Someone please call a waaaaaahmbulance.
Since January, besides losing big federal contracts, Texas’ pollution permit process has been rejected for failing to meet Clean Air Act requirements; the state is facing fines for chronically missing food stamp benefit deadlines, and thousands of teachers were deemed noncompliant with the No Child Left Behind law.
“I don’t know if anyone can group all these issues in one pile and say it’s because Texas is a red state,” said former U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla. “But there is a concern among many in Texas that that is the case.”
The San Antonio Republican, now a lobbyist, said he believes the Obama administration is giving more power to federal agencies. “They want us to be strangled by more regulations,” he said.
It is part of a Washington culture that “looks down their noses” at self-sufficient states like Texas, he said.
“This resentment probably transcends all government agencies, and they just can’t stand that we’re a successful red state,” Bonilla said.
Don’t snivel, Henry. It’s unbecoming. It’s just so unfair now that Texas is being made to play by the same rules as all those other loser states, isn’t it? This would not be happening if Dubya and DeLay were still running things, let me tell you. I could go on about social costs, and who really accrues the benefits of Texas’ longstanding habit of skirting regulations and blah blah blah, but who really cares? It’s all about playing the victim card, and nobody does it better than the likes of Henry Bonilla and his buddies.