Word: tort
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Bush really does see himself as a reformer. Not on campaign finance--that's just a pose--but on all the other issues he talked about last week: welfare and tort reform, taxes and education. And he really does have a record of reform on those issues, though his results have been mixed. On matters he cares about, Bush has displayed a clear vision and a knack for getting down in the policy weeds that is wholly at odds with his featherweight image. But on other crucial matters--poverty and hunger, the death penalty, gun violence, health insurance...
...Bush couldn't hammer were Laney and Bullock. At first, neither was sure about this new Governor who tried so hard to ingratiate himself. Could they trust him to keep his end of a deal? They found out during Bush's first session, when push came to shove on tort reform--a package of bills designed to rein in what Bush called "junk lawsuits that clog our courts." While it wasn't clear that frivolous lawsuits were out of control, business groups looking to limit their liability had for years been pouring money into the issue, helping create...
...Tort reform seemed inevitable, but after six weeks of negotiations in the spring of 1995, the package stalled over the issue of capping the punitive damages that juries use to punish defendants. Bush and the Republicans wanted a cap of $100,000; Bullock and the Democrats wanted it set at $1 million. When Bush refused to budge, state senator David Sibley, a Republican ally, told him the bill could die. Bush invited Sibley to the mansion for dinner that night. While they were eating, the phone rang. It was Bullock, calling to deliver something he was famous...
Last week Bush was making extravagant claims for his tort-reform package, saying he'd taken on the trial bar and saved Texans almost $3 billion in lowered insurance rates. As the Washington Post reported, insurance experts in Texas call the claim preposterous. Premiums have climbed since 1995, even as insurance companies have reaped windfall profits, because damage awards are smaller and lawsuits, even justified ones, are far more difficult to bring to trial. A grateful insurance industry has so far contributed nearly $1 million to Bush's presidential campaign...