There’s been a yearslong political fight over the issue of mail-in ballots in Texas. This struggle has taken on a new intensity in the wake of the coronavirus from China and the feeling that Texas’ shift from red, if not to blue then at least purple, is one election cycle away. Texas law on mail-in...
As of February, the US is in a recession, and Texas is no different. While the cause is different than prior recessions, people’s financial struggles are the same. With the voluntary social distancing and forced disruptions by state and local governments due to COVID-19, economic activity has collapsed, people have lost their jobs, and employers...
Writing for FiveThirtyEight.com, Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux has a dire warning for Congress if it fails to bail out the states. “Without a lifeline from the federal government,” she writes, “states would have no choice but to start slashing budgets and raising taxes.” Meanwhile, governors like Gavin Newsom of California are threatening to shut down first responders, hospitals, and...
Introduction The drumbeat of press about the declining costs of installing wind and solar generators have led most of the public and our policymakers to believe that an “energy transition” from fossil fuels to wind and solar is just around the corner. However, this belief overlooks the fundamental physical limitations of producing electricity from wind and solar. There is a...
One thing these trying times have taught the entire nation is the vulnerability of our essential businesses to disruptions that can massively impact our society as a whole. One such disruption has been the COVID-19 pandemic and its crippling of the meatpacking industry. Practically every person living in the country is affected by the alarming...
The coronavirus pandemic has been hard on the U.S. health care system. But our government’s response to it—including heavy-handed demands that all but “essential” care cease—has been harder still. Recently, the Texas Public Policy Foundation held a webinar with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan. He discussed the COVID-19...
With hurricane season looming, it’s time to be prepared both for the possibility of severe weather and for the inevitable media circus touting falsehoods about climate change. NOAA is predicting hurricane activity will be above normal in 2020. Climate alarmists will make every effort to convince you this increase is being caused by man. Supposedly, droughts and...
This has been a wild year. For me, my family moved last year from our beloved Texas to Virginia for my job with the extraordinary folks at the White House. While there, I helped write the president’s budget that found taxpayer savings of a record $4.6 trillion over a decade, made permanent the Trump tax cuts, noted...
As America begins to reopen, many states and counties have face mask requirements in addition to social distancing and hand washing. Some even include an enforcement mechanism. But should not wearing a face mask in public make you a criminal? Some places say yes. In late April, Harris County, Texas became one of those localities...
Years ago the commencement speaker at my graduation from Wiley College in Marshall was James Farmer, founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and organizer of the very first Freedom Ride in 1961. Following the ceremony, he shook my hand and said, “It’s your turn now to go out and change the world.” Like...
Could you have imagined, just a few short months ago when we had one of the best U.S. economies on record, that we would be facing one of the worst today? It’s difficult to do. But the disruptions caused by fear of COVID-19 and the shutdowns ordered by state and local governments have dramatically changed...
As of late, the prospects of keeping a job have shrunk. Texas’ unemployment rate jumped to almost 13 percent in April with over a million jobs being lost and several industries shrinking 10 percent or more year-over-year. However, local governments in Texas have not experienced the same troubles that are affecting everyone else. The public...