Rick Perry's bright idea may increase Texas-bound nuclear
waste.
On a recent morning,
after checking news reports, I thought: What a freaky news day.
Freaky Story No. 1:
The Governor of Texas rarely has any ideas. But apparently one unexpectedly
erupted from the usually dormant cluster of low-voltage brain cells in Rick
Perry’s head. The headline on the story says the Guv had essentially declared
to the entire nation: “Bring us your
nuclear waste.”
That’s just bizarre.
While any quasi-sane governor would be trying to protect the state, its people,
and future generations from the highly radioactive detritus of the nuclear
power industry — here was Gov. Goober waving in the waste.
This is the same governor
who adamantly rejected federal dollars to provide health coverage for millions
of uninsured Texans. It seems that his health care plan is for each poor family
to put a cask of nuclear waste in their closet.
Freaky Story No. 2: A
new report from an outfit called the Partnership for a New American Economy.
Great, I hear you saying — at last we’ll get moving on conversion to a greener
economy, rebuilding and expanding our infrastructure, and re-investing in middle
class jobs.
Finally, Freaky Story
No. 3: Republicans in Congress want to “help” the rising number of poor people
by gutting food stamps. How does slashing
spending on the SNAP programby $137 billion over the next 10 years
help the needy, you might wonder? Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the plan’s lead
pusher, explains that it “empowers recipients to get off the aid rolls.”
All this freakiness
was in the news on April Fools’ Day — but none of it was a joke. Now that’s
really freaky.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also editor of the
populist newsletter, The Hightower
Lowdown. OtherWords.org