Abbott stumps in Lubbock, opposes ‘Obama-style mandates and handouts’
By Adam D. Young
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
July 17, 2013
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott touted his “steel spine” and opposition to “Obama-style mandates and handouts” on Wednesday, July 17, as he stumped in Lubbock in his bid for the governor’s mansion.
The Republican hoping to replace Texas’ longest-serving governor when Rick Perry leaves office in 2015 laid out his vision for Texas, including reforms in education and how the state promotes job growth.
“When it comes to fighting for you, for your future and our freedom, I will never stop fighting,” Abbott told a crowd of more than 150 people at Lubbock’s American Wind Power Center.
His visit was part of a statewide tour after announcing his candidacy Sunday for the 2014 governor’s race.
Abbott said he wants to usher in a “new era of education reform” and separated himself from Perry on incentives to promote job growth.
Abbott said he favors offering tax incentives to businesses, alluding to a recent interview with The Associated Press where he distanced himself from hundreds of millions of dollars awarded to businesses through the Texas Enterprise Fund and Emerging Technology Fund, which Perry has advocated through much of his tenure.
“We can keep the Texas economy growing strong — not with things like Obama-style mandates and handouts — but by ensuring a level playing field for all businesses and getting government out of the business of picking between winners and losers and by reducing taxes on small-business owners,” Abbott said. “I believe the marketplace is the better place to pick between winners and losers.”
On education reform, Abbott said he wants to better educate students by opposing a system where students are “taught to the test.”
“We need to focus on getting more of our students who are graduating from high school college-ready or career-ready,” he said. “We need to get away from this one-size-fits-all education program, because different kids have different needs, have different future desires.”
He said Texas’ public education system should better prepare students for college and make college more affordable and accessible.
“The tuition at college has just skyrocketed,” he said. “If we’re going to have more kids go to college, we need to make it more affordable for them to go to college.”
He praised Texas Tech’s efforts to curb rising tuition rates, including the university system’s recently launched $10,000-degree plan through Angelo State. He also praised the university’s ongoing efforts to achieve tier-one research university status, helped in part through the state’s National Research University Fund.
“It is deserving of tier-one status; we want to elevate it even more as one of — not only the premier institutions in Texas — but the premier higher institutions in America,” he said.
Abbott, first elected attorney general in 2002, received some of his loudest applause at the rally when he boasted of suing President Barack Obama’s administration 27 times, including challenging the Affordable Care Act when it was passed in 2010.
“We’re going to keep fighting until we end Obamacare as we know it,” Abbott said.
Lubbock County Commissioner Patti Jones welcomed Abbott and his daughter, Audrey.
Jones briefly recalled meeting Abbott and his wife, Cecilia, during their time in Lubbock while Abbott briefly studied law at the Texas Tech School of Law in the early 1980s. He eventually received his law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1984.
Jones said Cecilia worked at the Jones family farm’s produce company.
“We’re here to thank you for the work you’ve done in Texas and, hopefully, what’s to come,” Jones said.
Abbott also discussed the 1984 accident that left both of his legs paralyzed when he was struck by a falling tree while jogging in Houston. The impact damaged his spine, leaving Abbott with two steel rods in his back.
“Some politicians talk about having a spine of steel,” he said. “I really have a steel spine that I will put to work for you and for people across Lubbock and across Texas.”