By Vincent L. Hall
Columnist
In September of 1986, Greg Abbott was jogging on a windy day through Houston’s ritzy River Oaks neighborhood. A large Oak limb snapped as he ran beneath it. The accident cost him the use of his spine and wreaked havoc on his kidneys.
Abbott, an attorney, sued the homeowner and a tree care company and has received nearly $10,000,000 in payments since.
Author and Attorney Mark Bello mentioned Abbott’s gross hypocrisy in a 2013 “Legal Examiner.”
“Mr. Abbott has been outspoken in his support for the tort reforms. He says tort reform is needed to curb “frivolous lawsuits.” What a hypocrite!
For example, under Abbott’s policies, if a patient is left paralyzed from the waist down due to a doctor’s negligence, tort reform caps non-economic damages at $250,000 with no built-in increases over time to keep up with the rising cost of living.”
Take a re-look at what he did with Obamacare. Abbott has sued the federal government 27 times; (20 since President Obama took office) at taxpayers’ expense.
The cost for Texas alone is $2.58 million. Of those 27 cases, he has won five. Were these 22 losses frivolous expenditures of taxpayer money?
Greg Abbott will not accept the Obamacare Medicaid expansion in Texas, causing millions to suffer preventive, physical, and psychological treatment.
Parkland Hospital of Dallas, one of the leading public health facilities in the world, estimates that it loses more than $100,000,000 per year as a result.
Recheck this. Greg has raked in almost $10 million dollars for his injury, but your loss is capped at $250K. The fact that Abbott is ineffective with the electricity grid issues, COVID safety protocols and anything else that does not generate campaign dollars from wealthy
corporate interests, should not be a surprise.
Abbott’s leadership is one of the reasons minorities, seniors, and the indigent are being ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. Anyone who watches this Neanderthal could have predicted this. He gets his, his friends get theirs, and when it comes to the rest of us; frankly, Scarlett, he don’t give a damn!
If you don’t believe me, have him produce a vaccine distribution report that contrasts Red vs. Blue counties on a per capita basis.
So this latest move to “open the state 100%” while removing the mask mandate is characteristic of how Abbott has always governed. He appears to be a little kinder and gentler version of Trump.
Abbott is a throwback to the Crackerocracy that Dr. Michael Eric Dyson described. The old political guard never sounded like the racist, elitist, and misogynistic animals that they are.
After President Joseph R. Biden described Abbott’s feigned naiveté as Neanderthal and ill-timed, Abbott did what Trump learned to do so well. He deflected and outright lied, knowing that no one would take the bait except his base. KHOU-11 in Houston reported as much.
“The Biden Administration is recklessly releasing hundreds of illegal immigrants who have COVID into Texas communities. The Biden Administration must immediately end this callous act that exposes Texans & Americans to COVID,” the governor tweeted Wednesday.
When asked on Thursday, the White House dismissed the claim.
What’s even more egregious is that anyone would be stupid enough to swallow the charge he levied against the Biden comments and immigration changes. If what Abbott said was true, he has an even greater responsibility to require masks.
Truth is, he has bungled the pandemic, blundered the ERCOT fallout, and now he wants to bamboozle the thoughtless Republicans that vote for him…regardless!
Abbott is a joke and makes all Texans look like Neanderthals, but Neanderthals ain’t no joke.
Vincent L. Hall is an author, activist, and award-winning columnist.
