Most of us reside mainly in the middle

Herman

by way of Democratic boilerplate.

“It’s probably by design, I would think,” he said of Texas’ low-service status. “Is it good or bad? It depends if you need those services. If you need those services, and they’re not there, then it’s a bad thing.”

Rodriguez, who has many low-income constituents, said “taking care of people is not a cheap proposition.” (At this point let’s acknowledge how especially expensive it is to take care of people who opt not to take care of themselves.)

“Government is not there to take care of you every step of the way,” Rodriguez said.

Crownover oflered the personal responsibility message in a health care context.

“We know that people have tremendous health challenges. But the thing that all the health insurance and all the medical care in the whole world is not going to address is when we have 14 million people that are obese,” she said. “There’s not enough money in the world to address that. If you address smoking and if you address obesity, you’re halfway there. Then you have a problem you can manage.”

In the end, what we had was a respectful discussion between two people with diflerent views of government. Good for them. Let’s hope for more of that during the legislative session that begins Jan. 8.

Because they have the numbers (which is because they win elections), the Republicans will prevail. The real battle will be to make sure the GOP victories