Taxes & Spending

California tries to score points against Trump with unconstitutional tax returns law

California Gov. Gavin Newsom just violated his oath of office by signing a patently unconstitutional law to score a few political points against President Donald Trump. The new law requires anyone appearing on California’s presidential primary ballot to disclose their federal income tax returns. Should a candidate refuse to release their tax returns — a wealthy candidate’s returns might run...

August 5, 2019

Local Government

Sick Leave Mandates-Round Two

“Small businesses need the flexibility to work with their employees and offer benefits to keep them competitive,” wrote Andy Ellard of Manda Machine Company to members of the Texas House State Affairs Committee earlier this year. “A one-size-fits-all government mandate is not the answer.” Ellard echoes the sentiments of many small business owners across the...

August 2, 2019

Economy

Smaller towns are living the ‘Texas Miracle,’ too

Folks in the city of Longview — an oil patch town making its way in a new economy — are a little confused by a recent New York Times article that portrayed the city as left behind by the Texas Miracle. “They don’t see Longview the way I see Longview,” Mayor Andy Mack told the Longview News-Journal. “I...

August 2, 2019

K-12 Education

No, Maryland’s public education legislation is not a model for the nation

Public education pundits have recently heralded the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future as a potential plan for the nation. If true, it’s worrisome, because the actual bill passed by the Maryland legislature is unlikely to provide much help. The most fundamental obligation of our schools is to teach children to read at grade level or above. If a child cannot read — and...

August 2, 2019

Energy & Environment

Latest Democratic Debate Furthers Climate Hyperbole

At the two nights of the most recent Democratic Party presidential debates, 20 candidates warned in ever more alarming terms about the supposedly looming apocalypse. “Literally the survival of humanity on this planet in civilization is in the hands of the next president,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on the second night. “And we have to have...

August 1, 2019

Family

From the Court to the Classroom: More Than Just Athletes

In his op-ed piece for the Washington Post, former NFL tight end, and Texas A&M graduate, Martellus Bennett provides his personal perspective on why young black boys aren’t encouraged to dream of being something other than athletes. I was blessed enough to be a kid in Chicago in the ’90s. This means I grew up...

July 31, 2019

Higher Education

Is Free Speech On Campus Really ‘Doing Just Fine’?

As a former college professor and university senior administrator, I was saddened to read a recent op-ed by Columbia University’s president, Lee Bollinger. Titled, “Free Speech on Campus Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You,” the immediate object of Bollinger’s ire is President Trump’s March Executive Order, which threatens universities that fail to uphold the First...

July 31, 2019

Local Government

What’s more fundamental, liberty or local democracy?

If you get past the over-the-top political rhetoric—that special interests are “trying to steal” a benefit conferred by private employers to their employees—this is exactly the kind of policy discussion we should be having: What’s more fundamental, liberty or “local democracy”? In her Dallas Morning News opinion piece, New America’s Lydia Bean takes the local...

July 30, 2019

Economy

Texas Metros Feature Nation’s Lowest Black Poverty Rates With High Poverty In Costly Coastal Cities

The issue of persistent poverty in many of America’s urban centers is once again in the news. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson commented this week that when, as pediatric neurosurgeon, he had a young patient from East Baltimore, he faced a “horrible dilemma,” when having to discharge patients back to homes, “infested...

July 30, 2019

Health Care

Striking down the individual mandate still matters

In his argument earlier this month before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Robert Henneke once again demonstrated how Obamacare’s individual mandate provision harms hard-working, law-abiding citizens. (Full disclosure: I too work for the Texas Public Policy Foundation.) Henneke represents individuals who continue to be injured by the Affordable Care Act — working Americans whose...

July 27, 2019

Energy & Environment

NYC blackout is a taste of what’s to come under the Green New Deal

Ongoing blackouts in New York City offer a wakeup call: If you enjoy electricity, then the Green New Deal isn’t for you. Thousands in the Big Apple are still dealing with power outages as work continues on the mechanical issues behind last week’s massive blackout in Brooklyn, when over 70,000 customers went without power for hours,...

July 25, 2019

Criminal Justice

Tucker Carlson and John Kennedy get the First Step Act all wrong

When President Trump signed the First Step Act into law in December 2018, he was flanked by conservative senators and law enforcement officials. They were on hand to see him enact a carefully cultivated collection of criminal justice reforms, emulating on the federal level smart policy changes already successfully passed in red states such as...

July 24, 2019