Politics

Several hundred people marched to the Texas Capitol today with a message for state legislators and President Obama: “Listen, we are in the struggle.”

For those who rallied Friday, the struggle is for immigration reform.

We’re just one week away from across-the-board budget cuts known as “sequestration” and State Representative Mark Strama (D-Austin) is warning of the impact it could have on Texas.

“If we have to suffer the cuts of sequestration on top of the cuts we just made last biennium, it would be really harmful to the state economy,” he said after a Friday press conference at the Capitol.

On Wednesday, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced he would push lawmakers in his state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That decision leaves Texas the last big state to hold out and could mean more pressure on officials here.

The Texas House voted today to close a $4 billion gap in the budget to pay for Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled.

The House passed an emergency spending bill to make up for a shortfall in the 2011 state budget.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and 14 other Senators sent a letter to President Obama today, calling on the President to withdraw Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense.

The letter is signed by Sens. Cornyn, Inhofe (R-OK), Graham (R-SC), Wicker (R-MS), Vitter (R-LA), Cruz (R-TX), Lee (R-UT), Toomey (R-PA), Rubio (R-FL), Coats (R-IN), R. Johnson (R - WI), Risch (R-ID), Barrasso (R-WY), Coburn (R-OK), and Scott (R-SC). 

Just six months ago, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Rick Scott were fishing together on FoxNews, pitching then-presidential contender Mitt Romney’s Medicare plan and arguing that decisions about health care should be made by states, not the federal government.

On Wednesday, Scott reversed course, joining a growing number of Republican governors who are reluctantly embracing the key tenet of President Obama’s federal health reform — a sweeping Medicaid expansion.