By Alley McIntosh and Ken Oliver The future of U.S. immigration law enforcement was the focus of the Right on Immigration panel held during the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s 2021 Policy Orientation. Taking place just days before the change of administration in Washington, the panel was moderated by Right on Immigration Senior Director Ken Oliver...
Think that a pronounced economic crisis has ushered in more cost-efficient local government? Think again! New data from the Bond Review Board shows that in 2020, total local debt rose to $375.7 billion, an increase of more than $10 billion over the previous fiscal year. Source: obtained from Public Information Act request and Bond Review...
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently sued the Biden administration over immigration policies. It’s the first lawsuit from Texas, and it surely won’t be the last. But Paxton won’t be alone. The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for the American Future, where I am lead counsel, will also challenge unconstitutional federal government overreach through the courts. Three areas...
The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25 sparked nationwide protests, riots, calls for reforms, calls for defunding the police, and an array of legislation or proposed legislation. There was bipartisan interest in policing issues, whether it was called reform or improvement. Sadly, the bipartisanship was very short-lived and for the most part,...
Almost 60 state and local elected officials agree: Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for lobbyists who advocate for higher taxes, more spending, and bigger government. As a concrete show of support, these officials have put their names to a new pledge to ban lobbying funded by taxpayers. The pledge to end this practice—which allows...
President-elect Joe Biden says that workers are “entitled” to a $15 minimum wage, despite widespread business closures and pervasive joblessness. A new bill filed by a progressive member of the Texas Legislature may beat Biden to the punch, though, taking the state in a direction that it has resisted for more than 10 years. House...
More and more people agree—local governments should not spend public money to hire registered lobbyists to push for higher taxes, more spending, and bigger government at the statehouse. The latest organization to join the club seeking to ban lobbying funded by tax money is Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a nonprofit advocacy group founded at...
With President Joe Biden in the White House, progressives are pushing for universal student loan forgiveness. New data from the Department of Education provides an excellent snapshot of how badly targeted student loan forgiveness would be. This new data gives us the most detailed view into the roughly $86 billion in student loans taken out by students who graduated...
What does virtually every Austinite carry around in their pocket 24/7? A cell phone! In spite of this, a recent audit found that the city of Austin is spending tons of money on employee pagers. And in many cases, those devices are going unused and those employees are nonexistent. According to the Office of the...
The more you spend, the more you save. Heard that one before? That’s the tortured logic some are now using to convince Texas legislators to expand Medicaid coverage to healthy, able-bodied individuals. Sound fishy? You’re right. They point to a recent study that uses a lot of wishful thinking and dubious assumptions to suggest that spending...
A Los Angeles Times article entitled “Make America California Again? That’s Biden’s plan” asserts that the Biden-Harris administration is looking to California as its “de facto policy think tank” and an “incubator of innovation, premier laboratory of democracy (and) land of big ideas.” This is a very bad plan. How bad does it have to be in California,...
Would the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. recognize the civil rights movement of today —92 years after his birth, and more than 57 years after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech? I don’t believe he would. The just goals he fought for, equal opportunity for all and a color-blind society, have been set aside by...