arm of the Legislature that calculates the financial impact of bills, reported that the proposed budget could cost Texans more than 300,000 jobs—including more than 100,000 in the private sector. You might have expected the Republican leaders and lawmakers would at least seriously discuss the findings. After all, as Perry said in his inaugural address, “jobs are more than just statistics; they provide wealth and opportunity for our citizens and families.” Surely the LBB provided cause for a little hesitation?
Nope.
Instead of giving it proper consideration, the Republican honchos rushed to condemn the LBB report. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst dispatched a press release setting the tone, arguing that the nonpartisan policy wonks had failed to consider “the dramatic job losses Texas would suffer if the Legislature raised taxes.” Who knew the lieutenant governor also dabbled in economic projections?
http://www.texasobserver.org/floor-play/paging-reality-among-legislative-leaders