For one, we’re the nation’s most-uninsured state. According new U.S. Census data, 21.7% of Texas adults age 19 to 64 went without health insurance in 2023, nearly double the national rate.
We’re also regularly ranked near the bottom when it comes to worker protections, and our unemployment benefits cover less than 10% of the average cost of living, a recent CNBC study showed.
When it comes to public schools, Texas is $4,000 behind the national average in per-pupil spending, putting it in the bottom 10. What’s more, our basic allotment for school spending hasn’t gone up since 2019.
None of those things appear to matter much to Patrick, who recently released a second list of 21 legislative priorities for the Texas Senate, the body over which he presides and sets the agenda.
Rather than calling for legitimate solutions to the state’s most serious shortfalls, Patrick’s directives double down on extreme right-wing priorities more attuned to fanning the flames of culture war.
Striking against a familiar Republican bogeyman, for example, Patrick wants to “expose” how Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at universities are “damaging and not aligned with state workforce demands.” Even after state lawmakers passed legislation last session banning DEI programs at public universities — a move resulting in layoffs and confusion — he now wants to “examine programs and certificates” at other schools, presumably the private ones.
In an effort to replicate laws recently passed by other red states, Patrick also wants to ban protesters from wearing masks, something he suggested they’re doing so they can get away with crime. Civil rights groups and immunocompromised people argue such bans solve nothing and violate the rights of people to protect their identities and stay healthy.
And in what’s become a familiar Republican drumbeat, Patrick is also demanding that lawmakers discuss proposals to keep non-citizens from voting. Never mind, of course, that state laws — including two passed in 2021 — already ensure that only citizens cast ballots. And never mind that it’s exceedingly rare that non-citizens even try to register to vote or for elections officials not to flag the applications of those who do, voting experts say.
Until Texans decide to vote this assclown out of office, expert more skewed priorities and divisive legislation from the state legislature. And, as a result, expect the Lone Star State’s real, pressing and profound and problems to snowball.
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