Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

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.

State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh opposes a tax increase for the El Paso Independent School District, saying its leadership is inefficient, central administration salaries are bloated, and Bowie High School has violated the civil rights of students.

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."

What can Texas learn from ducks? By that I mean Oregon Ducks, that strain of independent westerner whose university's duck mascot comes often to entertain El Paso in the Sun Bowl. From our view here in God’s Country—in a state that is first in those without a high school diploma, last in insured, and about to face a $17 billion deficit in ten short months—we can all learn a lot from ducks.