A NEW YORK 'THANKS' THAT'S AS BIG AS TEXAS

Reproduced with the permission of The Austin American-Statesman. Published on October 28, 2013.

Credit: I. Broyer

For so many things … but above all, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for sacrificing your own poor people so that our poor people could have free health insurance.

Two million. That’s the number of your own poor who lost their chance for free health care, thanks to your generosity. Wow! Two million. It’s hard to believe, but that will just about equal the Medicaid-covered poor in New York and Connecticut. So, thanks from Connecticut as well.

This act of generosity is even more remarkable at a time when so many other, selfish GOP governors have given in to crass greed and jumped on the Obamacare gravy train. Ohio caved in. Michigan caved in. But Texas stayed true to the frontier spirit. Texas said, “We can do it on our own; give the money to New York.” Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It should be noted that your lost Medicaid extensions translate into something in the order of $20 billion. That’s a lot of money. Some would argue that as solid conservatives, you acted out of a philosophical concern for the national debt, that you did it on principle (even though it amounts to a gift to President Barack Obama in his upcoming budget fights). But we Empire-Staters know the size of the Texas heart, and we like to think of it as a direct gift from you to us.

I won’t even mention the added generosity of using your state tax dollars to, in essence, make up for the lost Medicaid money by helping to keep Texas emergency rooms open to cover those same now-uninsured poor people in their hours of need.

And then there is Sen. Ted Cruz. This is a truly unique, Texas-size individual, a man of real conviction. Without his single-handed efforts to seize the national spotlight and shut the government down, the Obamacare rollout problems would have been a major issue. Thank you for electing him and supporting him in his run for the presidency.

I might add that all of us here in the Empire State look forward eagerly to watching the Ted Cruz-Rick Perry debates in the GOP presidential primary campaign.

A final thank you is in order, and a most sincere one. A big, Empire State shout-out to all the tea party movements in Texas, to all those thousands and thousands of dedicated white folks, whose fierce beliefs in reliving the past and unstinting efforts to alienate the entire Latino population have been so incredibly successful. A blue Texas? They said it couldn’t happen.

In short: Well done, Texas! For everything, but especially for sacrificing your own people. Know that it is appreciated.

Please feel free to visit New York and watch your tax dollars at work.

Op-ed by J.M Purvis