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A few years back Dubya and several partners bought the Texas Rangers baseball franchise. The partnership, using a lot of local political clout and trading on the Bush name, convinced the city of
Arlington, Texas voters to enact a sales tax to pay for the construction of a brand new stadium for the poor guys who owned the Rangers. Seems these tycoons had to dip into the public welfare trough to
ensure their profitability. Bush was able to scrape together $600,000 for a stake in the Rangers. Sure glad we enacted welfare reform. The city threw in some free land for the stadium site. And thus The
Ballpark in Arlington came to be. And, Dubya then sold his Rangers stake for about $14 million. So, every single mom making $20,000 a year and scraping to buy clothes and keep a car running can thank
Dubya for bringing this great monument to civic pride to Arlington. Or, maybe Dubya should thank her for the 1 percent extra she pays for the clothes and car repairs which made the stadium possible.
So much for the conservative part. Now we get to the compassion.
Seems when the oil prices took a dive late last year Dubya could not get a tax break for the oil industry through the Texas legislature fast enough. Top priority as soon as the session began in January.
"These folks are really hurting" he said. Gee, what would they do if their incomes fell below $100,000?
Now, you remember welfare reform? A major reason many parents were forced to be on welfare was to have Medicaid for their children. So, the states were supposed to help out here and provide extended
coverage for children of parents who got jobs without benefits. Well, Dubya made sure that Texas was among the stingiest of states in this regard. Gee, since the sales tax increase on the good citizens
of Arlington fell hardest on the poorest (as sales taxes always do), wouldn't you think Shrub could have thrown them a bone with the insurance coverage?
After all the increase put money (over $13 million) directly in his pocket and the insurance coverage would have come from Texas (which has huge general budget surplus) funds with federal help.
If this is what Dubya means by compassionate, imagine what he would do if he were just a plain old conservative.
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