More than 1 million Texans have filled for unemployment since mid-March. There will be many more individuals who will file in the coming weeks. This is a signal that something is very wrong—and it’s a novel virus. But this novel virus has also created a novel recession, and we can’t prepare to treat it with the same...
Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, claims that “Texas Republicans have made coronavirus fallout worse by fighting Medicaid expansion.” “They didn’t create the global health crisis, but they’ve undoubtedly exacerbated its effects,” he writes. But is that true? Had Texas expanded Medicaid when the Affordable Care Act was passed a decade ago, would...
John Koufos, National Director of Reentry Initiatives for Right On Crime, recently testified before the Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice on effective reentry strategies for those rejoining society from incarceration. United States Attorney General William Barr established the commission earlier this year, per the President’s executive order, to explore modern...
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed major flaws in our nation’s child welfare system. Across the country, in-person visits between parents and children were cancelled, reunifications of families were postponed, and children entered care with nowhere to go as foster families had second thoughts about taking in a child who may have been exposed to the virus. As a...
This Earth Day, the pollution reduction caused by the coronavirus pandemic is nothing to celebrate. Some radical environmentalists are glorifying the suffering and death caused by the pandemic, calling the coronavirus the “cure” for what plagues the planet — us. Even Pope Francis suggested the virus might be nature’s attempt to strike back at humanity: “Nature never...
After he left the presidency of Harvard University, Derek Bok offered this anatomy of the soul of American higher education today: “Universities are like riverboat gamblers and exiled royalty: their desires are never satisfied.” But Harvard Magazine has now upped the ante, going far beyond an insatiable desire for mere money. The May-June 2020 edition of the...
The coronavirus has impacted every single Texan’s life in some way. From local governments extending stay-at-home orders, to children and their parents adjusting to school closures, and to a record number of Texans filing for unemployment assistance, we are living in a time in which we are all collectively frustrated and uneasy about what tomorrow...
Ezekiel Emanuel, adviser to presidential candidate Joe Biden and Obamacare architect, just called for a 12-to-18-month lockdown to battle COVID-19, asking us to abandon our livelihoods, religious services, and “contact with friends and extended family.” He claims we have “no choice” and that the alternative is hundreds of thousands of deaths. He has also said that COVID-19 is a...
Texas is unlike our nation’s federal government in many ways, not the least of which is our balanced budget. But just because a budget is balanced doesn’t mean it’s fiscally responsible. With the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 crisis, and especially the steep decline in oil and gas production, Texas will be in for...
In what seems like a lifetime ago, state government finances across the nation were moving in divergent directions, with 28 states having replenished their fund balances above what they held before the onset of the recession in 2007. Meanwhile, states such as Pennsylvania and Illinois were dangerously low on fiscal reserves, with each state having...
The American economy was booming prior to the lockdowns stemming from the current pandemic. Similarly, many of our nation’s prisons and jails were beginning to improve conditions of confinement, in ways ranging from ending the shackling of pregnant women to reining in the use of solitary confinement. However, the trend away from prolonged solitary confinement...
Some Americans are angry. On Wednesday, thousands of Michigan residents — in their vehicles — brought traffic in Lansing to a standstill. A spokesperson for Operation Gridlock said there’s a clear message for the governor who has locked down the state: “Instead of talking about what’s essential and nonessential, let’s talk about what’s safe and...