AG's Scratchin' Post

[Alex G]

Rick Perry to President Obama: Screw Alabama, what about Texas?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/04/29/971469/-Rick-Perry-to-President-Obama:-Screw%C3%82%C2%A0Alabama,-what-about-Texas
Fri Apr 29, 2011 at 12:45 PM PDT

Two years ago, Rick Perry was talking about
Texas Independence. Now he wants a bailout.

Mr. Secession himself wants more Federal aid, and he's got no sense of shame in demanding it:

Texas Governor Rick Perry criticized the Obama administration on Thursday for not responding to a request for a disaster aid for the parched state, where wildfires have scorched nearly 2 million acres.

"You have to ask, 'Why are you taking care of Alabama and other states?' I know our letter didn't get lost in the mail," Perry, a Republican and frequent critic of the federal government, said after addressing a Texas emergency management conference.

So hundreds die in storms throughout the South and Rick Perry's response is to question why those states are getting federal aid instead of Texas? Funny how he doesn't mention that Texas has already gotten at least $39 million in firefighting aid from FEMA over the past two fire seasons and has already received 22 grants in this fire season alone.

It's a sign of the times that tea party's favorite governor, the guy who said Texas ought to consider seceding from the United States, is now begging the Federal government for dollars. It used to be that conservatives said Texas was the miracle that proved the conservative vision of government worked best, where low taxes actually increased revenue and led to balanced budgets, that the only problem they had with government was that there was too much of it. But then reality set in, and now Texas doesn't have enough money to pay its bills. And its governor has gone from talking up secession to pleading for a bailout.

Well, perhaps if Republicans hadn't been so successful in stigmatizing the notion of Federal aid to states, Rick Perry would be getting the money he says he needs.