What’s with Republicans in Texas?

Two recent examples provide insights into the thinking of Republicans who run Texas and why that thinking inspires such negative reactions from critics.

One was the state’s argument that President Barack Obama’s plan to protect up to 5 million undocumented workers from deportation would cause Texas significant financial harm. The harm cited: the $174.73 net cost per person of enabling them to obtain driver’s licenses.

The other example is former Gov. Rick Perry’s explanation of the state’s unconscionably high proportion of residents without health insurance, a tops-in-the-nation 24.4 percent. The reason, Perry said during a recent interview with the New Hampshire Journal: “That’s what Texans wanted.”

In halting the immigration plan, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanan of Brownsville devoted substantial space to weighing — and accepting — the argument that Texas would suffer “concrete and particularized consequences” from Obama’s order. Therefore, he found the argument a valid challenger of its legality.

‘Substantial costs’

“Specifically, Texas argues that the DHS directive will create a new class of individuals eligible to apply for driver’s licenses, the processing of which will impose substantial costs on its budget,” Judge Hanan wrote, concluding that blocking Obama’s program would alleviate “Plaintiffs’ alleged harm.”

Specifically, Texas contended, of an estimated 1.5 million undocumented persons in Texas, 500,000 would apply for licenses.

Though it charges $24, Texas said it costs $198.73 to process and issue licenses, including verification of the applicant’s immigration status.

The state cited last year’s U.S. Court of Appeals ruling requiring Arizona to issue licenses to immigrants granted protected status because they were brought to the country as children.

The net cost of 500,000 licenses would be $87.3 million, hardly a burden for an economically thriving state with a projected two-year budget of $220 billion and a current surplus of $7.5 billion. The total cost of licenses is just over 1 percent of that surplus.

And it’s far less than states, including Texas, already pay for education, health and human services and law enforcement for its illegal population. The Lone Star Foundation, a conservative think tank, estimated the total cost at $4.3 billion a year — although a former state comptroller’s report said Texas actually receives more in revenues because of undocumented immigrants than the state pays in costs.

Besides, making licenses available to all residents, regardless of immigration status, has benefits. All would be required to purchase insurance that protects them and the rest of Texans while providing more business for insurance companies. It also would help law enforcement and enable recipients to commute to jobs, increasing their employment possibilities.

Poor-mouthing over driver’s license costs is on a par with Perry’s statement about why so many Texas residents lack health insurance.

It’s not because “that’s what Texans wanted”; it’s because that’s what Perry wanted.

On the day the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act but ruled states were not required to participate in the accompanying expansion of the Medicaid program, Perry announced Texas would opt out.

“I stand proudly with the growing chorus of governors who reject the Obamacare power grab,” he said, spurning a program the nonpartisan Robert Wood Johnson Federation estimated could have netted Texas $10 billion annually and sharply cut the number of uninsured residents.

Soaring costs

As Medicaid costs soar everywhere, the state’s largest metropolitan areas are bearing the primary burden, prompting the county judges of its six largest counties to ask the Legislature to find a “Texas way” to provide care for Texans without health insurance coverage. About 1.9 million of the state’s 6.5 million uninsured residents could have gotten coverage via Medicaid expansion.

Texas needs to adjust to some realities. Whatever happens in the courts, the state’s 1.5 million illegal residents aren’t going away.

And the state should follow the lead of other states with Republican governors in allowing expanded health care coverage.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.