The 1st week of the Texas Legislature began on Tuesday and it was quite the opposite of where we ended two years ago. While the Senate finished strong and unified last session and the House melted down in the final hours, a year and a half later, the Senate started this session with a melt-down of its own over the rules front (voter i.d. and re-districting would be the exception) and the House began… well, unified!
An interesting session is before us, especially when you start thinking about the higher offices at stake. We start with the Governor’s race. KBH is probably coming home and this means turbulent times for Perry. How does the Governor come down on very conservative issues needed to win a Republican primary election against KBH, but then become more middle-of-the-road during the general election? Pay attention to every decision he makes this session with 2010 in mind. We can follow this down to the US senate race KBH will be vacating, and all of the statewide offices that will become available when those folks run for other seats.
The House and Senate both adjourned until post-inauguration. In DC, we prepared for an economic stimulus package we thought was going to focus on infrastructure and help us get needed money for projects like North Tarrant Express, Southwest to Northeast Commuter Rail, Trinity River Vision, Tarrant Regional Water District projects and many more. Now it’s said that the new administration is going to move the focus of the stimulus funds towards education and social services. We’ll see what happens after Tuesday.
Finally, the papers continue to report gloom and doom in our economy with layoffs, corporate bankruptcies and closings. We are soon going to see a lot of people out of work with time on their hands. It might be a good time to get more involved in the decisions made every day in Washington, Austin and here locally, that affect all of our lives.
On a credible major network news show last week, there was more emphasis on what the new First Lady would be wearing Tuesday and the breakdown of “Chicago Style” than any substantive speculation on what might be said at the inauguration and which direction this country might be led in the near future.
I think everyone needs to demand a little more.
They need to demand a little more from the people who are making decisions on how long it takes you to get to work everyday, where you’re going to send your kids to school, how much take-home money you’ll have at the end of the month, and how much groceries will cost.
We need to demand a little more from ourselves in these times. What are you going to do?
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