Hard to believe, I know.
Republicans and Democrats alike protested at the Senate Finance Committee’s first hearing on proposed budget cuts. They said reductions in programs for disabled children and the mentally ill would go too deep.
“When I look at children with autism …and we’re talking about [going] from 180 [children served] to 90, I want to be sure you’ve cut to the bone everywhere you can possibly cut that does not impact people,” Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, told the head of the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services.
“At this point, I don’t have that confidence,” said Patrick, a Houston radio talk-show host and conservative activist.
“Of course, if we have cut everything else to the bone and the budget still isn’t balanced, well, we gotta do what we gotta do. Sorry, kids! We like you, but we love low property taxes,” Patrick did not say.
I grabbed this news item earlier in the week, before all that testimony about nursing home closures and the like. I didn’t see any further quotes from Patrick about other things that he’d prefer to save for last for cutting, but perhaps his conscience has felt a twinge or two during that time. This is just another illustration of what Dave Mann was talking about: To save the one thing Dan Patrick approves of would require cutting a whole lot of other things that he really ought to approve of as well.
I think you are giving him too much credit. The autism folks who are activists tend to the right and often have a religious conservative bent. I think he is responding to a specific plea from folks he does not want to alienate. They are often–at best–half a step removed from the anti-vaccine movement. I would not take Mr. Patrick’s advoacy on this question to mean he cares about the suffering of folks dealing with autism. It likely just serves his own goals to take this stand.