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Does
Anyone Want a Country Like Texas?
August 4, 2001
by
Frederick H. Winterberg III
Our renowned pResident, George W. Bush, likes to speak of
his record as Governor of Texas and how he'd like to apply
the same policies to the entire U.S. that he did in Texas.
If the results are destined to be the same, we should be very
worried.
I read 2 interesting news articles concerning Texas today.
The first
article states that "Texas will not be able to fully reduce
air pollution emissions in Houston and Galveston by 2007 unless
the federal government helps out." It then goes on to state
that much of this pollution comes from petrochemical and utility
companies, which release the majority of nitrous oxide emissions
in the area.
There are two notable points in this piece. The first is
the fact that Texas can't clean up it's own mess without help
from the Feds. Considering Bush and the Republican's constant
call for more states' rights, less Federal intrusion in state
business, and drastically reduced Federal spending, it's worth
noting that Bush's home state comes running for federal funds
to clean up the toxic waste dump Texas has become.
The second is the fact that this problem was brought on by
none other than George W. Bush himself. As a direct result
of Bush's deregulation of business and giving Texas businesses
the right to police their own pollution, the state now has
major air quality problems that they expect the Federal government
to clean up for them. Whatever happened to states taking care
of themselves? Perhaps Bush's policies are not so wonderful
after all. But you can bet that Texas will get plenty of your
federal tax dollars to fix the problem.
The second
article calls the "Vaccination rate of Texas' toddlers
[the] worst in nation." It tells us that "only 69.5% of Texas
toddlers had received all the recommended doses of vaccine
against seven diseases -- polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis,
measles, mumps and rubella. Whatever happened to Bush's campaign
slogan of "Leave no child behind" ? When you consider all
the funding for libraries, boys and girls clubs, and other
worthy children's programs that Bush has slashed, in addition
to this news, it appears that quite a few children are being
left behind in Texas - and everywhere else, as he implements
his "compassionate conservative" programs from Texas nationally.
The only question is: who cleans up the mess when Bush pushes
through these same policies for the entire U.S.?
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