If regulations proved unnecessary during the COVID-19 pandemic, were they ever really necessary at all? That’s the thought behind a growing push to eliminate unnecessary and even harmful rules that were set aside during the last year. “Across the country, state and local governments have temporarily eased hundreds of regulations during the pandemic, aiming to...
Three campfires in one evening sounds like an awful lot of fun, unless you are a firefighter like Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Thayer Smith. In the wee hours of April 2, his unit battled fires at three homeless encampments. What is happening in Austin is nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. It threatens the...
There’s a very telling subhead in the Dallas Morning News story on “backlash” to election protection laws: “If bills are viewed as discriminatory, Texas could lose NCAA and professional sporting events.” The Morning News isn’t wrong (about that, at least); it’s not about whether proposals such as Senate Bill 7 actually are discriminatory; it’s about...
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government IS the problem.” – Ronald Reagan If 2020 taught me anything, it’s that constitutional rights and the rule of law are the first casualties when government gets out of control and picks winners and losers in the marketplace. Inevitably, there are unintended...
In 2019, law enforcement seized over $12 million in cash or private property from property owners in the state of Louisiana through a practice called civil asset forfeiture. Upon a showing that the property may have been implicated in a crime in civil court, the seizing agency can then take possession of the proceeds from...
The Texas Education Agency has released its annual superintendent salary update and the new data reveals some eye-popping details. For instance, the highest paid full-time superintendent in Texas makes almost $450,000 in base pay alone. In 2021, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s top administrator will pull in $437,018, which is more than the President of the United States...
What does the commandment that we love our neighbor mean? During Holy Week—when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus—I’ve been thinking about that topic. I’ve also been thinking about it as I review proposed legislation in the Texas House, where I serve. The assistance we render to needy Texans—who are also our neighbors—must be personal,...
Was the Constitution a casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic? One federal judge warned that it could be. Striking down a ban on indoor church gatherings in North Carolina, Judge James C. Dever III ruled that “There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution of the United States or the Free Exercise Clause of the First...
As the crime rates soar in our major cities, some jurisdictions are reconsidering their early devotion to defunding the police. The anti-police rhetoric, symbolic and real “reform” initiatives, and a complete lack of support for our police officers have all had exactly the effect that everyone knew they would. The decades-long trend of declining violent...
It could be argued that, taken one at a time, the Biden Administration’s policy directives regarding immigration are worthy of thoughtful debate. But taken as a whole, and being either already executed or under serious consideration so early in the president’s first term, the mosaic clearly shows that he is standing down the execution of...
President Joe Biden sweetened the deal for Medicaid expansion in Wyoming (and other states that have yet to expand it) with COVID-19 “stimulus” dollars. According to Wyoming lawmakers who have historically resisted expansion, that money “really changed some hearts and minds in the Legislature.” The Wyoming House has now passed an expansion bill, and the...
Let’s start with a simple fact: It’s not economic “stimulus” when someone comes along, takes money from your right pocket and puts some of it back in your left pocket (keeping much of it for “other uses”). That’s sleight-of-hand, not stimulus, which is a reason the government can’t stimulate anything other than more government. That’s...