Texas Cut Taxes, Spending, Ends Up With $8 Billion Surplus; Obama When Will You Realize Socialism Doesn't Work (Brown, money)
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I won't sit here and dispairage any other state or it's residents. I live in Texas and have all my life.. When I was in school, we typically had about 32-34 kids in a classroom and the teachers maintained discipline and order and actually did a pretty decent job of educating us. My property taxes are too high, but I don't pay income tax. My cost of living is quite low, and my standard of living is higher than most with comparable incomes elsewhere. Does Texas have some problems? Absolutely. Name me anywhere that doesn't. Would I live anywhere else in this country? I have a few times, but I will never move from Texas again. I am content here... I love my state, even for its faults. One thing that hasn't been said is that in Texas, even most of the liberals are somewhat fiscally conservative. It's worked well all in all...
Right on and WELL STATED.
I am not a native of Texas, but have lived here for the past twenty plus years. I didn't love this state right away, but I LOVE IT NOW. I have lived in most of the regions of the US, and in Asia and Europe, and let me tell you, Texas is the best "country" I've ever lived in and I hope I live here till the day I die. It's a terrific state with a strong breed of folks living here - if you live here very long, that same strength can seep right into your veins as well, and into your heart. Texas people are tough, yet kind hearted. They're hard working and expect everyone to pull their own weight - and they put their money where their mouth is. They're savvy and but honest. Their humor is lowkey but very intuitive.
Of course these are generalities, but these traits seem to be part of the Texas spirit and character, and I admire them.
And I love our low cost of living and our ability to earn a very comfortable living from the natural resources of our beautiful state!
Let's revisit cutting back spending in 5, 10 years after Texas continues to lead the nation in raw numerical growth over decades. Lets see if the private sector will build us more roads, highways, schools, electric grids, water supplies just as we deregulated our electricity system.
I can appreciate lawmakers who don't generally spend recklessly. I don't appreciate lawmakers who don't know how to generally spend appropriately. Our economic powerhouses are growing rapidly and we need more infrastructure.
I am not a native of Texas, but have lived here for the past twenty plus years. I didn't love this state right away, but I LOVE IT NOW. I have lived in most of the regions of the US, and in Asia and Europe, and let me tell you, Texas is the best "country" I've ever lived in and I hope I live here till the day I die. It's a terrific state with a strong breed of folks living here - if you live here very long, that same strength can seep right into your veins as well, and into your heart. Texas people are tough, yet kind hearted. They're hard working and expect everyone to pull their own weight - and they put their money where their mouth is. They're savvy and but honest. Their humor is lowkey but very intuitive.
Of course these are generalities, but these traits seem to be part of the Texas spirit and character, and I admire them.
And I love our low cost of living and our ability to earn a very comfortable living from the natural resources of our beautiful state!
I certainly do too. However, there are consequences to being an economic powerhouse, "good problems" like addressing more people moving to your state that can be solved through expanding infrastructure. The type of conservatism here in Texas right now doesn't want to set up a fund to address our water supply and quality. Hopefully, they well do the sensible thing with our surplus and invest in the state.
Easy to get a surplus when you drastically slash education spending. I've seen the average classroom size for my kids grow from around 15 to 23 over the past 5 years as they laid off a bunch of teachers. Texas has one of the worst teacher retention rates, and also is in the bottom 1/3 of average teacher pay. They are recruiting teachers from out of state, where teaching jobs are harder to get. These teachers come for a few years, get some experience and then move back for better pay and benefits. End result is a plethora of inexperienced teachers.
But what is our educational system teaching our kids? Liberal non-responsible, socialism? I would rather home school and teach my kids good ole fashion how to handle finances successfully. I would rather teach them that borrowing is a bad thing. Teach them that living off the labor of others is nothing to be proud of rather something that is shameful.
They may not have the experience but at least the teachers were not indoctrinated to liberal thinking.
Liberals believe in spending money we don't have and to encourage people to be proud to be living off the labor of others without guilt.
Oh please, quit saying this. I live in California and it is a liberal cesspool.
You are just looking at bare, raw, numbers. Of course, 4.8 million people in California voted for Romney. Because its the most POPULACE state in the union. If you look at the percentages, way more people in Texas voted for Romney then California.
Why don't Republican candidates even bother campaigning here? Because its a waste of time. Obama only came here, because a bunch of rich democrats would pay 1,000 bucks plus, per plate, in fund raising for him. This state has money for him and other democrats.
And, because we've had republican governors means jack. While true, the majority of the legislature for the past 30 years has been strongly democrat. Morever, this last election they have a super majority now.
California since its inception has been known to be "socially liberal." There is a reason San Francisco was the heart of "hippy" movement and still has the freaks there to show it. Are there conservative areas of California? Sure, but they are few and far between. The MAJOR population centers of Los Angeles and San Francisco are so far to the left, they are almost off the scale.
At least be honest in your assessments.
I am. I am pointing out FACTS. Using information to support them and showing that it's not black and white and the assertion that California is a hippie liberal state is idiotic.
First of all, if it was the most socially liberal state around, wouldn't we have legalized marijuana, prostitution and gay marriage before Colorado/Washington, Nevada and Iowa (plus more than a dozen others), respectively?
The FACTS point out that there are more conservative people in California than anywhere else. San Diego is a very conservative city which usually elects nothing but Republicans except in the urban center. Los Angeles is NOT as far to the left as you like to think...again, using FACTS to point out my assertion, here you go: Los Angeles voted for Obama 68.6%, in line with most Urban areas. In fact, DeKalb County in Georgia (that Hippie state!) voted for him with 77.9%, El Paso in Texas gave him 65.6%, Hidalgo County in Texas gave him 70.4%, Cuyahoga County in Ohio (you know, Boehner's home state) gave Obama 68.8%.
So there you have it, Los Angeles is not only not "as far left as you can get", it's actually less leftist than some of the biggest counties in Ohio, Texas and Georgia...states not exactly known as Liberal enclaves.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles suburban counties nearly all voted for Romney: Orange County (with over a million voters) gave Romney 53% of the vote, Riverside County (with about 600,000 voters) gave Romney a slight victory, Kern County (about 200,000 voters) supported Romney 58.4%,
As did Fresno (50.6%) and Placer (58.9%) counties.
San Diego and San Bernardino counties both had Obama winning, but only slightly.
The state was thrown off by the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a thriving economy with some of the world's wealthiest residents and the lifeblood of the American economy. It supported Obama about 75%. So yeah, the Bay Area is "liberal", but the rest of the state is essentially reddish-purple. Guess which parts of the state are having the most economic difficulties...I'll give you a hint, about 80% of them voted for Romney.
I voted for Gary Johnson and am an avowed Libertarian, but I'm merely pointing out the facts.
Try facts sometimes, they're pretty informative.
Last edited by ThinkBeforeYouVote; 01-09-2013 at 08:23 AM..
Well some gems came out of the first day of Texas government meeting.
Rick Perry said the revenue news was like ringing the dinner bell as groups from all across the state started asking for money because they think Texas has money pouring out of our ears
One elected official said if we don't spend more money we'll turn into "Guatemala"
A few Tea Party loud mouths said they could a better job leading the Senate but quickly and quietly declined to throw their name in the ring when it came time to vote.
Of course good times aren't back "for good." They never are. Every state, every region, for that matter, every household has ups and downs.
Right now we're in an "up" swing. I really hope that we invest much of that surplus into infrastructure. I will encourage our elected representatives to do so, and I hope other Texans will take the time to encourage their elected representatives to do so as well.
I am. I am pointing out FACTS. Using information to support them and showing that it's not black and white and the assertion that California is a hippie liberal state is idiotic.
First of all, if it was the most socially liberal state around, wouldn't we have legalized marijuana, prostitution and gay marriage before Colorado/Washington, Nevada and Iowa (plus more than a dozen others), respectively?
The FACTS point out that there are more conservative people in California than anywhere else. San Diego is a very conservative city which usually elects nothing but Republicans except in the urban center. Los Angeles is NOT as far to the left as you like to think...again, using FACTS to point out my assertion, here you go: Los Angeles voted for Obama 68.6%, in line with most Urban areas. In fact, DeKalb County in Georgia (that Hippie state!) voted for him with 77.9%, El Paso in Texas gave him 65.6%, Hidalgo County in Texas gave him 70.4%, Cuyahoga County in Ohio (you know, Boehner's home state) gave Obama 68.8%.
So there you have it, Los Angeles is not only not "as far left as you can get", it's actually less leftist than some of the biggest counties in Ohio, Texas and Georgia...states not exactly known as Liberal enclaves.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles suburban counties nearly all voted for Romney: Orange County (with over a million voters) gave Romney 53% of the vote, Riverside County (with about 600,000 voters) gave Romney a slight victory, Kern County (about 200,000 voters) supported Romney 58.4%,
As did Fresno (50.6%) and Placer (58.9%) counties.
San Diego and San Bernardino counties both had Obama winning, but only slightly.
The state was thrown off by the San Francisco Bay Area, which is a thriving economy with some of the world's wealthiest residents and the lifeblood of the American economy. It supported Obama about 75%. So yeah, the Bay Area is "liberal", but the rest of the state is essentially reddish-purple. Guess which parts of the state are having the most economic difficulties...I'll give you a hint, about 80% of them voted for Romney.
I voted for Gary Johnson and am an avowed Libertarian, but I'm merely pointing out the facts.
Try facts sometimes, they're pretty informative.
If you're going to lecture about FACTS, you might want to get yours straight before you shoot your mouth off. San Diego, while very conservative, has NOT elected on only GOP reps, except for urban centers. In fact, there are 3 Dems on the City Council that are from rural or suburban areas, with another from the urban center of SD. That's out of 8 districts. That would be half.
I lived in one of the most conservative areas (left) in CA, and that area was about 50/50. To try and pretend that CA is NOT liberal is laughable. Face it, it's very hippie liberal. And becoming more so every day, as the conservatives give up and head for better run states.
And as for your FACT that there are more conservatives in CA than any other state (I'm assuming you're talking straight numbers, not percentage, which is misleading)? Please, show me those facts. I seriously like to see them. Because I think you don't know, and are just making things up.
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