- Part 1 - Debunking the Job Growth Miracle
- Part 2 - Limiting Opportunity and Economic Mobility
- Part 3 - Failing to Invest in Texas' Future
- Part 4 - Cronyism: The Texas Miracle Is That No One Is In Jail Yet
Part 1 - Debunking the Job Growth Miracle
Whether it is Texans hurting for work, stagnant wages, or rising income inequality, the policies of Greg Abbott and Rick Perry have proved damaging for Texas and her people - which is why Perry and Abbott spend so much time promoting the hoax of a 'Texas miracle.'
“For the last 41 years Texas has added more jobs than any other state, and in most years, has led the nation in job creation, so Gov. Perry can claim that these jobs were created on his watch, but they were created on everybody else’s watch too.”
FACT: People Have Been Moving Here for Decades - Long Before GOP Took the Reigns of Government
In Texas, population growth is propelled by high in-state birthrates, a growing foreign-born population and domestic migration from just about everywhere in the country except the heavily Democratic Northeast, including elsewhere in the South.
- 54% of our state's population increase is natural growth – births and deaths.
- 23.7% comes from international immigration - which Abbott demonizes to score political points.
- 21.6% comes from people moving to Texas from other states.
Part 2 - Limiting Opportunity and Economic Mobility
When you consider Abbott's positions on the following policies – minimum wage, equal pay, and predatory lending – it becomes clear his so-called miracle only extends to Texans who already have a chance to get ahead.
Greg Abbott’s disastrous policies reflect his belief that women, minorities, and low-wage workers have no place in the future of Texas.
[[{"fid":"1750","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Greg Abbott - Against Minimum Wage Raise","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"906"},"type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Greg Abbott - Against Minimum Wage Raise","height":"315","width":"600","style":"width: 500px; height: 263px;","class":"media-element file-default center"}}]]
Greg Abbott Opposes Raising the Minimum Wage
Raising the minimum wage increases the cost of a burger by a couple pennies. Over the past few decades, prices have gone up - but wages have not. Yet Greg Abbott opposes a raise in the minimum wage, and his party platform supports the repeal of the national minimum wage law altogether.
The disaster of Abbott’s opposition to raising the minimum wage is obvious to Texas families:
- Over 2.8 million Texans would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage.
- 62% of minimum wage earners in Texas are women. These jobs are not a summer gig for spending money; they are a crucial source of income for families.
- 26% of Texas children live in poverty. While most workers are adults, not kids, it is obvious that a living wage is good for parents caring for children and for today's children that will need to support their parents and siblings as soon as they can work.
To act as if low-wage workers are less deserving because they don’t hold “elite” jobs is insulting to hard working Texans doing their best to provide for their families. Perry and Abbott are so focused on protecting their insider donors and luring big businesses away from other states that they are neglecting struggling Texans.
Greg Abbott Opposes Equal Pay for Equal Work
Abbott says he wouldn’t implement the Texas Equal Pay Act – which shouldn’t be surprising since in his own office he pays women less than men for doing the same work.
When the San Antonio Express-News looked into the salaries of people working for the Attorney General, they found that for the most part, men were better paid in almost all areas. This led other newspapers to investigate, as well - the following graph is from the Texas Tribune:
[[{"fid":"1751","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Media Annual Salary by Title & Gender Chart","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"906"},"type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Media Annual Salary by Title & Gender Chart","height":"600","width":"800","style":"width: 500px; height: 375px;","class":"media-element file-default center"}}]]
Greg Abbott Defends Predatory Lending Donors
Payday loans force Texas workers to live paycheck to paycheck. It is difficult to be economically mobile when the end of each month pressures workers to continue the cycle of loans or forgo food, electricity, or even medication.
Rather than help those suffering Texans, Greg Abbott sees a reason to profit.
Greg Abbott is actively encouraging this behavior. Predatory lenders have contributed well over $250,000 to his campaign. As payback, an Abbott-approved loophole helped the number of predatory lenders in Texas nearly triple from 1,279 neighborhood storefronts to more than 3,500.
As the Texas Tribune wrote in their ongoing series debunking the Texas Miracle:
Texans take out larger payday loans than borrowers in other states ($468 on average, compared with $392 nationwide) and pay higher annual percentage rates (439%, compared with 339% nationwide), according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonprofit research organization. In 2013 alone, almost 38,000 vehicles were repossessed in Texas for defaults on title loans.
Abbott works for his insiders, allowing these predators to run rampant through impoverished communities and exploit their economic instability.
Part 3 - Failing to Invest in Texas' Future
As the state expands, it is important that infrastructure also expands to accommodate the growth. Without a decent education, roads to transport people and goods, affordable health care for workers and families, and water to keep everything going, a state’s unchecked growth can actually become its downfall.
Greg Abbott’s disastrous policies offer no relief to any of these challenges and, in fact, are likely to only make our lives worse in the long run.
[[{"fid":"1752","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Tea Party Education Cuts","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"906"},"type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Tea Party Education Cuts","height":"415","width":"1200","style":"width: 500px; height: 173px;","class":"media-element file-default center"}}]]
EDUCATION
The promise that hard work will give you a chance at a better life rings hollow if you do not give young people the tools they need to succeed. Education in Texas has suffered major blows, mainly from the people in office who should be first in line to defend it.
The Facts:
- From 2002 to 2012, Texas’ student population jumped 20% to over 5 million students.
- At the same time Texas Hispanics are the majority in Texas classrooms, and more teachers left Texas schools than were hired for the first time in history.
Abbott’s Positions:
- Greg Abbott is actively defending education cuts that have been ruled unconstitutional by Texas courts. He lied when he said he has no choice but to defend the cuts - even the Texas press has called him out for his lie.
- An architect of Greg Abbott’s education plan is an alleged scholar who claims women lack scientific aptitude to be leaders and that, “no woman has been a significant original thinker in any of the world’s great philosophical traditions.”
HEALTH CARE
Texas has the highest rate of the uninsured in America, and the Texas Miracle has done nothing to fix it. Hospitals, county judges, economists, and local Democratic officials are working tirelessly to break the ideological stranglehold Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, and Dan Patrick have on the state about Medicaid expansion.
The Facts:
- 6 million Texans are uninsured and over 2 million more Texans would have health coverage if Texas would have accepted federal funds to expanded Medicaid.
- Expanding Medicaid could create over 200,000 jobs in the next few years and secure billions of dollars for our local economies.
- Business leaders and chambers of commerce across the state have called for a solution, whether Medicaid expansion or some Texas-specific idea, to fix the problem.
Abbott’s Positions:
- Abbott opposes Medicaid expansion, calling for block grants that even GOP Senators have called not likely and "unproductive."
- Abbott has called for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act – which could immediately jeopardize health care for 734,000 Texans and return us to a time when we could be denied health coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
- Then again, Abbott may not even know what he thinks. In a recent op-ed interview, Abbott managed to protest and praise Medicaid...in back-to-back sentences:
"Medicaid provides less access to real healthcare. The state of Texas provides an extraordinary network of access points through Medicaid." - Greg Abbott
TRANSPORTATION
Meanwhile, Texas roads are falling into disrepair and becoming increasingly congested due to lack of upgrades and expansions.
The Facts:
- A report by the Texas Comptroller, "Texas in Focus", found that, “In 2002, almost 1 billion tons of freight, valued at $866 billion, were moved by truck in Texas, or about 46 percent of all freight moved in Texas that year.”
- According to a national transportation research group, Texas motorists have to pay $5.7 billion extra a year for repairing their vehicles because they have to drive on such terrible roads.
Abbott’s Positions:
- Opposes any new dollars for transportation, opting instead to shift existing dollars to roads – but offering no explanation of how to replace the redirected dollars currently going to education and public safety.
WATER
It is news to no one that Texas is experiencing a painful drought that has far reaching effects all over the state. What’s surprising is how little Abbott has proposed to confront the challenge ahead.
The Facts:
- 87% of the state is currently ranked as experiencing some level of drought.
- Texas has reported $26 billion in drinking water infrastructure needs over the next 20 years.
- The Texas Drought Project laid it out like this: “Years of unregulated expansion and sprawl, limitless groundwater pumping, and poor conservation management practices have set up the state for disaster. Now come the effects of climate change, with increased temperatures and evaporation rates, and the result is a disaster.”
Abbott’s Positions:
- As with transportation, Abbott pays lips service to the problem but offers no solution while maintaining that no new revenue is necessary to address the disastrous drought.
- Greg Abbott has a well on his property to get around Texas water regulations and pump as much water from the ground as he pleases – regardless of whether or not it depletes another well or water source. This shows a lack of leadership and a complete disregard for regulations that exist for the public good.
Part 4 - Cronyism: The Texas Miracle Is That No One Is In Jail Yet
Time and time again, Abbott has made disastrous decisions that benefit his wealthy insider donors at the expense of the people of Texas.
We've spent so much time tracking Abbott's corruption charges, the easiest way to get them in one place is with one of our old-fashioned Top 10 Lists:
10. Abbott's Education Privatization Plan Fueled by Donors
Greg Abbott lied to the media about having to defend $5 billion in Tea Party education cuts. Why? One reason may be his involvement with his efforts to further education privatization on behalf of his insiders and donors. Abbott received a $100,000 check from Texans for Lawsuit Reform - his first TLR donation in more than ten years - days after he announced his digital learning plan.
[[{"fid":"1224","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Greg Abbott ","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":"abbott_sad_kid.png"}]]
9. Abbott Lets Bank of America Use Texas Taxpayers Like ATM
In return for the $115,000 in campaign contributions he's taken from Bank of America, Greg Abbott looked the other way and did nothing to collect the $3.3 million the bank owed taxpayers for not fulfilling its TEF contract.
[[{"fid":"1109","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":"abbott_burningmoney.jpeg"}]]
8. Farmers Insurance PAC Gives Greg Abbott $127,000, Gets Sweetheart Deal in Return
Farmers Insurance PAC has contributed $127,000 to Attorney General Greg Abbott while he oversees a homeowners insurance case against the company - once again putting the interests of his donors ahead of the interest of the people of Texas.
[[{"fid":"1112","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":"abbott_raining_money.jpg"}]]
7. Greg Abbott Refuses to Say if Perry Has to Pay Back Taxpayers $133,000 For His Legal Fees
On April 25, 2014, State Rep. Joe Deshotel asked Abbott to rule on whether or not Rick Perry can use taxpayer funds to pay the legal bills for the grand jury investigation that led to his indictment. To date, Perry has charged taxpayers $133,000 for his high-priced lawyers with cheap excuses. Abbott has refused to speak on the ruling.
[[{"fid":"968","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":"abbott_perry.png"}]]
6. Greg Abbott Fought to Protect Socipath Doctor over Victims
After accepting $250,000 in campaign contributions from the chairman of the hostpital that employed the now infamous sociopath surgeon, Greg Abbott chose to intervene in a lawsuit filed against that same hospital by the families of the doctor's victims.
5. Abbott Protects His Predatory Lenders' Payday
Greg Abbott has also taken in more than $250,000 in campaign contributions from the predatory lending industry he helped expand. In 2006, Abbott issued a legal opinion exposing a loophole in Texas usury law that cleared the way for predatory lenders to take advantage of a more profitable provision and operate without limits on interest rates (charging rates in excess of 500%).
[[{"fid":"1024","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":"abbott_fraud.png"}]]
4. Perry and Abbott Allowed $222 Million to Companies That Did Not Ask For It
The Texas Enterprise Fund, one of Governor Perry’s most touted initiatives, was exposed for awarding nearly $222 million in no-strings-attached funds to business that didn’t fill out an application for the money and were not required to use the funds for job creation. Attorney General Abbott turned a blind eye to it all - then took $1.4 million from those same groups.
[[{"fid":"1753","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Greg Abbott & Rick Perry Bobbleheads","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"906"},"type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Greg Abbott & Rick Perry Bobbleheads","height":"315","width":"600","class":"media-element file-default"}}]]
3. Greg Abbott Opposed Informing Residents of Neighborhood Chemical Facilities
In the wake of the chemical explosion that killed 15 people in West, TX, Greg Abbott did the unthinkable and wrote several Attorney General opinions allowing state agencies to withhold public records of the locations where dangerous chemicals are stored. And it comes as no surprise that Abbott’s political campaigns have taken in more than $125,000 from businesses—including $75,000 from Koch brother interests, whose money came in the last year—that stand to benefit from keeping this information secret.
[[{"fid":"1567","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"height":"235","width":"448","class":"media-element file-default"}}]]
2. Cancer Funds Funneled to Abbott Donors
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) was supposed to provide funding for cancer research. But soon after its implementation, the multi-billion dollar entity was awarding grants to donors of Rick Perry and Greg Abbott without the proper review. Scientists resigned in protest, and an investigation into the activities of the fund has since resulted in a felony indictment. Greg Abbott, as the state's Attorney General, was tasked with serving as a watchdog for this cancer research fund. But he never attended a board meeting - and took no action when cancer research dollars were funneled to his donors.
[[{"fid":"1179","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"","field_folder[und]":"_none"},"type":"media","attributes":{"style":"height: 292px; width: 500px;","class":"media-element file-default"},"link_text":"abbott_corruption.png"}]]
1. Abbott Denied Texans the Same Justice He Received
Above all else, Abbott's focus remains on benefiting himself and his own political career over others. Abbott will receive up to $10 million in his life for the tree that fell on him, yet he's denied justice to other Texans - including a woman with an ampuated leg Abbott ruled was not "disabled", a young mother raped by a sexual predator, and hospital victims maimed or killed by a surgeon high on cocaine.
DONATE
Your donation supports our media and helps us keep it free of ads and paywalls.
