By Bill Keffer
Texas Insider Report: Austin TX What if there was an election whose results were purportedly of such epic historic proportion that it prompted the use of extreme descriptions like sweep" landslide" and tidal wave" yet nothing changed? Nothing that is except the number of chairs designated as R" and D" on the deck of the Titanic?
The November 2010 election of course was such an event but there are already too many warning signs that this epic" election will not bring about the sea change in government that voters are demanding and that our nation and state require to survive let alone thrive in the long term.
Congressional leaders in Washington have struck a compromise" with President Obama to extend the Bush tax cuts for another two years while at the same time trying to pass a 2000-page spending
bill containing 6700 earmarks at a price tag of $1.1 trillion. In other words Congress and the President are compromising" by enacting continued uncertainty in our tax code while pursuing the certainty of permanent spending on a phone book-sized compilation of pork projects the very
symbol of voter outrage expressed just thirty days ago.
Enough Republican senators blinked at the last minute to stop the spending bill on the first attempt but beware the liquor cabinet hasnt been locked just yet.
Message delivery failed.
House Republicans in Washington fresh from an election giving them their largest majority in over 50 years are apparently going to acknowledge the voters desperate plea for a change in government by retaining the same leadership in the person of John Boehner of Ohio who presided over the last Republican debacle as House Minority Leader that led to the partys humiliating losses only two years ago.
It is hard to know why Boehner cries so much but making him Speaker might very well turn out to be something for the rest of us to cry about.
Message delivery failed.
In Texas there is also a Speakers race among the Republicans whose numbers in the Texas House rocketed as a result of Novembers elections from 77 to 101.
Conservatives Warren Chisum (Pampa) and Ken Paxton (McKinney) are challenging current Speaker Joe Straus (San Antonio) on the premise that the election results indicate that Texas voters want a much more conservative legislature led by a conservative Speaker.
And yet the numbers (heavily influenced by the 49 remaining Democrats) seem to
indicate that Speaker Straus will be back.
Message delivery failed.
The upcoming legislative session in Austin will revolve around two major issues:
- The Texas State Budget and
- Redistricting.
With a predicted $20-billion shortfall the legislature will be facing a stiff challenge on how to close that gap.
Voters did not elect 22 new Republican House members just to watch them raise taxes and keep spending money. They want government to change.
Change" means doing it differently.
Just doing less of more of the same would mean
message delivery failed.
The 2010 census results will likely mean four new seats in Congress for Texas and it will mean new boundaries and shifts among state-legislative districts. Redistricting will certainly and understandably receive a lot of attention during the session.
However if Republican leadership doesnt result in a fundamental change in government then the number of Rs" versus Ds" will be as meaningless as the jersey colors of two teams in a football game someone wins someone loses but in the end it was only a game.
And it would be yet another
message delivery failed.
So do these potential message failures portend the overall coming failure of our representative government that even when voters speak in such resounding terms nothing can be changed?
Not if those who are the represented" remain engaged.
The November election was a wake-up call. But wake-up calls are effective only when the urge to hit the snooze button is resisted.
Thomas Jefferson said: The price of liberty is eternal vigilance." Eternal" is more than one mid-term election.
Bad habits come easily; good habits like discipline and adherence to our Constitution require repetition admonition and perseverance. And that is the only way these messages will finally be received.
Clean rinse and repeat.
Bill Keffer a Dallas attorney was first elected to the Texas House in 2002 & served through 2006. His email address is bkeffer@mklaw.net
symbol of voter outrage expressed just thirty days ago.
Enough Republican senators blinked at the last minute to stop the spending bill on the first attempt but beware the liquor cabinet hasnt been locked just yet.
Message delivery failed.
House Republicans in Washington fresh from an election giving them their largest majority in over 50 years are apparently going to acknowledge the voters desperate plea for a change in government by retaining the same leadership in the person of John Boehner of Ohio who presided over the last Republican debacle as House Minority Leader that led to the partys humiliating losses only two years ago.
It is hard to know why Boehner cries so much but making him Speaker might very well turn out to be something for the rest of us to cry about.
Message delivery failed.
In Texas there is also a Speakers race among the Republicans whose numbers in the Texas House rocketed as a result of Novembers elections from 77 to 101.
Conservatives Warren Chisum (Pampa) and Ken Paxton (McKinney) are challenging current Speaker Joe Straus (San Antonio) on the premise that the election results indicate that Texas voters want a much more conservative legislature led by a conservative Speaker.
And yet the numbers (heavily influenced by the 49 remaining Democrats) seem to 
