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Rick and Kay out of touch with Texas
By Hank Gilbert
Contributor
Published October 29, 2009
If you have paused to listen to what has been coming out of the gubernatorial campaigns of Republican Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison recently, you have probably come to the same conclusion I have: they are out of touch with Texas.
Recently, Perry told a gathering in Fort Worth that “Texas is the blueprint America needs to look at to go forward.”
On the other side of the Republican ticket, Hutchison is saying she is not going to resign (after having promised to do so) because she wants to stay in office to oppose President Obama’s health care plan because it is bad for Texas.
Both statements show just how out of touch these two are with Texans. It is like choosing between “bad” and “worse.”
If America followed Perry’s “blueprint,” it would be a disaster. Under this governor’s watch, Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured citizens of any state, priced college tuition out of reach of thousands of Texans, seen utility rates skyrocket 64 percent and witnessed the highest property taxes in our history. That isn’t a blueprint for success; it’s been the failure that is Rick Perry’s Texas.
As for Hutchison, she is basically telling us she wants to stay in the Senate to make sure that Texans see no improvement in health care whatsoever. Four hundred thousand Texans lost their health insurance in 2009 alone, and all Hutchison wants to do is help the folks in the insurance industry who have contributed to her campaign war chest.
A choice between Perry’s blueprint for failure and Hutchison’s addiction to the status quo is no choice at all. Texans deserve better.
Texas must cast off the mantle of the status quo and discard blueprints that will lead us toward more unemployment, higher property taxes and failed government. It is time to move boldly toward the future in every area from transportation and education to energy and the environment.
Texas needs more tier-one universities, universal pre-kindergarten, better drop-out prevention programs and a vocational and technical graduation track to help students who want to move from school to the work force do so with ease.
Texas needs transportation solutions that relieve congestion on our freeways without taking millions of acres of family farms and selling out our infrastructure to foreign-owned companies so they can toll and double-tax Texans for roads we’ve already paid for.
Texas needs a governor who doesn’t believe global warming is a myth and is willing to enact sound environmental reforms to clean up our air, water and soil without destroying the economy.
Texas needs insurance reform so consumers aren’t gouged while the industry makes record profits.
Texas needs a comprehensive energy policy that will focus on clean energy — and create new, green jobs for our state.
In order for Texas truly to be a blueprint for the rest of the country, this is the direction in which we must go.
Perry and Hutchison don’t offer — and can’t deliver — a roadmap to lead us toward these goals. They offer only their failed, worn-out blueprints and a desire to maintain the status quo amassed after a combined 40-plus years in public office.
Hank Gilbert, a Democratic candidate for Texas Governor, is the co-founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, a nonprofit organization dedicated to stopping the Trans-Texas Corridor and preventing eminent-domain abuses in Texas.
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