On the following pages are an updated, published article—one I want to know how to anthologize.

Do you know
whom I can contact? The article was treading in the past few weeks. Also, I’m seeking a co-author for annual
updates. I’m a San Antonio College, St. Mary’s University and University of Texas at San Antonio alumnus.

— Robert J. Pohl
Hunger in Texas, corporate tax loopholes, Villarreal, and Saul Alinsky's ghost

Posted By Robert J. Pohl on Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 4:00 AM

Revised and Updated: Mon, Sept. 26, 2019 at 1:43 PM

“Power is the very essence, the dynamo of life. It is the power of the heart pumping blood and sustaining life in the
body. It is the power of active citizen participation pulsing upward, providing a unified strength for a common
purpose. Power is an essential life force always in operation, either changing the world or opposing change. Power,
or organized energy, may be a man-killing explosive or a life-saving drug. The power of a gun may be used to
enforce slavery, or to achieve freedom.” — Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

By Robert J. Pohl, spaceage1235rjp@gmail.com

Do you hear that noise? That gurgling, growling sound emanating from stomachs in Texas? At any given moment in
Texas, over four million feel the pain — the headache, fatigue, restlessness, and sleepiness that results from
impoverishment of Third-World severity.

For roughly 1.6 million Texan children, the hunger is no fault of their own. If we could broadcast the above-
mentioned sound — the collective sounds of bodies signaling for help (with an appeal to Texan legislators) —
would the conservative supermajority of Texan politicians eliminate unjust tax loopholes (like the one
Representative Mike Villarreal has publicized and proposed to eliminate with Texan House Bill 658) and change
fiscal policy in such a way that the very rich and very-very rich would assist more, assist the state's poor children,
senior citizens, and aspiring college graduates?

One in four children struggle with hunger in Texas. In Texas, one in seven adults struggle because of hunger.

Please donate.

According to Representative Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio), not without a popular movement.

Villarreal told the Current recently that he is communicating with the public and organizing the public around
shared priorities such as adequately investing in education: “If a budget is proposed that balances [the $27 billion
budget deficit and shortfall] purely with cuts to services without taking a more comprehensive approach that
includes tapping the Rainy Day Fund, cleaning our tax code, also cutting expenses, then we want to make sure we
get our constituents [voters who are active politically] out to the Capitol to bring statewide attention to the travesty
of the cuts.”

I agree.

Moreover, I suspect that the answer for why a popular movement is necessary is related to the life experiences of the
vast majority of Texan-elected officials, mostly white lawyers and businessmen whose parents probably paid for
both their living expenses and tuition for at least four years of college and who probably have never worried about
being able to pay for food, rent, or a vehicular repair. Without firsthand exposure to the concerns and needs of the
vast majority of Texan residents, we can only expect our politicians to cater to the interests of their class and the
interests of their corporate funders who in 2009 collectively spent $344 million on lobbyists.

Texas is one of seven states without a progressive-income tax. Texan legislators tax all incomes the same—not, not,
on ability to pay.

Since being elected, many Republicans may be losing sleep out of concern for re-election. When asked why
mobilization is necessary to convince conservative legislators that making cuts to funds for poor children, poor
senior citizens, K-12 education, and higher education are ass-backwards to the prosperity of the state, Villarreal told
me, “Many of my Republican colleagues ran on a pledge of no tax increases. What they failed to communicate to
their constituents is that this would mean severe cuts in education and basic public services like health care for our
seniors in nursing homes. So they left the impression with their voters that we could have both — both low taxes
and still maintain services like education and health care for seniors. So they sort of backed themselves into a
corner.”

Conservative legislators aren't corporately funded lobbyist-controlled robots. They just need to be convinced that
they are risking their re-elections if they shrink social services to a size that fits into a woman's uterus.

“Those in control of the Texas legislature need to hear from concerned citizens across the state that things like
kindergarten are more important than a tax loophole, that there shouldn't be a grandparent in the state of Texas who
is turned away from a nursing home because of a tax break that we can no longer afford,” Villarreal said.

Texas is the second state in nation with the highest number of hungry people, having 4.2 million people living in
poverty. According to The San Antonio Current, a defective federal measure prone to underestimating is used.

Poverty is defined as the following: “The Census Bureau determines poverty based on income and family size. For
example, an individual is classified as living in poverty if he or she makes less than $12,752 a year. A family of four
with two children would be classified as poor if its income is less than $24,858,” according to The Texas Tribune.

Several problems appear again and again regarding poverty: tax laws written by the upper-class and their corporate
funders; usurious or fraudulent banking (see the documentary called Inside Job); and representatives who do not
reflect the concerns and needs of the vast majority of Texans.

People power is dispersed and impotent until organized, as Saul Alinsky knew from firsthand experience.

Purchasing power (or buying power) is almost immediate power.

While talking recently with a veteran-Texan, political scholar about the millions of impoverished people in Texas
and our low college-graduation rates and extremely high high-school-dropout rates, I was told that economic power
(purchasing power and shares) translates into political power, and political power determines the rules for obtaining
economic power. It's a vicious cycle that keeps those at the bottom at the bottom.

Given such enormous wealth within our borders (Texas has the second largest economy in the nation), one would
think that any Third-World comparisons are hopeless exaggerations.

Aside from plumbing and electricity, they are not exaggerations.

Senior Economist and Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Mine Yucel told legislative aides and
elected officials at the state capitol on February 11 that businesses like Texas precisely because legislators spend
little on social services.

It keeps the business taxes low.

So although Yucel reported that Texas has an abundance of undeveloped land, produces the most oil and gas in the
nation, exports more than any other state, has an unemployment rate below the national average, and expects the
addition of about 300,000 jobs in 2011, Governor Rick Perry and conservative legislators continue to ignore the 4.2
million impoverished and hungry people and the drastic effects of cutting billions from social services like
education. Totals of those impoverished in Texas vary but what is the same from the sources is that at least three
million people in Texas are impoverished and struggle to get enough food.

So maybe conservative-Texan legislators just need to be told that you will not re-elect them unless they raise
incomes progressively for business and pass a constitutional amendment to tax Texan incomes progressively.

And don't forget those tax loopholes that Representative (D-Brownsville) Rene Oliveira spent months finding but
has not yet disclosed.
Don't these dire times necessitate people power, organized opposition to the cutting of funds to our state's most
disadvantaged residents and education, while the very or very-very rich could afford to help more yet actively
oppose the notion?

We've got a $27 billion deficit and shortfall that the rich created.

Given the historic disparities in purchasing power (the wealthiest one percent of Americans possess nearly $2
trillion more than the bottom 90 percent combined) and the fact that Texas has so many high indicators of bad
governmental health — healthcare, education, unemployment insurance — wouldn't most of us agree that the state's
millionaires and billionaires, and the people who make, say, $100,000 or more each year, ought to help out more
than the rest? One in four children are hungry in Texas. Please donate.

Keep in mind, Texans, that as the state becomes more and more like a Third-World country, our fiscal policy
remains ass-backwards and in the minority: Texas is one of seven states without a progressive-income tax (taxing
based on income, not a general tax on incomes) and one of five states without a corporate profits tax, which ought to
be progressive (based on ability to pay, not general).

My biases: I think it’s urgent to create a progressive-income tax and a progressive-corporate tax as well as public
funding for local elections—mayoral appeals and activism for public, local electoral funding is likely the only way
to get public funds—and better representation.

Please vote.

And—please—contact your representatives after reading this article. Share your opinions.