The Texas Senate is again trying to take down one of former Gov. Rick Perry’s signature accomplishments.  Yes, the Legislature is trying for the third or fourth time to undo a statute which provides in-state tuition to some undocumented students who were brought here as children.  Remarkably, Texas was the first in the nation to pass such a law, but that was in 2001 before the Tea Party all but took over the Texas GOP.

Sen. Donna Campbell (TP-New Braunfels) has introduced a bill that require Texas colleges to charge undocumented students only out-of-state tuition.  This would double the cost of a college degree for some of the poorest students.  Campbell and her supporters claim that Texas needs to focus on giving college privileges to American citizens only and that this is about fairness.  What this is about, however, is playing to the hard core anti-immigrant base of the Republican primary electorate who live in abject terror of the day when Latinos are in the majority in Texas.  So rather than help educate these kids who did not come to Texas of their own volition, the Tea Party will place every obstacle in the way of a better life for them.  Sadly, this is exactly what the base and leaders of the Texas GOP want. Campbell’s proposal is a major legislative goal for the Senate’s tea party-backed members. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made it a campaign promise in 2014 to repeal the law.  In a rare act of political courage, Perry has said recently he still supports the law.

Rep. Stuart Spitzer (TP- Kaufman) wants to cut $3 million from programs to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.  Spitzer instead wants Texas to spend that money on abstinence education – something even he admits has not been particularly effective. Texas has the third highest HIV infection rate in the U.S. and the fifth highest rate for teen pregnancy.  But these daunting statistics did not prevent the GOP-dominated House from overwhelmingly approving Spitzer’s budget amendment.  But that did not happen until Spitzer had made a fool of himself in verbal jousting with Democrats opposed to the measure.

Spitzer, a surgeon, proclaimed that his personal goal “is for everybody to be abstinent until they’re married.”  Spitzer then backed up his wishful thinking about controlling other people’s sex lives with an example from his own personal experience. Spitzer extolled the virtues of abstinence by telling his fellow Legislators that he practiced abstinence until marriage.

“What’s good for me is good for a lot of people,” argued Spitzer.

Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) then asked Spitzer if abstinence worked for him.

“It did. I’ve had sex with one woman in my life and that’s my wife,” Spitzer answered alsco claiming that he was a virgin at age 29 when he got married, and that his decision not to have premarital sex enabled him to become a surgeon and state representative.

Dutton wasn’t through Spitzer yet, “Is that the first woman you asked?” Dutton asked.

Spitzer kept digging the hole deeper, when claimed that sexual intercourse was the only way to contract STDs.

“If you think you can’t get an STD without having sex, maybe we need to educate you on how to get STDs,” said Rep. Nicole Collier (D-Fort Worth).

Texas Tea Partisans can hardly wait to jump on the so-called religious freedom bandwagon, despite the backlash seen in Indiana and Arkansas.  Texas Rep. Matt Krause (TP – Fort Worth) has proposed a constitutional amendment that would require Texas to have a “compelling governmental interest” before it can “burden in any way” a person’s free exercise of religion.   The Huffington Post explains how Krause justifies his plan:

“Should a Jewish bakery have to bake a cake for the neo-Nazi convention coming into town? Nobody would say that. Nor would anybody say a gay florist couple has to give flowers to a Westboro Baptist protest at funerals.” 

If this passes, Red will no longer be required to provide services to any who disagree with him because his religious beliefs are such that any one who holds an opinion different than him is in the possession of the Devil.