GregsOpinion.com

(Via Kuff) HoustonChronicle.com - Shameful to let federal matching funds go begging

The problem is statewide, and it is severe. Texas community hospital emergency rooms saw 1.3 million more patients, a 19 percent increase, from 1999 to 2003, and the great majority of emergency room visitors could not afford to pay for their services. The negative impact of this trend is overburdening our hospitals, and adversely impaaffecting the businesses and property taxpayers who bear the burden.

Kay Bailey test-drives her first campaign issue of 2006, and let me be among those on my side of the aisle who suggest that this Op/Ed peice offers a ray of light for Dems.

It will be worth pointing out to Kay and to voters of Texas that what is truly at stake with this issue is not that it is (as Kay suggests) a tax issue ... it is, at its core, an opportunity issue. That is, at least to some of us who come across those eye-glossing quotes about Texas being dead last in children's health care coverage, near the bottom in health care coverage in general. What we ought to get from that is not "Gee, another great stat to listen to EVERY politician drop into a speech" but rather "This cuts off opportunity at the knees for the very people who need it the most."

It's one thing to rail against leftish pols who strive for equal outcomes. But those are fewer and fewer in number. This issue is about seeing to it that kids grow up with the best possible surroundings that warrant public investment (health care, education, environment ... the usual suspects). And either you pay for them or you don't.

Already, we've seen the unwillingness to pay for each of those on the part of the GOP Machine in Austin. But what's even worse than that is that when the issue does reach a boiling point, the issue doesn't register because these people see it as undercutting the opportunity that these kids deserve ... it's a freakin' tax issue every time. And on that front, Kay Bailey Hutchison is no different from Rick Perry. Not an ounce of separation.

Kay Bailey may have launched her idea primary against Rick Perry, but in the process, she just gave Dems their first shot to take at her as well.