Sorry but Rick blew it BIG TIME last last night and lost me as a supporter in the process! Here’s why.
When the legislature passed the bill to provide in state tuition for illegals the make up of the Texas legislature was much different than it is today. Republicans (not conservatives) held a one seat majority in the Texas Senate (16 republicans to 15 democrats). The Texas house was composed of 78 democrats and 72 Republicans. Today the Texas Senate is composed of 19 republicans (not conservatives) and 12 democrats. The Texas House has 101 Republicans and 49 democrats. That is a HUGE change over 10 years and one of the main reasons this has occurred is this very issue!
Rick Perry was dealt a bad hand back then. EVERY member of the legislature save four voted for this bill even though the public was adamantly opposed to it. Perry, the newly minted governor of Texas at that time, signed it into law and I seriously doubt that anyone would have done differently under the circumstances.
The public in Texas adamantly opposed the idea of granting in state tuition to illegals then and they still do today. It was shoved down our throats by the 77th legislature and that is, at least in part, why the current make up of the legislature is what it is!
Until today, I had thought Rick Perry understood all this but his words last night convince me beyond all doubt that I was wrong! He doesn’t get it and chose to insult those of us in Texas who have always opposed in state tuition for illegals! He’s done! He will only sink the polls from this point until he finally decides to pack it in!
For the record Mitt Romney is lying like a rug about what Rick Perry said in his book (If you don’t believe that get yourself a copy of the book and read it for yourself!) and I won’t support him either!
As of this moment I’m back in the wilderness as to whom I will support. I know for sure I will not support Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Jon Huntsman, or Ron Paul.
Herman Cain is looking mighty good to me at this moment but I’m going to wait and see what Newt comes out with next week in his new Contract with America!
Are there any sources that show Texans opposed this when it was passed and that they oppose it now?
Who proposed the bill?
You argue that the people of Texas opposed the in-state tuition bill. Not so. The bill received wide spread support among conservatives throughout Texas. I do not know where you are coming from, but you are misrepresenting the facts about the public support that bill had and the bi-partisan support it got in its passage.
Even if the bill were repealed now, the Texas instituitons of higher learning would lose tens of millions of lost revenue from those children of illegals paying the in-state tuition. Those are dollars that don’t cost the Texas taxpayer one dime that are going into the state colleges.