There are more uninsured residents of Texas — 6.1 million and counting — than there are people in 33 states. The state’s elected officials might be expected, therefore, to cheer a federal health care law that is likely to deliver billions of dollars from Washington to Austin and cover millions of low-income Texans.
In Austin, legislative hearings and agency planning sessions proceed despite Gov. Rick Perry’s vow to fight “on every front available” against a law that he characterizes as “socialism on American soil.” Bureaucrats apply for federal grants and collaborate with the Obama administration at the same time that Attorney General Greg Abbott strategizes to eviscerate the law in court.
“That’s sort of the operational norm in Texas,” said F. Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for safety-net programs in the state. “Your leadership may be railing against Washington, but federal supremacy still requires that the people in the trenches get the work done.”
Perry runs on “fighting on every front” while Democrats address a huge problem in his state, a problem he knew needed fixing, because every governor knew.
Conservative governors get to dodge political risk and accountability with one-liners about “shredding the Constitution” while Democrats in the federal government address their health care problem, a problem they could have addressed at the state level, but didn’t.
Even-handed commentary will focus on Perry’s supposed reluctant acquiescence to federal supremacy, the legal matter, continuing the myth that Texas is one of a loose collection of 50 states, soldiering on independent of the other 49 and the feds, mostly burdened by the relationship.
Perry refused comment on this story. Of course he did. Telling the truth about the deep and abiding relationship his state enjoys with the federal government contradicts conservative dogma and makes it impossible for him to make secession speeches.
And Democrats aren’t helping any:
The Democratic nominee for governor, Mayor Bill White of Houston, has not made an issue of Mr. Perry’s approach. He said in an interview that he also opposed the health care law because of its potential impact on the federal deficit.
Health care reform going to the states is a good opportunity for Democrats to start countering Republican’s abstract theories on state’s rights by telling the truth: that this relationship is long-standing and mutually beneficial, every politician at the state level knows it, and that’s the real reason it isn’t going away.
