Texas is #1…in Uninsured and Pollution

Texas is #1 but I’m not talking about the Longhorn football team. The Texas Legislative Study Group has released this year’s report, Texas on the Brink, a report on the state of the State, the fifth biennial edition of a project initiated by now-retired El Paso Sen. Eliot Shapleigh.

While Gov. Rick Perry likes to portray Texas as a business Utopia with below average unemployment and brags about his “commitment to strengthening Texas’ competitive jobs climate“, the report highlights the costs of Perry’s 10+ years in office.

According to the report, Texas is #1 in the:

• Percent of Uninsured Children
• Percent of Population Uninsured
• Percent of Non-Elderly Uninsured
• Amount of Carbon Dioxide Emissions
• Amount of Volatile Organic Compounds Released into Air
• Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released into Water
• Amount of Recognized Cancer-Causing Carcinogens Released into Air
• Amount of Hazardous Waste Generated

And, of course, Texas is also #1 in the Number of Executions.

As citizens of Texas, are we supposed to be proud of being #1?

There are rumors Perry wants to run for president in 2012. Under his stewardship, Texas has been a testing ground for many of the policies the current Tea Party Republican politicians advocate. During his State of the State address, Gov. Perry proposed consolidating or suspending non-critical state agencies in order to make state government more streamlined and efficient. One has to believe he would propose similar policies at the federal level.

During his 2010 re-election campaign, Gov. Perry endorsed the Tea Party and what it stands for and the Tea Party has gone on record that it thinks the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should be reigned in. I guess Perry thinks the EPA is one those non-critical agencies that should be suspended to make government more efficient.

Without the EPA, corporations would be free to revert to old policies of polluting the atmosphere and releasing carcinogens into our air and water, all in the name of creating a more competitive jobs climate.

Look at the big picture. Sure we all want to address unemployment but do we really want to go back in time where pollution was unchecked and corporations were free to run sweat shops?