Texas "Miracle" Is An Unmitigated Disaster

The national Republican Party has called Texas an economic "miracle". That's because the Republicans have had a stranglehold on the state government in Texas for more than twenty years. During that time, there has not been a single Democrat elected to a statewide office and the legislature has had GOP majorities in both houses. This has given the Republicans the opportunity to fully implement their trickle-down, favor the rich and corporations, economic policies.

And if you are rich, or a corporate mogul, then Texas does probably seem like a "miracle". It is a low-wage, no benefit state, that taxes the rich very little and provides big tax breaks for corporations. But for other Texans that miracle is just an illusion (as I have said many times before on this blog). Now the Texas Legislative Study Group has issued a new report (called Texas on the Brink, Sixth Edition) that shows the situation in Texas is worse than just an illusion -- it is an unmitigated disaster.

Here are some of the problems the Republicans have either created or made much worse by their twenty years of mismanagement in Texas:

48 percent of children in Texas live in low-income families – families whose household income is up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

In Texas, 65 percent of Hispanic children and 58 percent of black children live in low-income families, compared to 25 percent of white children.

47 percent of children in urban areas and 55 percent of children in rural areas live in low-income families.

The maximum Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant for a single-parent family of three is $263 per month.

In FY 2012, the average monthly benefits, per person, for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) recipients in Texas were $29.30, the lowest in the nation.

23 percent of children in poverty in Texas are uninsured, compared to 15 percent nationwide.

Based on the 2012-2013 ranking estimates, Texas expenditures per student were 27 percent less than the national average.

In a 2010-2011 report, Texas had a 16 percent poverty rate among the elderly population, ages 65 and older, compared to 12 percent nationally. 

In 2012, the rate of Texans without health insurance rose to 28.8 percent, the highest rate in the nation, widening its distance from the runner-up by 4.8 percentage points – the largest on record.

Comparing data from 2000 and 2011, the annual family health insurance premium in Texas increased from $6,638153 to $14,903. Texas insurance premiums amounted to more than 25 percent of median incomes.

17 percent of children (0-18) in Texas were uninsured in 2011, compared to 10 percent nationally.

In Texas, 58 percent of adults, ages 19-64 that are living in poverty, do not have health insurance, compared to 42 percent nationally.

To qualify for Medicaid benefits in Texas, a working adult must be a parent to an eligible child and must earn at or below 25 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.

6.3 percent of Texas workers are members of a union.

Approximately 4.6 million Texans live in poverty, representing 18.5 percent of the state’s population in 2011.

24 percent (approximately 1.56 million) of Texas children live in low-income families.

From 2010 to 2011, 53 percent of Texas residents were at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty level. Of that, 23 percent were below the federal poverty level, 9 percent were100 to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, and 21 percent were 139 to 250 percent of the federal poverty level. 

12 percent of Whites, 31 percent of African Americans and 34 percent of Hispanics in Texas live in poverty.

A 2013 study found that Texas’s tax system is one of the most regressive state and local tax systems in the nation. The poorest 20 percent of Texan Families pay 12.6 percent of their income in taxes, the fifth highest percentage in the nation, while the top 1 percent only pay 3.2 percent of their income in taxes.

In 2010, the birth rate for ages 15-19 in Texas was 52.2 per 1,000 people, compared to 34.2 in the U.S. 

3.7 million Texas students are not taught basic information in public schools about STD prevention and unplanned pregnancies.

Texas leads the nation in the amount of carbon dioxide emissions and toxic waste generated.

Texas leads the nation in the number of executions and is 4th in the rate of incarceration.

Texas is 4th in the nation in the percentage of women living in poverty, and 51st in the number of non-elderly women without health insurance.

Texas is 3rd in the nation in the percentage of the population with food insecurity.

Texas is 50th in the nation on per capita spending for mental health.  

This is only a partial list of what the GOP has done to Texas. We also know that Texas has the largest number and largest percentage of workers receiving minimum wage (or less). And the State School Board is still busy trying to replace science with theology and history with right-wing ideology in school classrooms.

Those of you in other states need to ask yourself -- do I want my state to be like this? If not, then don't vote to turn your state over to the Republicans, because the failed policies that are destroying Texas are still being  pushed by the Republican Party. And for those of you in Texas -- how much longer are you going to put up with this? Isn't it high time to kick the GOP out of power in this state?