Differences Between the TX Democratic Platform & Republican Party Platform

[sonias]

You can download the whole comparison file from the link below.

Texas Politics blog on Houston Chronicle 6/29/10

Coleman's comparison of the party platforms

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, chaired the platform committee at the Texas Democratic Convention. Today he offered a comparison of his party's platform with that of the Republicans.

From Coleman's analysis:

Fact Sheet: Differences Between the Texas Democratic Platform &
Republican Party of Texas Platforms

The text below contains language directly quoted from the TDP & RPT platforms.


EDUCATION

Texas Democratic Party Platform
Solve the Dropout Crisis
"Proper funding of all our schools to meet the needs of students who are most at risk of dropping out is essential. Specific solutions include:

• school-community collaboration that brings educational and social services together under one roof to help at-risk students and their families;
• expanded access to early childhood education, targeting at-risk students;
• dual-credit and early-college programs that draw at-risk students into college and career paths while still in high school;
• equitable distribution of highly qualified teachers, to change current practices that too often match the most at-risk students with the least experienced and least prepared teachers;
• enforce daytime curfew laws to reduce truancy; and
• providing access to affordable programs for adults who have dropped out of the education process."


Republican Party of Texas Platform
Ignore the Dropout Crisis
Nothing

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Texas Democratic Party Platform
SBOE: Put Experts in Charge of Curriculum
"Any substantive changes to curriculum must be reviewed by non-partisan experts, and that review must be made public prior to any changes in curriculum by the State Board."


Republican Party of Texas Platform
SBOE: Put Ideologues in Charge of Curriculum
"The SBOE must have sole authority over all curricula content and state adoption of educational materials and ancillaries, (regardless of methods of delivery, including but not limited to textbooks, laptops and electronic delivery systems."

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Texas Democratic Party Platform
Provide Necessary Public Education Funding

Texas Democrats believe:
• the state should establish a 100% equitable school finance system with sufficient state revenue to allow every district to offer an exemplary program;
• the state should equitably reduce reliance on "Robin Hood" recapture;
• state funding formulas should fully reflect all student and district cost differences and the impact of inflation and state mandates.


Republican Party of Texas Platform
Provisions that Restrict Education Funding
"We urge the Legislature to abolish property taxes for the purpose of funding schools."

"The Party calls upon the Texas Legislature to repeal the revised franchise tax."

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HEALTH CARE

Texas Democratic Party Platform
Oppose Republican Attempts to Repeal Rights of Health Care Reform
"Texas Democrats:
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal the ban on preexisting conditions;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal sweeping small business tax credits;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal the ban on rescissions, where insurance companies shove individuals off their health insurance coverage if they develop a catastrophic illness;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal tax breaks for Americans to aid in the purchase of health insurance;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal the closure of the Medicare prescription drug donut hole that forced seniors to pay exorbitant prices under the Republican Medicare Part D plan;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal the expansion of health insurance to uninsured Americans, including 4 million Texans;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal the ability of parents to insure their children up to age 26;
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal the creation of health insurance marketplaces where consumers can shop for and compare affordable, quality health insurance plans; and
• oppose Republican attempts to repeal a healthcare system based on prevention and wellness.

Republican Party of Texas Platform
Repeal Rights of Health Care Reform
"We urge the Congress to defund, repeal, and reject the national healthcare takeover, also known as "ObamaCare" or any similar legislation."

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JOBS & ECONOMY

Texas Democratic Party Platform
Raise the Minimum Wage

"To improve wages and working conditions, we believe the minimum wage must be raised, enforced, and applied across-the-board meaningfully to restore lost purchasing power of all workers. It must be indexed to keep it from eroding again. Employees should be paid a living wage with provisions for decent health care and retirement benefits."

Republican Party of Texas Platform
Repeal the Minimum Wage

"We believe the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed."

The list goes on and on. The Texas Republicans i.e. the Party of No means "they got nothing". No solutions, no improvements. It's all about repeal, deny, reject, rollback, rescind or anything that amounts to huge steps backward. They are so the party of last century. :eyes:

Kudos to Representative Coleman for the analysis! :toast: :yourock:

[white cloud]

1. Thanks

Just what I have been wanting to see.

[sonias]

2. Really the TX Republican platform is insane

They don't have one positive thing to move us forward. All they want is to move us backwards.

They are bat shit :crazy:

[TEXASYANKEE]

3. The difference --

Night and Day. The Repuke platform is firmly grounded in the 1950s. Or 1850s. They want government out of everything except my bedroom and my vagina. There really is nothing in their platform that looks like the 21st century. Pathetic.

[sonias]

4. Exactly

Their euphemism -"the American they've lost or the America their parents grew up in" means - the segregated U.S. The U.S. where there was no minimum wage or it was perfectly acceptable to discriminate in every area of life. Because it was the Republicans that were on top of that trickle down economy. They had every benefit of of class and protection to abuse the "unequal" in their eyes.

Lets face it Republicans are self centered and selfish and their real slogan should be "I got mine, you go get yours - and don't think I'm going to play fair."