Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

By now, the Rick Perry, Radical Republican agenda is clear. During the 82nd Session of the Texas Legislature, TEA party Republicans mean to wage war on Hispanics.

In Perry’s party, which just took 22 seats away from Democrats to create a supermajority in the Texas House, the agenda is now crystal clear—cut taxes for the billionaires that funded Perry’s last election, cut budgets for key programs that invest in Hispanic education and health, cut regulations to corporations like the predatory lenders whose PACs pay for House wins and do anything possible to keep Hispanics away from the ballot box.

Retired state Senator Eliot Shapleigh from El Paso sent the following letter to the Milwaukee Sentinel editor. Shapleigh was one of 11 Senate Democrats who left the state for Albuquerque, N.M. in the summer of 2003 to deny a quorum needed for the Senate to approve a controversial redistricting bill. After holding out for 48 days, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, threw in the towel – and the Texas Legislature approved another congressional redistricting map.

On the evening of Wednesday, June 23rd, Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was monitoring events on Capitol Hill from his office, which overlooks the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center. Volcker, who is eighty-two years old, works at a polished granite desk covered with correspondence, books, and financial reports. Apart from a slight loss of hearing, he is in robust health, and when he rises to greet guests he towers above them. His height (six feet eight inches) is initially intimidating, but that impression is soon mitigated by his wry manner. For a year and a half, Volcker, who serves as an economic adviser to President Barack Obama, had been waging a campaign to curb greed and speculation on Wall Street. This effort was reaching a climax, as the Senate and the House of Representatives worked to reconcile the lengthy financial-reform bills that each had passed.

Over his twenty-five years in Texas government, Rick Perry has seceded from reality. Under his leadership, Texas has more uninsured than any other state. From 2000 to 2009, the cost of health insurance premiums for Texas families increased 91.6 percent. Here in El Paso, we have fewer doctors, nurses and dentists than any big city in America. That is Perry’s legacy. We welcome any session, special or regular, to show just how much good the President’s plan will deliver to Texans.

"We so appreciate your courage and tenacity to deliver on the promise of fundamental change to fix what everyone acknowledges is a broken health care system. If "starting over" is what Republicans still want, then I ask you to review the history of health care in Texas from George W. Bush to Rick Perry—because “starting over" here means no action at all to address woefully inadequate health care access in the least insured state in the country."