Cognitive Dissonance

As lawmakers face down a budget crisis, Perry reiterated a promise to make up the double-digit shortfall with cuts and not new taxes. “The frail, the young, the elderly on fixed incomes, those in situations of abuse and neglect, people whose needs are greater than the resources at their disposal — they can count on the people of Texas to be there for them,” Perry said. “We will support them and empower them, but cannot risk the future of millions of taxpayers in the process. We must cut spending to keep our economic engine on track.”(source)

YES! We can cut the budget and still provide for those less fortunate! At least we can in Governor Perry’s delusional mind. Of course, he can’t come out and say ‘Lookit, we’re going to screw school kids, teachers and your grandma’ which would be far more honest in terms of the budget the Republicans have released. The Democrats are, of course, criticizing it but there’s little they can do… actually, there is absolutely nothing they can do. Rep. Eddie Rodriguez has a great piece up about just what this budget means for Texas families.

For me, I’m pleased as punch. I want there to be an unbelievable amount of pain. I want it to be felt by older Tea Partiers and the Democrats who couldn’t be bothered to vote in November. I want them to understand that elections have consequences and what might sound good in the heat of a political battle could end up killing them when implemented. I really want soccer moms in the ‘burbs to understand that the education their kids have been receiving is about to get much worse.

Finally, I really want to see Perry realize his dream of kleptocracy and start selling off state assets on the cheap. If taxpayers are stupid enough to re-elect the weak sister, I’m going to be smart enough to take advantage of it.

Burka has more on the inauguration speeches from Dewhurst and Perry. He focused much of his attention and scorn on Dewhurst…

His priorities, Dewhurst said, include securing our borders, encouraging
more job creation, passing Voter ID, improve our public schools because a quality education gives every child a chance to realize their dreams, continue building a world class transportation system, make healthcare more accessable and more affordable with better medical outcomes at a lower cost by passing reforms that will lead the nation…

Does he think we’re all stupid? Does he think that anti-Washington rhetoric will make us forget that he is going to whack $25 billion out of the budget? There won’t be enough money left to build a farm-to-market road, much less a world-class transportation system. Quality education with 30 kids in an elementary classroom? A more affordable health care system? More affordable for the state, maybe, after Medicaid has been cut to the bone, but not for you and me.

My reading of Dewhurst through the years hasn’t really changed very much. It comes down to this: He wants to do the right thing, but he can never bring himself to do it. He perpetually runs scared, scared of the tea party, scared of Dan Patrick, scared of Rick Perry, scared of the Republican senators, scared of his own better instincts. And so we get speeches like this one, which doesn’t ring true.

Oh, come on, Paul. They’ll sell everything off the highest bidder. That’s how you build out transpo in Texas. The investment banks, with the help of Perry and Dewhurst, will suck this state dry. Eventually, they will have de facto authority to tax. And there’s largely nothing you can do about it because the majority of people in this state are either too stupid to vote at all or too ignorant to realize they’ve voting to cut their own throats.

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