Amidst the flurry of fiscal-hackery flowing like a river of slime from underneath the House of Representatives, it's easy to forget that there are a number of states currently implementing austerity measures, and each can be seen as a microcosm of national Republican policy.
Texas is one such state currently marching toward austerity-land, and as per usual, it's easy to see that there will be austerity for some, but not everyone.
(Reuters) - The Republican-dominated Texas House late Sunday passed a budget for the next two fiscal years that does not add taxes or dip into the state's rainy day fund but does make sweeping cuts to education and health care.
"This budget paves the way to help Texas recover from the impacts of the national economic recession," Republican Governor Rick Perry said in a statement. "You cannot tax or spend your way to prosperity, and Texans expect their elected leaders to govern under that truth when it comes to taxpayer dollars." [...]
The House's $164.5 billion budget for the two fiscal years 2012 and 2013 spends $23 billion less than the last two-year budget cycle. The budget includes billions of dollars less for public schools than state law now requires and is billions of dollars short of what state officials expect will be needed to cover caseload growth in Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program. [...]
The House budget proposal could lead to 300,000 fewer state and private jobs, according to a March analysis by the Legislative Budget Board, a joint committee of the Texas Legislature.
It has been said before, but I feel the need to repeat it again that if you fire people or toss them off the Medicaid rolls, you're still going to be paying for them in one form or another. The tax base shrinks. Unemployment swells. Consumer spending is depressed. And people simply go to the emergency room for treatment. It's a vicious cycle that doesn't actually solve any problems. And all of this in the name of never, ever, raising taxes on the ranks of the rich and shameless.
You absolutely can tax and spend your way to prosperity, by the way, which history has shown us. What you absolutely can't do, is cut your way to prosperity, and history has shown us that too. Recent history in fact. As recent as this year. But I digress...
Just for perspective -- between 100,000 and 200,000 jobs are being added to the national economy per month right now and Texas may eliminate 300,000, many of whom will be teachers and by extension women, in one fell swoop. And I'd call that a conservative estimate.
But hey, it's a good thing Texas is a "right-to-work" state.
Adding...for those who don't know what history im referring to, I am referring to the Clinton administration, which raised taxes and ended up with a budget surplus, and the austerity measures recently implemented in Britain, which have pushed the country back into recession.