The Depravity Of A Republican Budget

We haven't even reached the peak of legislative activity yet.

(I clipped all the best moments for you below.)

A legislative budget is a plan for how public funds will be allocated and spent by the government. It is developed by lawmakers to guide the allocation of government resources in a manner that reflects the priorities and values of the legislative body.

Republicans had their priorities and values on display this week in the Texas House yesterday.

For starters, they banned diversity, equity, and inclusion. The GOP profoundly misunderstands and misrepresents the meaning and purpose of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. DEI aims to promote equal opportunities for people from all backgrounds and create an inclusive environment that values diversity and recognizes the unique experiences and perspectives people bring to the table.

Does Republicans’ rejection of DEI policies, banning them without proper understanding and reasoning, look discriminatory and racist? You be the judge.

At one point, Representative Erin Zwiener even attempted to reason with them in a speech that started with, “My fellow white people.”

The video above is long (an hour), but if you get the time to scroll through it, you’ll hear several amazing Democratic speeches.

Where is our money going?

Republicans voted to send millions of dollars to fake pregnancy centers. These are the places that we’ve seen so many times in the news that lure women in poverty with big signs that say, “free pregnancy tests.” Then, once the woman takes a test that shows they are pregnant, the center will do everything possible to talk them out of an abortion and into adoption. From a Christian adoption agency, of course, one that they’ll gladly refer. These clinics have even been known to go as far as telling young women that they’ll go to hell if they have an abortion and showing them pictures of dismembered fetuses.

See the amendment passed among party lines below:

However, if that wasn’t egregious enough when an amendment came up to adequately fund special education, Republicans gleefully voted against it.

During the Trump administration, Texas was found to have violated special education law and was put under federal oversight. Since then, the U.S. government has been funding special education in Texas and racking up a huge bill that they will sue Texas to pay.

The federal government put stipulations on Texas to fix its problems with special education funding. They have not. And this week, Republicans voted to continue not to fund it. See below:

Democrats introduced an amendment to give teachers a $10,000 pay raise.

Do you want to guess how Republicans voted?

Yeah, they voted against it, and Jared Patterson (R) gave us a viral moment when he joked about giving teachers a pay raise and then promised to vote it down. That video has received over one million views on all my social media channels so far, and several others have posted it. There isn’t a teacher in North Texas that will ever vote for Patterson again.

Another amendment that came up (by Democrats) was to ensure that students were being funded through student allotments, and we weren’t sending that money to TEA, instead.

Fund students, not beurocrats. Hasn’t that been what the GOP told us with their school voucher arguments? They had the opportunity to show us all that they meant it, but they voted against it.

Representative Chris Turner (D) tried to introduce an amendment to expand Medicaid. But, unsurprisingly, Republicans voted against it, even though it would save Texas money in the long run.

We don’t give up, though. And this exercise should solidify your belief in how strong Texas Democrats are against the worst of humanity. They are smarter and more well-equipt. But, unfortunately, they are still outnumbered.

We did have a huge win when we killed school vouchers. It was their first big test. And although they aren’t dead-dead, it’ll be hard to get them passed after this:

While it seems we had several losses, many of these amendments weren’t even legal under the Texas constitution and won’t matter in the long run. They’re more like statements. The battle is far from over.

Stay tuned.