The Children are Quiet

If the kids are silent, does it mean something’s wrong? The sounds of the in-fighting that plagued a legislature under Tom Craddick were absent during a house proposal for the budget plan under the new leadership of Joe Straus. Stranger than that, they were in unanimous agreement on raising the money allocated to such services as financial-aid for college students and raising the enrollment to Children’s Health Plan. This whole situation of the lege singing “Kumbaya” and holding hands while passing social bills is great, but also off-putting.

It’s exceptionally pleasant that the legislature is finally being fiscally smart instead of dumping it into Governor Rick Perry’s Enterprise Fund. The stories regarding previous major cuts to health and educational services makes one wonder if Texas elected officials really champion their constituent’s best interests. Perry’s railing against taking federal funds is inane in saying we would create a situation where we would just further exacerbate the issues. We’ve gutted these services long enough and I’m happy that the legislature recognized the elephant in the room and chose to ignore Perry’s incessant screaming. Never mind the man behind the curtain. Perry’s Oz seems to be plagued with an infestation of the uneducated, sick, and poor.

Tom Craddick is the equivalent of an abused kid who then becomes the bully. His early political years in the democratic majority legislature provided him only with frustration and resentment. When he rose up in ranks to become Speaker of the House, the first Republican in 130 years, he unleashed what had been bottled up. All of Craddick’s history doesn’t excuse him for his oppression in the legislature. The guy was a hard-lined asshole.

His use of maltreatment to push his agenda fostered a legislature where open discussion about issues was disregarded. He’s killed bills regarding school finance reform that both democrats and republicans agreed with. In one instance in May 2004 during a special session regarding education, he turned off the microphone of a dissenting representative. I’m glad he’s gone and I’m positive that the entire legislature is relieved too.

So is it just a honeymoon period in the legislature under Joe Straus’ new lead? While the legislature is enjoying their newfound freedom, Straus’ hands-off approach might eventually backfire on him when it comes to controversial issues such as embryonic stem cell research. At least for the time being, we can sit back and enjoy the momentary silence.