Day: <span>October 14, 2014</span>

Abbott’s insensitivity includes disabled Texans and school kids

 

With Greg Abbott, hypocrisy and insensitivity to the needs of most Texans, including school children and people with disabilities, go hand in hand. And, that serious flaw is borne out in a statement an Abbott spokesman made to describe Abbott’s legal and political philosophy as attorney general.

The quotation was in an article, published in The Dallas Morning News, about how Abbott has repeatedly gone to court to fight against disabled Texans who have sued state government, seeking accommodations – services or facilities to make their lives more manageable — to which they are entitled under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It presents more evidence of how Abbott, who personally benefits from the disability act and won a multimillion-dollar settlement after suing over his own disabling injury years ago, has devoted much of his political career to blocking efforts by other Texans to receive compensation for similar life-altering experiences. This includes his efforts, as a Supreme Court justice and attorney general, to restrict settlements in damage lawsuits and claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

How does Abbott’s spokesman, Jerry Strickland, explain the hypocrisy?

“It’s the attorney general’s duty to zealously represent the interests of the state of Texas, and in these cases that meant raising all applicable legal arguments in litigation where Texas was sued in court,” Strickland said.

Hooey.

The state of Texas is more than the official seal on the attorney general’s office wall and more than Abbott’s cadre of well-heeled, financial contributors. The state of Texas also includes disabled Texans who are simply seeking help to which they are entitled, help to assist them with everyday living, services or facilities that in many cases are more modest than the lawsuit settlement that has helped Abbott continue to live his life.

For that matter, the state of Texas also includes millions of school children in hundreds of school districts that have sued the state over inadequate education funding. By continuing to fight that lawsuit, Abbott isn’t representing the best interests of those kids either or, for that matter, the best interests of the state as a whole.

After getting the help he needed, Abbott has been driven by a selfish ideological philosophy that makes him insensitive to the very real needs of many Texans. And, there is no reason to expect him to change, should he be elected governor.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20140215-greg-abbott-pushes-to-block-disabled-texans-lawsuits-against-state.ece