Statement on Strayhorn's Letter to Gov. Perry

Kathy Walt, press secretary to Gov. Rick Perry, issued the following statement in response to the comptroller's latest flip-flop on her record:

"Carole Strayhorn flip-flops so much on her own record she makes John Kerry dizzy. Policy she now labels unconscionable in fact came from her. In her April 2003 eTexas Special Report, the Comptroller recommended cutting $231.5 million to remove 161,800 children off the Children's Health Insurance Program by going to a six-month re-enrollment period. For her to now use these children as political fodder to feed her ever increasing political appetite is unconscionable.

"Had the comptroller not played politics in 2003 with constantly moving revenue projections, lawmakers would have had a minimum of $727 million more in general revenue to appropriate. Had the legislature chosen to spend all of that in Health and Human Services programs, it could have generated about $1.9 billion in total additional revenues."