Priorities

When we last heard the Texas-imbibed triumphalism of Rick Perry just this Monday, he was declaring there's no way he'd take part in a federal government sponsored program to keep Texas non-GOP base members alive:

Perry’s announcement is an especially harmful move because Texas will benefit more from the Affordable Care Act than any other state. Texas was recently ranked worst in the country for health care delivery by the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, scoring “weak” or “very weak” in nine of 12 categories...

More than 25 percent of Texans – 6,234,900 people – are uninsured, the highest rate in the nation. After five years of health reform, Texas would be able to insure 1,798,314 more Americans under the Medicaid expansion alone – more than any state in the nation. Setting up a state health insurance exchange would enable the remaining millions of uninsured Texans to purchase affordable health insurance. Thus, despite Perry’s claims, implementing the law would result in better patient protection and greater access to coverage.

We cannot have government spending money on keeping people who probably won't vote for Rick Perry alive.  We have to spend it to make the very much alive Rick Perry have a life even more worth living:

Texas Governor Rick Perry is getting set to return to his official residence in downtown Austin after a $25 million rebuilding, even as he asks state agencies to say how they can cut spending 10 percent in the next budget.

Perry, the former Republican presidential candidate who in 2011 signed a two-year plan that reduced school funding by $5 billion, will decamp this month from a rental home to resume life in the high-security governor’s mansion.

Who needs health care and education for others -- when Rick Perry is now ready for C-Span Cribs?

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]