Deregulation

Texas’ Deregulated Nirvana Drowns In A Frozen Bathtub

The Republican-controlled state has long pursued a policy of deregulation. For those who could not escape to Cancun, the results were deadly.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

“My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

- Grover Norquist

Republicans control every single elected statewide office in Texas’ state government including the governor’s mansion. Since 2003, the party has also controlled both the state’s Senate and House. Both federal senators have been from the Republican party since 1993. Ignoring his party’s long-term monopoly on power in the state, the Republican governor still tried to blame Democratic party policies for the crisis that enveloped their state during a winter storm:

“the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.”

- Governor Greg Abbott

Given that the Republicans have successfully blocked the passage of the Green New Deal in Congress, it is hard to see how this climate change fighting policy could have had anything to do with the disaster in Texas. That is unless Abbott and his fellow…