Attorney general pledges to continue to fight for Texas families
By Garner Roberts Abilene
Reporter-News February 19, 2013
State Attorney General Greg Abbott said he didn’t invent the phrase “Don’t mess with Texas,” but “I’ve applied it more often than anyone else.”
In a visit to Abilene Tuesday with other Republican officials — including U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer and Barry Smitherman, Texas Railroad Commission chairman — Abbott promised to continue “to maintain Texas in the conservative column” and “to fight for Texas families and our values.
“The greatness in this country lies in the hearts of each and every American,” he added, “not in the capital buildings in Washington, D.C., or in Austin. What makes this nation great is not government but freedom.”
He assailed Barack Obama and the president’s administration and repeated his well-publicized defense of Second Amendment rights to bear arms. “We’re not about to allow liberals from Washington barge into Texas and strip our rights,” Abbott said.
He said he differs with people “who say Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
Obama knows what he’s doing, Abbott said. The president “wants to grow government and raise taxes.” In his attack on Obama’s health care policies, Abbott noted that White House employees are exempt from “Obamacare.”
“Every Texan should be exempt from ‘Obamacare,’” he added.
Abbott said he has sued the Obama administration 25 times and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 12 times in the last four years.
“The good news is we’re winning these lawsuits,” he added. “Lawsuits are the only language this administration seems to understand.”
Abbott said he also will continue his campaign against voter fraud and his advocacy for the Texas economy.
“We stand as a model for the rest of the nation,” he said. “We’re looking for more ways to keep government off your backs and out of your wallets.”
Abbott sidestepped the issue of his political future. Dallas television station WFAA has reported Abbott told campaign donors he will run for governor in 2014.
But in Abilene Tuesday after prepared remarks at a luncheon, he said decisions and announcements about his plans for 2014 will come after the current session of the Texas Legislature ends May 27. “We are bogged down in the legislative session now,” he added.
Abbott was the guest speaker at the Lincoln Day Luncheon of the Taylor County Republican Party, held at Abilene Christian University.
In introducing Abbott, Neugebauer said, “Greg Abbott gets up every day and tries to ensure that people ‘don’t mess with Texas.’”