San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
In tests of character, Texas’ leaders fail.
If we have learned anything over the past year, it’s that adversity reveals the true character of leaders.
Since this is Texas, this lesson means recognizing we have elected state officials driven by self-interest, not the public’s interest, at apparently any cost. They are ill-equipped to lead and, in many instances, undeserving of their posts.
Without shame, indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton advanced the Big Lie of election fraud to subvert our democracy. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has used his authority to castigate and demonize transgender children. In a moment of crisis, Sen. Ted Cruz, another Big Lie enabler, jetted off to Cancún, Mexico, only to quickly return as a freezing public burned with outrage. And then there is Gov. Greg Abbott, a man who knows better — or should know better — and always plays the angles.
This is a governor who has reopened Texas “100 percent” and rescinded a mask mandate, putting Texans at risk of COVID-19, and then has the nerve to tag the spread of COVID-19 to illegal immigration, tweeting (because this is how politicians “speak” and express “thoughts” now), “The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas.”
An aside on Abbott’s decision to reopen so soon: Masks and vaccines are our two best weapons in the war against COVID. Since when do Texans voluntarily disarm during a fight? Apparently on Wednesday when Abbott’s order takes effect.
Unexceptional bravado is a hallmark of Texas exceptionalism, and politicians here have a long history of touting the Lone Star State as business-friendly. That’s true if we are looking through the narrow lens of corporate relocations, lax regulations and population growth, but the winter freeze has punctured this aura of Texas as a business mecca.
Businesses need stability. They need to know the lights will stay on in a crisis and costs are not just low but predictable. This did not happen. For days. Instead, people were scooping water from the River Walk — the River Walk! — to flush toilets
The total cost of this natural disaster, magnified by a fierce allegiance to deregulation, poor oversight and failure to winterize power sources, could reach $50 billion. In San Antonio, where hundreds of thousands of residents went without power, water or both, CPS Energy has said it cost about $1 billion to keep the power running — for some of the city.
While the cost of the storm will be negotiated and litigated, as well as mitigated by state lawmakers and federal aid, some portion of the bill will fall to Texans. It is a legacy of failure
Beyond stability and predictability, businesses and everyday Texans also need elected leaders who show nonpartisan grit and unfailing devotion to the public. This precludes quick family trips to Mexico to warm up, or appearances on Fox News with Sean Hannity to speak falsely about renewable energy and the supposed horrors of the Green New Deal.
Businesses and everyday Texans also need state leaders who prioritize health and well-being. Abbott’s decision to reopen Texas and rescind his mask mandate is a slap in the face to health care workers and medical experts. But should we be surprised? This is a governor who has refused to expand Medicaid, even though the state’s uninsured rate stood at 18.4 percent before the pandemic.
Expanding Medicaid isn’t a radical position. Texas is one of 12 states that has failed to do this. And recent polling from the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs found 69 percent of respondents support expanding Medicaid. Doing so would extend coverage to 1 million low-income Texans.
And as state Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, has argued, the federal government will cover 90 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion. “You take all the politics out of it, it’s really a bad business decision not to access the federal dollars,” he said.
But that’s just the problem. Our elected leaders have demonstrated “the politics” will never be taken “out of it.” And this is how Texans freeze in the dark, fight over masks in a pandemic, scoop water from the River Walk to flush toilets, or live and die without access to health care.