Unclean

“I am a fiscal conservative.” It is one of the, shall we call them hallmark phrases of every Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn speech. She has several, and I am sure all of you who have seen her speak at least twice will be finishing each aloud to yourselves as you read them.

There is, “Texas is great but we can do better”, a direct lift from Democrat Tony Sanchez’s horrendous failure of an effort to unseat Governor Rick Perry in 2002, and service as a reminder that Comptroller Strayhorn’s on-again off-again Press Secretary Mark Sanders found work as same in Sanchez’s campaign in his one of his more off-again moments.

There are many people one could choose to emulate when seeking the highest elective office in this particular land; Tony Sanchez is by no means one of them. For a whole host of reasons, a great many of them fiscal.

Then there is, “We can and we must be leaner --- not meaner”, an ostensible reference the Comptroller often makes to, amongst many other things, the Governor’s remodeling of the ramshackle Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which contained graft holes large enough to, well, graft through. A lot.

(Never mind the fact that the blueprints of said CHIP refashion were drafted by … [wait for it] Comptroller Strayhorn herself.)

Inherent in this is the notion that Mrs. Strayhorn would like to see the old process of sack and loot returned to CHIP administration, else why would she chastise the Governor for tightening the reins?

Strayhorn's matriculated

Then there is the oldie but goodie, “I would rather spend $5,000 a year educating that Texan, rather than $15,000 a year incarcerating that Texan”, a reference to her oh so fiscally conservative plan to provide two years of free post-high school education to every resident of the Lone Star State.

This leads one to draw the inevitable conclusion that in the mind of the Comptroller, there are only two options for one who has just matriculated: college or jail.

And spending additional billions of taxpayer dollars is by no means a fiscally conservative proposition.

So to follow up all of these catch phrases with the summative “I am a fiscal conservative” is quite astonishing, as it belies everything she has just delivered or railed against in her speech up unto that point.

Not to mention the fact that it has nothing at all to do with what she has spent the last two years saying to the public and flaying at the Governor. Everything for which she now stands is all government, all the time.

The policy examples are myriad. Let us regard, again, CHIP, which was an unregulated come one-come all governmental pot of gold until Perry addressed in the 2003 legislative session some theretofore unpresent rudimentary oversight issues.

By simply implementing a means test, and reducing the interval between renewal applications from one year to six months (note that he did NOT increase the 200% of federal poverty level threshold for eligibility), Perry reduced by thousands the number of Lexus and Mercedes SUV owners availing themselves of CHIP benefits.

(Lest you think I am exaggerating, there were numerous actual instances of people with multiple luxury automobiles on the dole; they were amongst those culled under Perry’s newly strident regimen.)

My question to the Comptroller would be: To what aspect(s) of this new process do you object?

And the Comptroller has repeatedly chastised the Governor for “leaving federal dollars on the table” for both CHIP and Medicare. To what she refers are the federal matching funds every state receives when spending more of what they often do not have on these two programs.

Onward and upward

Governor Perry saw this as a road to economic ruin, and curtailed the runaway expenditures thereon.

This fiscal conservatism, practiced by Perry and scorned by Strayhorn, was a huge part of the budgetary transformation of a $10 billion shortfall in 2003 to a $6.4 billion surplus this year.

So, in short, words in speeches mean very little, while deeds in office mean quite a bit. Erstwhile conservative Strayhorn supporters, who rely on the threadbare former, while ignoring the copious reams of the latter, will find themselves unclothed come next March.

Copyright June 28th, 2005, by Seton Motley, LessGovernment.org, All Rights Reserved

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