The photo above is from a rally held at the Texas State Capitol yesterday.

Thousands of concerned Texans marched to oppose the brutal State of Texas budget being considered by the Texas Legislature.

The Texas budget is in a shortfall because of the recession, and because of poor tax policy and public policy decisions made in recent years by the Republican-controlled legislature and by Governor Rick Perry.

Republican State Senator Steve Ogden, Chair of the Texas Senate Finance Committee, admits that Republican fiscal policy in Austin has been a significant cause of the current shortfall.

The marchers at the Capitol yesterday voiced a number of concerns that are of relevance to all Texans.

From the Texas Tribune---

"Organized by Texas Forward, the "Save our State" rally attracted citizens from around the state representing the Texas State Employees Union, Communication Workers of America, Texas Organizing Project and religious groups. Their concerns ranged from overtaxing the poor to the current version of the state budget, which proposes closing nursing homes and cutting education spending by $8 billion. "Our elderly will be on the streets. There will be no care for them. They are trying to disrupt our teachers and take away our schools books," said Pam Neal, a protestor and office manager for the United Transportation Union. "It's an attempt to dumb us down so that we will become subservient and low class citizens."

It is always the right day to fight back. It is always the right day to make your case before the public. It is always the right day to be hopeful and to move forward.

Texas is better than what the Republican supermajority in Austin is planning in the legislature. Folks care more about each other than Rick Perry imagines they do.

This is true all over the nation. Republicans think they can use the recession as a pretense to go after the poor and gut the middle class. In the end however, people are going to fight back.

(Thanks to Texas blogger Steve Whichard for his permission to use the photo at the top of this post.)