In Austin, Craddick is known as the billionaires' best friend. In every session, Craddick has helped Simmons' West Texas nuclear waste dump near Andrews with less regulation while allowing more toxic waste. Craddick oversaw cutting kids from the Children's Health Insurance Program then cut estate taxes.
in 2005 Craddick personally removed a $65-million rider to fund the medical school in El Paso and re-directed $13-million of the total to a clinic in Midland.
Craddick oversaw cutting kids from the Children's Health Insurance Program then cut estate taxes for his billionaire buddies. Craddick is also cozy with those West Texas water boys -- the group from Craddick's hometown of Midland that wants to make a 'water market' from underground aquifers to put even more money in their pockets.
In return, Craddick will get all the money he needs to take out lawmakers who think his policies are wrong for children and wrong for Texas. In House races from Fort Worth to Austin, from Houston to El Paso, Craddick's dictatorial rule on behalf of his billionaire friends is the issue.
A closer look reveals that Craddick's modus operandi borders on extortion. Every time a major right-wing vote came to the House floor, Austin watchers say, Craddick used budget money to extort votes -- four years and seven legislative sessions in a row.
For example, the massive budget cuts of 2003 were engineered by Craddick. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, consumers lost confidence. Sales tax receipts took a nosedive, both in Texas and around the United States. As a result, Texas had a record deficit of more than $10-billion. Rather than raise taxes on the wealthy to balance the budget -- as President Clinton did -- Craddick cut programs for the middle class, shifted property taxes, tuition hikes and fees to homeowners, then cut taxes for the wealthy.
El Paso lost 27,000 children from the CHIP program, had millions in new fees added to routine traffic tickets and saw students pay 55% more for tuition at UTEP. While everyone else got tax hikes, Texas billionaires actually got tax cuts -- $330-million in inheritance taxes alone.
Every El Paso lawmaker voted against Craddick's billionaire-friendly bills -- so he retaliated by withholding funds for the four-year medical school in El Paso. Not once, but in two regular sessions and five special sessions in a row. That's the real history of Tom Craddick's disdain for El Paso.
In 2005, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Texas' school system funding violated the Constitution. So Craddick proposed, predictably, shifting taxes from billionaires to homeowners - and failed to provide teachers with a real pay raise.
In March of 2003, in a story in the El Paso Times by Gary Scharrer, Democratic State Representative Chente Quintanilla did the unthinkable -- he told the truth. Quintanilla revealed that Craddick's Appropriations Chairman, Talmadge Heflin, had offered three El Paso state representatives $5-million to help develop the four-year medical school in El Paso in exchange for their votes on a controversial lawsuit reform measure. Representatives Joe Pickett and Norma Chavez were identified as the other two lawmakers who received the offer.
Now Craddick plans to take out Pat Haggerty by supporting Dee Margo in the Republican primary. Craddick will again ask his billionaire buddies -- like Bob Perry (of Swift Boat Liars fame), James Leininger (of school voucher fame), Woody Hunt (of Dell City water fame) and Paul Foster (one of Rick Perry's biggest contributors) -- to put up the money to defeat Haggerty. In the 2006 election, James Leininger gave $75,000, Robert Perry gave $40,000, Paul Foster gave $14,500 and Woody Hunt gave $3,000 to Haggerty’s opponent, Lorraine O’Donnell, in an orchestrated but failed attempt to defeat him.
And that my friends is what Tom Craddick is all about!
