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June 20, 2004
Democrats' Platform Serves as Indictment
of GOP on Issues from Schools to War
By
Mike Hailey
Capitol
Inside Editor
Texas Democrats have adopted a state platform that reads
more like a multi-count indictment of Republican priorities
and policies than a standard declaration of principles on
which the state Democratic Party stands.
Ratified on Saturday by delegates at the State Democratic
Convention in Houston, the 2004 platform singles out Republicans
69 times for "misplaced priorities and failures"
on issues ranging from public education to health care to
campaign fundraising to the war in Iraq. The 29-page document
is designed to contrast the GOP's record as the ruling party
in Texas with poll-reinforced positions favored by Democrats.
The biggest dissection and condemnation of
Republican policies and initiatives comes in the first five
pages that concentrate on overall priorities and education.
The platform's writers accuse Republicans of undermining
public education with attempts to privatize public schools
while shifting the costs to local taxpayers. Democrats cite
almost two dozen instances in which they claim that Republicans
have failed Texans including GOP support for "a totally
privatized voucher scheme" and the limitation of resources
to an adequacy plan designed to ensure that only 55 percent
of students pass standardized tests.
At a time when Texas teachers make $5,000 a year less than
the national average, Democrats charge Republicans with
pushing "the first teacher pay cut in modern history"
with a $500 cut in health insurance benefits. The platform
asserts that the quality of public education in general
and teacher morale in particular are being jeopardized by
Republican attempts to eliminate class size limits along
with the minimum salary schedule and retirement options
for teachers in the state. Democrats also use the platform
to accuse Republicans of dealing a blow to higher education
with a mix of funding cuts, tuition hikes and a weakened
Texas Tomorrow Fund. The platform vows a fight against GOP
efforts to eliminate the 10 percent rule for college admissions.
Democrats also take issue with the GOP on taxes and spending,
declaring that the state budget has a "a source of
peril for Texas families" with Republicans in charge
of state government. Under a guise of no-new-taxes, Democrats
claim in the platform that Republicans resorted instead
to to higher fees, tuition and toll roads while increasing
costs for local taxpayers and cutting services such as the
Children's Health Insurance Program, environmental protection
and small business investment. The Democrats blame Republicans
at the federal level for using the Social Security surplus
and increasing the national debt to make tax cuts for the
wealthy permanent. The platform also accuses Republicans
of failing to live up to promises to curtail high homeowners
insurance prices.
On the volatile issue of abortion, Democrats in their platform
allege that Republicans have backed policies designed to
"intimidate and traumatize" women. They accuse
the GOP of passing a Medicare prescription drug program
that's geared more to help corporations than senior citizens
- and they blame the GOP for a nursing shortage and reduction
of services for the mentally ill.
The platform also condemns Republicans for their support
outsourcing of labor and attempts to weaken federal overtime
pay law. It accuses Governor Rick Perry
of appointing environmental regulators who cater to his
campaign contributors - and it blasts Republicans for proposing
to make taxpayers instead of polluters pay to clean up abandoned
waste sites.
The Democratic platform's creators decided to keep Republicans
out of the dialogue in some areas of the platform such as
public safety and criminal justice - with the exception
of a line criticizing Perry for ignoring a recommendation
by his appointees on the pardons and parole board to commute
the death sentence of a mentally ill inmate who was recently
executed. The platform gives Republicans a pass on issues
such as homeland security , but it criticizes the Bush Administration's
attempt to cut the veterans affairs budget and accuses the
administration of building a case for the Iraq war on "false
pretenses" and deception and ignoring the advice of
seasoned military professionals as part of a poorly-defined
Iraq strategy.
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