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Arrogant Washington Threatens Rick Perry and Texans’ Right To Govern Themselves

By: hogan (Diary)  |  July 6th, 2010 at 12:40 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

In one of the most outrageous displays of arrogance by Washington in recent memory – which is saying a lot, of course – the House Democrats have inserted specific language on top of $10 Billion in funding for education included in a War Supplemental bill targeted directly and solely at Texas – language that demands the money be spent in certain ways.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “The proposal would allow the federal government to give money directly to school districts, provided Perry certifies that the federal support will not replace the state money. Perry must also agree not to proportionally cut education funding more than any other item in the next budget. While the measure includes $10 billion in education funding nationally, Texas is the only state that must make such a certification before receiving the federal funding.”

The thing is, besides being an affront to federalism and our right to live free from far away know-it-alls in DC telling us what to do, Perry’s office makes the good point that, “[t]he House-passed version requires that the governor guarantee the Legislature will provide a certain level of state funding, which is prohibited by the Texas Constitution…”

Llolyd Doggett (D-TX), who never misses an opportunity to expand the reach of liberals in Washington (see, e.g. his stubborn and senseless involvement in the judicial nominations process and ridiculous criticisms of Senator Cornyn), complains that Perry misspent $3 Billion that should have been used for education. But, in truth, Texas used the funds exactly the way every other state used them. They were passed through to school districts through state formulas.

What’s really going on is that the statists are aggravated that Governor Perry keeps telling the Feds to stuff it when he believes it is better for Texans that they not take federal money and the strings that comes with it. And they cannot stand it.

It gets even better when you realize that they moved money from some congressional districts to others (want to guess how Republican districts made out vs. Democrat districts?). Even more, hundreds of school districts in Texas are going to lose funds compared to what they would have gotten if we were allowed to distribute using state formulas like every other state. And, every other state can use these funds to cover budget shortfalls they are experiencing. Texas, if we are awarded such funds which is in doubt, can only give these funds over and above existing levels which will create a funding cliff when they run out. In other words, it will lead to teacher layoffs which is what these funds are designed to prevent.

Look – Texas is not without faults. Nor is any state in the Union. But this kind of nonsense coming out of Washington is precisely the problem we have today – where federal money taken out of the pockets of the American people is then held hostage and used coercively to manipulate the choices of states and prevent the people from living free.

Looking forward to more Washington involvement in healthcare are you?

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  • acat

    This puts Texas on the front lines of the States vs. Fed battle – a battle that is heating up quite a bit.

    Might be a good time for Perry to rattle his sabers a bit more.

    Mew

    • trutexan

      This could explain a few things….

      Dear Friends and Fellow Republicans (or at least limited government friends),

      I am exhausted from a drive back this evening from Dallas but wanted to share some important information with you about the upcoming November elections and the Texas Republican Convention.

      The Republican Convention was huge—5,000 delegates and over 2,500 alternates with most of our Congressional Texans in attendance. We heard from everyone Gov. Perry on down through Railroad Commissioners and the all Republican Texas Supreme
      Court Justices. Greg Abbott was awesome. He is going after ObamaCare with a vengeance plus all States Rights matters and border security. I had an opportunity to thank him at a break and also thanked Jerry Patterson for the help he has given Galveston .

      Michelle Bauchmann was the keynote speaker at the Friday banquet and if you have the chance to hear her in person DO NOT MISS IT. This lady is a pit bull, a tax attorney and is the number one target of Nancy Pelosi—so if you can send her money for her campaign in Minnesota do it. She is on the top of the hit list of Obama’s thugs.

      Haley Barbour, Mississippi ‘s outstanding governor spoke today and reminded us all that we can’t wait for 2012. We must take back our country in November. This is the most important November election of our lifetimes.

      These people in Washington hate Texas. I am not joking about this. Congressman after Congressman spoke to that with concrete examples. We are the beacon of free enterprise, balanced budgets, and we are a Republican state.

      Obama is not funding NASA, is going to demand that when federal dollars are spent on things like our South Texas nuclear power plant the workers must be union. I am confident Greg Abbott will sue over this. Obama needs to understand that his Chicago scare tactics will not work in TEXAS .

      Obama’s Cap and Trade policies are aimed squarely at Texas ‘ energy business. Our party Vice Chairman at the beginning of the convention, Dr. Robin Armstrong, an African American
      physician (who graduated from UTMB) says that global warming is a
      joke—we breathe out carbon dioxide—–So count to 10 and hold your breath to save the planet!!!

      In addition, our convention pledged to stand with Israel . We have never had a President sell our number one ally in the Middle East down the river but Obama is doing just that.

      I write this with just one hope. Even if you have never been politically active, please please get engaged this year.
      We need your votes. We need you to get friends motivated. We must take back our country now. 2012 is too late. Pelosi, Reid and their cronies must be voted out of office in November.

      We have a strong slate of candidates. No Democrat seat is unchallenged. That includes Shelia Jackson Lee, Gene Greene and Lloyd Doggett. If you e-mail me your precinct I will connect you with someone in the Party that needs help.

      Do this for your children, grandchildren and for the Country. Democracies go through a predictable transition and we are in the period of apathy. If we don’t turn this around now, our liberties will evaporate before we even know it happened.

      I forgot one more point. One of the members of the Congressional delegation who is a small businessman stated that most members of Congress did not know the difference between gross and net revenue. No wonder they are taxing us to death. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated that Obama did not talk to the CEO of BP because its Board of 12 people would have to be involved and he did not want to talk to 12 people.

      This is truly appalling and is why my daughter said to me “Mom what do
      you expect, it is amateur hour in Washington “.

      God Bless You and God Bless Texas !!!!

  • http://www.redstate.com/tnjim TNJim

    and it’s not just Texas’ education system that would be held hostage. The Feds are holding the troops hostage by attaching garbage like this to bills meant to fund them. Of course, the Dems will try to skewer the GOP if they vote against the bill because of this and who knows what else is buried in there. They’ll try to say “See? See! Republicans are against the troops!”

    Just like they tried to skewer the GOP over the unemployment benefits extension.

    Alinsky lives!

    • sallyal

      Police & Fire Monopoly-Bargaining Act (H.R. 413 & S. 1611). This is really a very bad bill all the way around. The dirty sneaky libs couldn’t get this in the Senate version so they are trying again in the House.

  • http://theminorityreportblog.com Repair_Man_Jack

    These people are transparent. They in no way want anyone to be allowed to exercise independent judgement. The best thing Texas could do is refuse to accept the money.

    • Achance

      A couple made noise about it with the stimulus but none really did it. St. Sarah said she was, but she didn’t have the authority over it and the Legislature accepted it.

      You’re right, it is the best thing to do, but this is set up to pit the NEA against a Republican governor and gives them the opportunity to take the babysitters away when school starts. I’m sure a teacher strike is illegal in Texas, but adultery is illegal in lots of places, so that must be why nobody does it. And teachers have the safest strike game: they can refuse to go to work until they get their way but state laws guarantee that Johnny gets his 180 days of school. So, they get their way and don’t lose any pay for the year. As I wrote in my diary about protecting the Republican Homelands right after the election, the Red States are going to be under all-out assault from the federal regulatory agencies and from the funding authorities.

      • janis

        what would you do? I would be so interested to hear the opinion of someone who knows how gov. works– or doesn’t. Is there anything he CAN do? As to the 180 days of school, does it say anywhere that those days must be between August and May? Or could he hold up the start of the school year and make those 180 days be between say, November and June or December and July?

        There’s got to be some way to get over on these guys, or will it make a difference once the R’s take over the House and maybe even the Senate in November? Although I know that the agencies all will still be staffed and run by libs anyway. I ask all of this because it just seems to me to be way past depressing to think that we have no options.

        • Achance

          When you’re out of power, you use the courts to try to get you to the next election and try to get a more friendly administration.

          Anybody in a labor dispute with teachers that lets school start is just acting in concert with the teachers. If you let school start, the people have given up their babysitters and they don’t care what it costs to get those teachers back to work. If you won’t let school start and you tell everybody you’re not going to, they don’t give up their summer babysitters and they you have a chance to actually duke it out with the teachers. And you really need to have a plan to keep them on strike long enough that they start missing payments. If you have a frienly legislature, you can make temporary mods to the attendence laws and such. And, it ain’t as easy as I make it sound.

          • janis

            The not starting school when teachers want it to start would be my answer as well, at least for starters. I can just imagine the screaming because I’ve heard it here in Tennessee when several counties couldn’t start last fall due to not having a budget yet. This coming fall will be no different and possibly worse for many of them. As to the parents, they were screaming mad about the whole thing.

            I have no doubt that it’s not easy in the least. After so many years of being told “It’s for the children, the CHILDREN”, it’s not easy to go against that very concept. But, of course, it really is for the children. The education that the feds want for them is totally contrary to what is truly good and proper for them as future citizens of a free country.

            Hopefully a “free country”, that is.

        • ss396

          is refuse to certify that this money will not merely replace State money, or cut off other State funding. That would either stop this nonsense in its tracks, or force Congress to violate its own spending bill.

          Something that gets overlooked a lot about Texas is that the lack of a State income tax means that the central State government does not have all the money and means that most other States do. This is by deliberate design. Accordingly, State funding plays a lesser role in school funding, This is why refusal of Federal national funding laundered through the State government is of lesser consequence in Texas.

          This is also why Texas ranks so low in those surveys that report educational spending per pupil. Those kind of surveys only report spending at the State government level, without thinking about the much, much larger proportion of education funding that comes from my property taxes than is recognized in other States.

      • E Pluribus Unum

        Just watch.

      • Locked and Loaded

        That’s the first time I can recall the feds coercing the states in this way. Only a teen then, but I remember well the national speed limit of 55 mph taking effect. I prayed that many states – any state – would refuse the highway funds and take a stand.

        Interestingly, a Texas Democrat governor was the one to recommend the 55 mph speed limit.

        IMO, there is no time like the present to fight back against the federal government’s coercive application of the Commerce Clause against the States (or, in this case, who knows what authority). If the States continue to willfully subjugate themselves to these intrusions of the federal government, there will certainly be no end of them.

        • Richard Mullins

          of Uvalde. That wouldn’t have happened earlier about going to 55 MPH. It’s a big waste since at 55 MPH it would take quite a while to get anywhere.

          • texasgalt

            You have a fine memory. Dolph would be run out of the current Donk party.

          • Richard Mullins

            It’s because I use to live in Uvalde County where Mr Briscoe was the largest land holder. I never heard a lot against him other than he had a lot of land(plenty of Deer leases). I’m use to Democrats since I lived in Uvalde and Southeast San Antonio for years before moving to Spring.

  • Lisa in Maryland

    Could this be about the textbook issue?? Or does the Fed see Texas as a threat and want to keep them in their place???

    • E Pluribus Unum

      There is one state that is big enough, independent enough, conservative enough, economically self-sufficient enough, to tell the federal government when, where, and how to stick it, and make it happen.

      They hate what they fear the most.

    • merryj1

      The textbook changes — and the out-numbering, out-maneuvering of libs by conservatives on the changes really lit a match under some of those libs.

      Could this be a shot over the bow of that (textbook) ship?

    • tngal

      had an acre or two down in Texas. For some reason, everything boils down to “hate and blame all things Bush”. Word is Washington is trying to put a moritorium on the manufacture of cowboy hats. (except the ones made in China). And they tried to ban the pollutants from gasseous cows. Tried to pass it off as a global warming issue. But again, its a Bush loves cows scenario.

    • pamdale

      Of course it’s about the textbooks. Government cannot have any competition, and so they threaten. Real nice.

      Our ONLY hope is November.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    Bring it on, beyotches.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    Bring it on, beyotches.

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    Who as of yet does not have a class lined up for the fall, I would dearly like to see this extra money. But kudos to Perry for telling the Feds that they cannot make such demands.

    Either our state gets treated same as the others or not at all.

  • teresakoch

    I wholeheartedly support Governor Perry – tell Washington to stick it where the sun don’t shine! I agreed with his decision to decline to participate in the Race to the Top because of the strings that were attached.

    Obama must not remember our state’s unofficial motto, “Don’t Mess With Texas” – it’s not an idle threat…..

    • Richard Mullins

      So I’m not surprised by the article. I wonder who the 40 ISD’s that have sent a letter to the Feds? I guess that HISD is one but I’m wonder who the rest are. With over 1,100 ISD’s in Texas , I don’t know why they don’t all send letter.

      • SamBarber

        “most of the Chronicle’s stories tilt left”

        really? and you know this…how?
        some data, please.

        *crickets chirping*

  • texasgalt

    Keep your scrawny statist tail east and north of the Red River. And the rest of your shadow coup d’

    • Locked and Loaded

      And the Red River just won’t do for your northern extent. They’ll have to stay up north of the 37th parallel, at least. :)

      • texasgalt

        The ghosts of the Comanches are still out there. They wont come thru the panhandle either. You can’t scratch up 50 registered Democrats, even on government payday, in Lubbock or Amarillo.

  • burbmom

    And she is energetic and motivated to win this seat. Yes, Travis County is a liberal bastion in Texas, but her district covers South Austin and thankfully, several other counties with more rational voters. Perhaps she could make an appearance at the Redstate Gathering in September. www.drdonnaforcongress.com.

  • savebyj

    Last time I checked we live in the United STATES of America, not the Federal Government of America. States are sovereign and reserve all rights not specifically stated in the Constitution.

    In other words, this native Texan would like to tell the Federal Government to go to He** (which may be redundant as they appear to know the way).

    If the November election does not change things am I the only one here sensing Civil War? (Which would not be good).

    • acat

      and whether or not I smell trouble in the wind, I’m not mentioning it on an open channel.

      Mew

      • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
    • Richard Mullins

      Telling all that they want us to here. Well Donk, what do have to say for yourself?

    • SamBarber

      What an idiot you are! You sit at your computer and suggest treason (via Civil War). Good luck with that.

      • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens
  • pedrom

    What faults, exactly, except for Austin and a few democrat Congressmen?

    • hogan

      1. KBH;
      2. We could have turned down more money in the past and fought the feds more than we have over the years;
      3. We could be doing more about immigration – federal responsibility or not;
      4. We could have better insurance and healthcare laws to free up the markets to perform – there are currently are a number of stupid requirements that raises costs and reduce options.
      5. We have a few establishment Republicans in our delegation that could be improved.
      6. We have a number of stupid laws – from cell phone and seat belt laws to random health code laws about baby bottles and what not – and we allow HOAs to have too much power, etc…
      7. The Robin Hood education laws and resulting high property taxes are not ideal…

      I could go on… There are other things. But Texas is a great place and I’d rather be here than anywhere else, to be sure – we just need to be vigilant to keep it that way and fix some past mistakes…

  • toadold

    Texas used to be a pretty solid Democratic state but after 1968 things started to change. A fair number of today’s Republicans used to be Democrats who crossed the aisle. The Democrats who stayed in the Democratic party and the ones who have moved in are a pretty sorry bunch in my opinion. The Obamaites can punish Texas now, but in the not so long term it will cost them House delegates and campaign money. Texans are not without influence in Washington and New York even. This thing about punishing your enemies may work in the closed world of machine politics but this bashing of Gulf States and those with half way decent economies is going to back fire on them.

    • Richard Mullins

      I think you might want to look at the Obituary of the late Doplh Bricoe Jr and you’ll why Dems started to lose. Even in places like Uvalde County, it’s hard to run as a Republican and win. Dems are a losing bunch after they got annilated in 1994 and haven’t been able to get a Statewide position since. After that the Democratic party of Texas moved quite far to the left.

  • dwscho

    it would be nice if all the states started telling the feds where to stick their(our) money when strings are attached. The states need to stand up to the federal government. Unfortunately, history shows the states continually give away more rights by letting themselves be intimidated by the feds just to receive more funding. Wouldn’t it be nice if the states had the backbone to scream “foul” and take back the power they have transferred to the cess pool known as Washington.

  • http://www.therightsideofaustin.wordpress.com Jon McClellan

    Want to help Governor Perry stand up to Doggett, Obama and the Federal Government? Then get involved in Governor Perry’s campaign. We have paid internships and Part Time Field Staff positions open statewide. Email JonMcClellan at rickperry.org to get involved!

    • http://www.veronicaestrada.com/ Veronica
  • mutantone

    They will learn it is not good to mess with Texas

  • SamBarber

    If Perry doesn’t like the bill’s language, he can refuse the money. Heck, he can even secede, like he hinted at doing earlier (ha!)

    I laugh at all of the impotent “don’t mess with Texas” BS comments here. Texas is in a financial mess, due in large part top Gov Perry’s kissing the butts of the insurance and energy industries.

  • kimcham

    There is an ongoing Washington vs. Texas narrative taking hold. Mr. Doggett and his cohorts are continuing their assault on Texas — it started with ObamaCare, then the EPA stepping in to change longstanding Texas environmental rules. Now it’s an attempt to go around our state leadership to achieve their political goals in education funding. Lloyd Doggett

  • renny

    Stand up for AZ, TZ, OK, VA, and the rest on immigraion, oil leak, everything. Bork Congress daily. 202-224/225-3121.