Once upon a time, not so long ago, in a faraway land called Pennsylvania, a woman named Sarah Palin brought 200 protest cookies to school for children at the Plumstead Christian School – because she had read a report – mistaken as it turns out – that the state was going to ban such sweets from public school parties.

Sarah mocked the policy as a “nanny state run amok.” She was there to fight for the freedom of sweet treats. “Who should be making the decisions on what you eat … in school, choices: Should it be government or should it be the parents?” Sarah asked her crowd. “It should be the parents.”

Oh, no, said I, if this is true, then Texas has three of the biggest nannies in the land: Susan Combs, Todd Staples and Rick Perry. And the Legislature has been nannying up a storm as of late, seeking to impose government dictates on its citizens for their own good.

Let’s start at the beginning, when government was wise, children were wonderful and we all wanted what was best for our future generations.
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Tagged: abortion, dan patrick, nanny state, rainy day fund, rick perry, sarah palin, susan combs

The next several days of Texas House budget debate may be as much about the culture wars as state spending.

Pre-filed amendments to the three budget-related bills before the House contain limitations on private school vouchers, funding for Planned Parenthood and directives to higher education to fund centers for traditional family values if they provide funding for support centers for gay students. Debate is set to begin Thursday on House Bill 4 to erase a deficit in the current budget and on House Bill 275 to take $3.2 billion out of the state’s so-called rainy day fund. Debate is set for Friday and into the weekend on House Bill 1, a bare bones spending plan for the next two years.

Some of the pre-filed amendments may never be debated because there is a possibility that they are not procedurally proper for an appropriations bill. But they do show state spending is about more than just spending – or in this case cutting.

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Tagged: abortion, conservative coalition, craig eiland, gay, joaquin castro, Ken Paxton, Planned Parenthood, scott hochberg, state budget, state employees

HB3152, by Christian. Relating to prohibiting the performance of an abortion on a woman who is not known to be pregnant; providing penalties.

Filed two days ago, Christian’s bill would make it a Class A misdemeanor for a doctor to use drugs or medical instruments commonly used to perform abortions on a female patient if the woman is not pregnant.

My curiosity piqued, I stopped by Christian’s office to ask, essentially, “What gives?”

It seems the office has been made aware that some abortion providers — some years ago —  used to pretend to perform abortions on young women for the purpose of scamming the government for public abortion funds. It worked like this: Scared young woman shows up for a pregnancy exam and it’s negative, but the staff, wanting that abortion money, tells her she’s pregnant.  A doctor then makes the woman undergo what she is made to believe is an abortion.

I know you’re thinking just what Rep. Christian thought: There oughta be a law against that!  So, “just to clarify” the current state of  the Texas penal code, Christian filed the bill, according to a staff member in his office.

Surely this kind of diligence deserves a special award. Thoughts?

Tagged: abortion, wayne christian

Just got a notice from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s office that tomorrow, on Pro-Life Lobby Day, Dewhurst “will speak in support of legislation which would require all women considering abortion be offered an ultrasound image of their unborn child and the opportunity to hear its heartbeat prior to receiving an abortion.”

Chalk up another victory for Sen. Dan Patrick, the bill’s author. You’ll remember that Patrick earlier this session prompted the Senate to abandon its long-held 21-vote tradition for the sole purpose of passing the highly partisan Voter ID bill. Patrick’s ultrasound bill, which also got a shout-out from Gov. Rick Perry during his State of the State address, passed the Senate last session and died in the House. Are you ready for this one, Joe Straus?

Two thoughts: One, using a serious women’s health issue as an opportunity for political posturing in preparation for the next election is just downright tacky. Two, if Dewhurst, Perry and Patrick really want to do something to reduce abortions, they would weigh in with public policy when it mattered: before an unwanted pregnancy occurred.

As Slate national correspondent William Saleton wrote in a Sunday New York Times op-ed column, “Pro-lifers tend to show up after a woman is pregnant, imagining that laws and preaching will make her bear a child she doesn’t want. They’re mistaken. Worse, they are too late. To prevent abortions, we have to prevent unintended pregnancies.”

Saleton’s answer? “An ethic of contraception…It is a loving, conscientious way to prevent the conception of a child you can’t bear to raise and don’t want to abort. It’s an act of responsibility and respect for life.”

As for abstinence, Saleton says its a “worth aspiration” but “foolish” as a national policy. “Mating is the engine of history. It has overpowered every stricture put in its way.” I think he was paraphrasing Bristol Palin.

I characterize this bill as posturing because it won’t do anything to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies in Texas.  I’d like to hear if Dewhurst has any plans to show real respect for life by preventing careless conception by Texans who aren’t ready to parent.

Tagged: abortion, dan patrick, david dewhurst, pro-life lobby day, texas capitol, ultrasound bill

My general reaction to the governor’s speech is that it was not his best work. His delivery was off and his message was predictable. Indeed, if you’ll pardon me for saying so, I predicted most of it. In my post before the speech, I wrote that he would back off from the Trans-Texas Corridor (which he did by embracing an eminent domain constitutional amendment), and tuition deregulation (which he did by proposing to freeze tuition for four years of college). That he would push for a tougher cap on state spending (which he did by suggesting that the cap be based on population growth plus inflation), that he would ask for more funding for his economic development funds (which he did). That he would propose higher education reforms such as funding based on incentives (which he did, tying funding to graduation rates), that he would come out for the Voter ID bill (you betcha), and that he would wave the pro-life flag (which he did by endorsing adult stem cell research and a requirement that women seeking an abortion view ultrasound images).

I would like for readers to comment about how smart and clever I was, but I fear I wait in vain for such confirmation. I suspect, rather, that readers, shrewd folk that they are, will tell me that anyone who has watched Rick Perry for the last eight years, or is it eighteen, would know exactly what he would say, because it is what he has always done: pander to the Republican primary voter. Or they will remind me that I forgot to mention that he would backpedal from the margins tax by raising the small business exemption.

Perhaps it will be more useful to look at his proposals. Let’s start with an easy one: the tuition freeze. This will work great for students who graduate in four years. But most students do not, and since tuition will rise every year, as new classes come in, students who need a fifth year will be greeted by a sudden rise in tuition costs. Let’s say that I go to UT for four years, starting at $6,000 per year. In the second year, the regents raise tuition by $1,000, but my tuition remains frozen. In the third year, the regents again raise tuition by $1,000, but mine remains frozen. The same thing happens in the fourth year. When I enroll for my fifth, and hopefully final year, I will have to pay those three incremental $1,000 increases, for a total of $9,000, a 50% “graduation penalty” for failing to graduate in four years. I’m not against a tuition freeze, of course. I just think that won’t be a real freeze for students who change majors or can’t get their course schedules arranged so that they can finish in four years.

What about the governor’s proposed spending cap of population growth plus inflation? The current cap is population growth plus personal income. That’s a good standard because personal income is a measure of the ability to pay. If, instead, the cap is based upon population growth plus inflation, the increase in population (which may well be attributable to the immigration of poor people) creates a demand for social services that cannot be met, whether inflation is low (keeping the cap down) or high (reducing the buying power of money). The proposed cap is a solution in search of a problem.

Another issue was the proposal to tie funding for colleges and universities to graduation rates. The problem with this attempt to extend accountability to higher ed is that it penalizes entry-level institutions that attract students who are not the sort who attend UT and A&M. I heard testimony about this at the House Appropriations Committee hearings in 2007. The students who attend colleges like UT-Brownsville, UT-Pan American, and UTEP, are not the sort who drive their BMWs to Austin. Many of them have to work. The president of UTEP said that UT is like an express train: students get on, stay in school, and get off at graduation. UTEP is a local. A student gets on, may get off to work for a year, and may get back on for a year or two. Incentive funding based on graduation rates just doesn’t work for entry-level schools.

Perry had many more proposals, of course. You can find the entire speech on his web site. What you won’t find in the speech itself was leadership or inspiration. It was basically a repeat of what he has said before: economic growth, low taxes, low spending, less regulation, and consequently, less government. He didn’t even mention health care, or the lack of it, even though it’s the largest area of the budget. Perry has his strengths—foremost of which are dealing with emergencies like hurricanes and throwing the weight of his office behind economic growth—but after all these years he still is more about politics and ideology than governing.

Tagged: abortion, adult stem cell, economic development fund, rick perry, state of the state, tuition freeze, ultrasound, voter ID

Deep into the State of the State address, Gov. Rick Perry endorsed a proposal by Sen. Dan Patrick and Rep. Frank Corte to, in Perry’s words, “require those wanting to terminate a pregnancy to review their ultrasound before proceeding.” Perry told the assembled lawmakers today that “as we consider the growing threats to our nation’s unborn, I believe it is time to add another layer of protection for the most vulnerable Texans.”

It was a short statement, made after the governor touted a lot of rosy statistics about the state of the Texas economy, (but curiously, did not share the Lone Star State’s dubious distinction as Number One in teen births and Number one in spending federal abstinence-only sex education dollars.)

But Perry’s choice of words was interesting in lieu of last session’s debate on the Senate floor over SB 920, Patrick’s ultrasound bill, which passed the Senate and died in the House. During that debate, Patrick insisted that conducting an ultrasound before an abortion was “sound medical practice” and imperative to preserve the health of the mother. After he was accused of attempting to “shame” or “harass” women seeking abortions, Patrick said he never intended that they be required to review their ultrasounds. He then accepted an amendment that required doctors to inform their patients that viewing the image was optional.

I called Mark Miner, the gov’s press secretary to find out why Perry thought this was a good idea. “The governor believes it is important that people understand the significance of the decision they are about to make.”

Clearly, ultrasound advocates believe that many women will choose not to have an abortion if they view their ultrasound. I would agree that viewing an ultrasound of an 11-week-old fetus may indeed change a woman’s mind about the procedure. Here’s my problem: Isn’t this a bit like closing the barn door while the cows are out wandering down the road?

If Perry, Patrick and Corte really want to educate Texans about abortion, I suggest they endorse comprehensive sex education for all Texas high schoolers —including how to avoid pregnancy (there’s this thing called The Pill). And part of that education could be showing a real ultrasound taken at six weeks, then twelve weeks, then 20. There’s a particular advantage to my plan: teen-aged boys, not just their girlfriends, will learn something too.

It’s a perfect idea. Very educational. And better timing.

Tagged: abortion, dan patrick, frank corte, rick perry, sb 920, state of the state, texas legislature, ultrasound