Rick Perry and the Neo Neo-Republicans

Most ominously, the new Tea partiers want to cut the budget of the federal agencies working to get the dangerous chemicals out of water we drink and toxic pollution out of the air we breathe

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Statesman, Aug. 19, 2011 | Texas unemployment hits its highest mark since 1987 | By Jason Embry – Texas added 29,300 jobs in the month, but the unemployment rate increased from 8.2 percent to 8.4 percent. The private sector added 38,700 jobs, but Texas lost almost 10,000 government jobs.

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By Rocky Boschert
Financial Editor

In a recent article by Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post, he makes the case that Rick Perry’s Texas has become an Anglo version of Mexico north. Using various economic indicators as well as a range of business welfare enticements more commonly associated with third world nations — low wages, no benefits, high rates of poverty, scant taxes, few environmental regulations, generous corporate subsidies, and cutting education budgets indiscriminately – Texas has morphed itself into a business domicile state where workers come cheap, compliant, and strangely passive.

Hence, Perry’s media misinformation hype for his presidential bid is this state’s questionable record of quality good paying job creation at a time when the national economy is again headed toward a double dip recession. Of course Texas has created jobs; but most of those jobs are a result of continually high oil prices (helping take our nation back into recession) as well as a business-friendly supply of low paid service workers.

Yet what is most ironic (and a clear sign of Perry’s economic ignorance) is his recent rant calling Fed Chair Ben Bernanke “treasonous” for printing money. Apparently beyond Perry’s realm of understanding, it is the printing of US dollars that has forced a supply and demand decline in the value of the dollar – inversely keeping oil prices high – that directly benefits the Texas economy.

Perry shows himself again as the consummate hypocrite, now part of the religious right “the devil is everyone but us” political wing of the Republican Party. Meyerson’s article ignores the worst effects that would occur under a Perry or general Republican Tea Party agenda.

First, for 150 million workers, the new Tea partiers want to push through further cuts in the already starved federal programs aimed at diminishing the yearly 58,000 fatalities in workplace-related disease and trauma including workers injured and wounded.

Second, there are over 300 million Americans. Each year, more than 7,000 die from contaminated food and more than 300,000 are hospitalized. The Tea partiers plan to push cuts through the House to further underfund FDA food safety programs, even though last year Congress strengthened the FDA's authority and expanded its responsibilities, including closer inspection of hazardous foodstuffs increasingly coming from communist China.

Third, there are 60 million investors in company stocks in America. The Tea partiers threw tantrums and got more cuts to the appropriations for law enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This would further cut the number of federal cops on the Wall Street crime beat as Wall Street crime increases.

Most ominously, the new Tea partiers want to cut the budget of the federal agencies working to get the dangerous chemicals out of water we drink and toxic pollution out of the air we breathe, simply for the reason of ideological bullying. And there are millions of women and children with special health needs who depend on federal programs for assistance. The House Tea Party members want to slash the modest budgets for these programs.

Regarding transportation safety, there are 200 million drivers in America. The Tea partiers intend to cut the already measly auto safety budget of the Transportation Department. The auto safety budget is less than a third of the budget they allowed for guarding the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

The Tea baggers have also stated they are opposed to last year's auto and bus safety bill giving long-overdue authority to safety regulators. The bill was supported by Democrats and Republicans but was blocked by Senator Tom Coburn, a physician no less. Minority Tea bagger rule blocked 99 senators who signed off on unanimous consent to get this life-saving legislation through the Senate.

There are 30 million American workers, polls show, who would like to discuss trade union representation for them in negotiations with local economy destroyers like Wal-Mart. See, Tea Party politicians do not want American workers to have rights. For example, the Tea Baggers were instrumental in blocking the budget for the FAA in late July and early August over $16 million in safety funding for a few rural airports. Union issues were the reason for the holdup. Because of this action, the Tea partiers forced the U.S. government to lose $30 million a day in airline ticket taxes.

Clearly the Tea baggers hate taxes, especially on the rich and corporations, even though they are the lowest tax rates in 20 years. The Tea Party Republicans in the US Congress and in the various State legislatures insult over 50 percent of Tea partiers nationally and 70 percent of Republicans polled who thought at least some additional tax revenues should be part of the deficit-reduction program passing through Congress.

The Tea Party as currently represented in Congress is more interested in wielding the axe against public works programs, education, housing, public health, auto, drug and consumer safety, and medical research. Yet they leave alone the hugely expensive, cost-over-run weapons systems and the tax wasteful Pentagon war machine.

It is one thing for Perry to lack empathy, along with his nutty REP running mates and his Tea Party lemmings in the US Congress and many states – already well-to-do and/or consuming a nice salary and a bevy of benefits. But America needs to call Perry and his destructive ilk out on their downright ideologically-inebriated animosity toward the domestic necessities of the American people.

Right wing tea party economic and social agenda anarchists may well sink the Republican Party, but we cannot let them take most Americans down in the process.