Empower Texans’ Michael Quinn Sullivan Says Texas Legislative Session Was “Wasted Opportunity” For Conservative Reform [AUDIO]

EDITOR'S NOTE August 16, 2013

Hours after Michael Quinn Sullivan's interview with Chad Hasty, Sullivan admitted to a miscalculation for the rating assigned to Rep. John Frullo (R- Lubbock). Specifically, Rep. Frullo voted along the Texans For Fiscal Responsibility anti-Medicaid expansion position on votes 22, 48 and 60 on the TFR scorecard. You can also hear Rep. Frullo discuss his anti-Medicaid expansion position with Chad Hasty, by clicking here.

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Texans For Fiscal Responsibility

On the Thursday edition of The Chad Hasty Show, Michael Quinn Sullivan from Empower Texans talked with Chad Hasty about the results of the 2013 Fiscal Responsibility Index.

The Fiscal Responsibility Index takes a look at how various lawmakers voted of a number of fiscal issues, such as budgeting and stewardship. Sullivan explained that lawmakers are notified of which issues the index will be measuring prior to the votes being taken on the floor, so there is no chance of "cherry picking" the results.

In the case of the 2013 Texas legislative session, Sullivan says the index shows there was a ton of wasted opportunities in the session. He said that, despite Republicans having a majority in both the House and the Senate, very few of them, if any, addressed the conservative reform Empower Texans would like to see.

"We had near super majorities in both the Texas House and Texas Senate that session. And yet, they have still refused to even address the kind of substantive, long-term reforms that conservatives have been demanding for a decade, a decade in a half. Things like strengthening the state's constitutional spending limit...94% [of Republican primary voters] said they wanted the spending limit strengthened, and yet, neither the House nor the Senate had any votes to do that.

As for local lawmakers, both Senator Robert Duncan and Representative John Frullo scored poorly on the index. Sullivan explained that, in Frullo's case, his score went down because of his bad votes and his following the House's poor leadership. Sullivan then claimed that Frullo had voted in favor of expanding Medicaid in the state of Texas.

"I'm not sure why Mr. Frullo decided to take the votes that he took. For example, he voted for expanding Medicaid, which was in everyone's mind, that was the implementation vote for Obamacare...The reason why he went along with it is because the House leadership was telling everyone 'vote for this. Vote for this.' And so he voted for it."

However, Frullo called in later during the show to refute Sullivan's claim that he voted for the expansion. You can listen to Frullo's complete rebuttal via this link.

For more information on Empower Texas: Texas For Fiscal Responsibility, visit their website at empowertexans.com. You can also follow Michael Quinn Sullivan on Twitter: @MQSullivan.

Listen to the full interview with Michael Quinn Sullivan here: