Latest Molly Ivins - Now That The GOP has the Texas Legislature, What Are They Up To?

Working For Change --

Don't worry about a thing! The Texas Legislature is riding to the rescue. Oh, sure, we still have a $10 billion deficit, but the House just outlawed gay marriage. At last, we're safe from the hideous threat of gay marriage, which would have directly ruined our entire lives.

Meanwhile, the House has:

Eliminated 10,810 state jobs;

Cut 250,000 poor children off the Children's Health Insurance Program and about 365,000 from health insurance through Medicaid;

Cut prenatal care and delivery for 17,000 pregnant women and services for 366 women with breast and cervical cancer;

Closed one state school for the mentally retarded and one state mental hospital;

(This one's my favorite) Cut $22 million from a criminal justice program that provides medication and treatment for mentally impaired offenders who are out on probation or parole. (Isn't that nice? They'll be wandering around the state without their meds.)

But fear not, as our peerless leaders have passed a 24-hour waiting period on abortion and included state-provided color photographs of fetuses for women to study while they wait.

Meanwhile they delivered on their campaign promises to their financial backers.

During the days of debate [on tort "reform"] in the House, three of the top donors to Texans for Lawsuit Reform sat in the House gallery along with the speaker's wife. This section of the gallery was christened "The Owners' Box" by Democrats, and that's just what it was. The Texas Observer ran the records on TRL's top donors and found that Dick Weekly, of Weekly Homes, has been named a defendant in 10 civil suits in Harris County since the start of 2002, four involving deceptive trade allegations. Harlan Crow, son of construction magnate Trammell Crow, has been named in 16 civil suits since 1986. But the winner is Bob Perry of Perry Homes, sued more than 60 times in the past 15 years.