I want to address an issue in our Texas foster care system. But it’s not completely about foster care. It’s about an agency that ignores the wishes of the Legislature and the governor (elected by Texans) to do its own thing—and gets caught doing it. This is unacceptable in Texas. This is why our interim...
The long-awaited release of the “affidavit” of probable cause in support of the Trump raid is finally here. Oh, there are plenty of redactions; more than 20 out of 38 pages are full or partial redactions. Even the list of reasons for the redactions is completely redacted except for a couple of “Agent Safety” references....
“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” This statement by Milton Friedman is true today as it was when he first made it in 1963. It’s that simple. If the quantity of money grows faster than the quantity of goods and services the economy can produce, we will experience inflation. While the U.S. money...
“History may not repeat itself, but it sure as hell rhymes.” I often think about this statement, which was my high school history teacher’s personal paraphrase of Mark Twain’s famous quote, when reading the news. Today’s news story that brought that quote to mind is, of course, the information of Biden’s recent announcement of limited...
The Biden administration just announced its long-anticipated student loan forgiveness plan. The plan would forgive $10,000 for borrowers making less than $125,000 per year ($250,000 if married) and $20,000 for Pell grant recipients. On the bright side, the Biden plan could have been worse, such as wiping out all debt with no income restrictions. But...
In a recent interview, Richard Hanania and Gail Heriot note how the legal concept of disparate impact—that any difference in group outcomes is evidence of discrimination—essentially makes everything illegal. This, in turn, gives the government the authority to do whatever it wants by selectively choosing which cases to bring: “Literally any practice you can think of has...
Worldwide, a child dies every 90 seconds from water-borne illnesses. Yet Americans can turn on faucets and fill glasses with water largely unafraid—and unaware—of the many diseases borne by contaminated water. In February 2021, however, Texans all became aware of the importance of clean water as pipes froze and water treatment plants were without power....
Drug cartels deployed terror in four states, targeting bystanders, blocking highways and burning vehicles and businesses. But the president accuses the media and his ‘adversaries’ of exaggerating. Swaths of Mexico burned last week as cartel thugs unleashed waves of narco-violence across five states—acts many in the country called “terrorism,” but the populist president described as...
The Washington Post called them President Biden’s “wins in Congress.” But Democrats shouldn’t take that victory lap yet, as the Post admits—there’s little in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that will do anything of the sort. Despite the Biden administration’s claims to the contrary, the U.S. is in a recession. And despite its claims that...
The political elite continues to prove how out of touch they are with the needs of regular Americans, evidenced today by Austin City Council members who have approved a whopping 40% salary increase for themselves in the midst of an affordability crisis in the city of Austin. While Austin council members are preoccupied with how to...
For years progressives have been trying to close an imaginary loophole regarding the 90-10 rule and the GI Bill. Colleges are subject to the 90-10 rule, which requires that no more than 90% of their revenue can come from federal financial aid. Meanwhile, Congress has consistently passed GI Bills, which provide funding for servicemembers and...
As Texas moves closer to the much-awaited conclusion of another hot summer—thankfully without any electric grid emergencies so far—it’s a good time to break from the conversation on grid reliability and talk about the coming rise in Texans’ electric bills. A common claim is that wind and solar are dampening the impact of rising natural...