Texas, Inc.

TEXAS; UNITED States

The author comments on the privatization of state agencies in Texas, and asks whether the reforms Texas will serve as model for the United States as a whole. The state legislature passed a bill this past May that will result in the privatization of eligibility determination for TANF (the program that replaced welfare), food stamps and Medicaid--fundamentally transforming the way social services are delivered in Texas. In some ways, the conservative attack on the union and the public sector in Texas today is a microcosm of the assault in the country as a whole. While business organizations and the corporations that stand to benefit lobby successfully for privatization and budget cuts, tens of thousands of state workers lose health insurance, and the social programs that make life bearable for the desperately poor are downsized. But more is at stake than particular programs and specific benefits. The very existence of the public sector--controlled by people who are democratically accountable, run by workers 'who aren't in thrall to the Dow Jones--hangs in the balance. The choice is between charity, with its baseline assumption of unequal power and resources, and the expansive vision of social democracy. The privatization bill that passed the legislature early this past summer will dramatically change the way that social services are delivered in Texas. Since the way that a private company makes money with a state contract is by running the operation for less than the state pays, companies face tremendous incentives to cut wages and benefits. Are today's developments in Texas a forecast for the nation tomorrow?