An Appeal To Texas Residents

As you may know, the Texas House of Representatives has just passed a budget bill that would be disastrous for most of the state's citizens. The bill would cut $8 billion from education funds -- meaning that 80,000 to 100,000 teachers and education employees would lose their jobs. Overall the bill is expected to cost the state about 335,000 (which is a lot considering the state already has over 8% unemployment).

There are also massive and indefensible cuts to Medicaid and other social service programs. This would result in many being thrown off the Medicaid rolls -- a travesty in a state where 27% of the citizens already are without any kind of health insurance). It would also mean that many nursing homes for the elderly would have to be closed.

We may not be able to stop this terrible bill since both the House and Senate in Texas are controlled by large majorities of Republicans -- and they have shown that they only care for the rich and the corporations. But we don't have to take it laying down. I urge any Texan reading this blog to let the state government know that you oppose this disastrous bill. And a good way to do that is to sign the online petition of the state Democratic Party.

You can go to this site to sign the petition. Please do it.