Texas is by far the largest oil-producing state in the Union, and has about 30% of the total refining capability. That is a large bargaining chip.
Not really. It’s not like they are giving it away currently, is it? It’s a commercial relationship.
nm…
[I misread the post]
I’m a resident of Texas. I’m a citizen of the US. This is clearly set out in the 14th amendment. “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The state is not allowed to take away the rights I’m entitled to as a citizen of the United States.
What’s a “citizen of Texas?”
First sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
There’s the thing - they already run a separate power grid so their problems can remain their problems.
You know he’d do this a lot less if guys didn’t give him layups so often
A large commercial relationship.
To our mutual benefit. What are they going to do, threaten to leave it in the ground? It’s as much a disruption for them to sell it to someone else as it is for the U.S. to buy it from someone else.
What’s probably more relevant is the overall balance of payments with the Federal government. Texas is in a modest deficit.
Right, that’s the point. Texas can legislate the definition of a resident of Texas, for voting purposes, but Texas doesn’t get to decide who is a citizen of Texas.
I think a vast majority of Texans NOT living in Texas cities would be vigorously opposed to secession as well. Rural Texas may be conservative, but it’s also some of the most flag-waving, pro United States country you’ll ever find.
Like others have said, the GOP convention and state party platform is basically a laundry list of the loony demands the far, far right-wing of the party wants. It’s nowhere close to an actual manifesto of governance- they’re never going to put secession up for a vote for example. Nor will they do anything about the income tax, the Federal reserve, or a whole host of other nonsensical things in their platform.
But MandaJo said she’s not a citizen of Texas, which is, frankly, not a term that’s regularly used. I’m a US citizen and a resident of Ohio, but I’ve never called myself an Ohio citizen. Sounds strange.
But I concede the point on the wording of the 14th. Today I learned. MandaJo is indeed a citizen of Texas.
I don’t think so. Oil is a global commodity and Texas will sell it to whoever at the global price. “Energy independence” is a load of crap, no matter where it is drilled it will be sold to the world market at the world price.
Southern patriotism is shallow and situational. Nobody should fool themselves into thinking that southerners worship the US flag. Their real object of worship is the white power that the American flag represents.
When the day comes that they no longer feel the American Flag no longer offers a credible promise of white power, they’ll drop it and get a new flag. And indeed this has been happening for a while. The Stars & Stripes are being replaced by the Gadsden flag, Christian Flag, the Thin Blue Line, and of course Lee’s Star-Spangled Ass-Rag.
I don’t mean to suggest that secession is a done deal. Just advising folks that “southern patriotism” shouldn’t be confused with real loyalty to the US or the Constitution.
Exactly, the fact that they so often wave the American flag AND the confederate flag shows the depth of their patriotism.
Oh, I certainly agree. Which would mean that the USA, sans Texas, would have to import more foreign oil than is currently imported.
A truth that should be tattooed on the eyeballs of “southern patriots.”
I believe the important thing, at least for commercial purposes, is that the mineral rights to the oil fields in Texas are not owned by either the State of Texas or Texas citizens, but, mostly, by multi-national corporations. The State of Texas will get their “cut” of oil produced from those fields, but the assets are not property of the State (unless Texas becomes an independent nation and decides to nationalize the oil industry, a rather socialist maneuver).
Same thing with the refineries. They may be located in Texas, but Texas does not own them.
There is a large defense industry manufacturing base in Texas. It is a significant part of the state’s annual product. If Texas was to secede, the corporations that own the machinery would likely pull it out of Texas to locations that were more friendly to the US.
One thing I never see mentioned in these Secession discussions is the tax liability of the IRAs of those citizens who would no longer be paying US Income Tax. The agreement when those tax-deferred accounts was set-up was the income tax from the capital and interest would be paid when withdrawn by the tax-payer. If those in Texas no longer were going to pay US Income Tax, then I suspect the IRS would consider the tax on those accounts to be payable before separation (including accrued interest, and substantial penalty for early withdrawal). I doubt the majority of Texans would vote for Secession if it meant their retirement accounts would drop by half.
I don’t see the asymmetry here. Texas, while part of the United States, has similarly been sacrificing the benefit of its fair proportion of current Federal income tax on the IRAs of everyone else in the U.S. I think the effects offset one another.
I don’t think it makes any sense to pick and choose specific items like this. What matters is that a fair proportion of the U.S. national debt is assumed by Texas at the time of secession.