Health Care

‘Sabotage’ of the Affordable Care Act is just political rhetoric

In a recent House committee hearing, witnesses came forward to say that if the ACA is invalidated, important patient initiatives would be eliminated. They brought up the initiatives pertaining to combatting the opioid epidemic, curtailing the AIDs epidemic, and advancing kidney health. Perhaps they didn’t know that these were all put in place by the Trump Administration. Repeated claims...

August 9, 2019

Local Government

One Last Call for Higher Property Taxes

The city of Austin is giving taxpayers one more run for their money before the new property tax trigger comes into effect. An article recently published in the Austin American-Statesmandetails city manager Spencer Cronk’s proposal to “bump up property tax revenue by 8% one last time before the newly adopted, stricter 3.5% property tax revenue cap” takes...

August 7, 2019

Economy

When Is A Dollar Not A Dollar? States And The Cost Of Living.

Where you live has a huge effect on how much purchasing power your dollar has—and how far your paycheck truly goes. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco was $4,690 in April. In Dallas, a similarly sized place would set a renter back $1,433 a month, less than one-third the cost in the City by the...

August 6, 2019

Local Government

The Good, the Bad and the Gentrifying

The Mackinac Center’s David Guenthner has a new think piece in The Hill challenging some of the conventional wisdom surrounding gentrification. Guenthner’s central point is that low-income Americans may actually stand to benefit from gentrification. As evidence, he points to a working paper recently published by the Federal Reserve of Philadelphia that argues that displacement is...

August 6, 2019

Criminal Justice

A$AP Rocky is free, but thousands like him are still locked up in the US

There’s an order to these things: Defendants in the U.S. must be found guilty before they’re punished. But a celebrity’s case overseas demonstrates the order is often reversed, elsewhere, and even here. American rapper A$AP Rocky is now free, after previously being indefinitely detained before trial in Sweden. Unlike A$AP Rocky, thousands of Americans are in...

August 5, 2019

Taxes & Spending

California tries to score points against Trump with unconstitutional tax returns law

California Gov. Gavin Newsom just violated his oath of office by signing a patently unconstitutional law to score a few political points against President Donald Trump. The new law requires anyone appearing on California’s presidential primary ballot to disclose their federal income tax returns. Should a candidate refuse to release their tax returns — a wealthy candidate’s returns might run...

August 5, 2019

Local Government

Sick Leave Mandates-Round Two

“Small businesses need the flexibility to work with their employees and offer benefits to keep them competitive,” wrote Andy Ellard of Manda Machine Company to members of the Texas House State Affairs Committee earlier this year. “A one-size-fits-all government mandate is not the answer.” Ellard echoes the sentiments of many small business owners across the...

August 2, 2019

Economy

Smaller towns are living the ‘Texas Miracle,’ too

Folks in the city of Longview — an oil patch town making its way in a new economy — are a little confused by a recent New York Times article that portrayed the city as left behind by the Texas Miracle. “They don’t see Longview the way I see Longview,” Mayor Andy Mack told the Longview News-Journal. “I...

August 2, 2019

K-12 Education

No, Maryland’s public education legislation is not a model for the nation

Public education pundits have recently heralded the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future as a potential plan for the nation. If true, it’s worrisome, because the actual bill passed by the Maryland legislature is unlikely to provide much help. The most fundamental obligation of our schools is to teach children to read at grade level or above. If a child cannot read — and...

August 2, 2019

Energy & Environment

Latest Democratic Debate Furthers Climate Hyperbole

At the two nights of the most recent Democratic Party presidential debates, 20 candidates warned in ever more alarming terms about the supposedly looming apocalypse. “Literally the survival of humanity on this planet in civilization is in the hands of the next president,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on the second night. “And we have to have...

August 1, 2019

Family

From the Court to the Classroom: More Than Just Athletes

In his op-ed piece for the Washington Post, former NFL tight end, and Texas A&M graduate, Martellus Bennett provides his personal perspective on why young black boys aren’t encouraged to dream of being something other than athletes. I was blessed enough to be a kid in Chicago in the ’90s. This means I grew up...

July 31, 2019

Higher Education

Is Free Speech On Campus Really ‘Doing Just Fine’?

As a former college professor and university senior administrator, I was saddened to read a recent op-ed by Columbia University’s president, Lee Bollinger. Titled, “Free Speech on Campus Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You,” the immediate object of Bollinger’s ire is President Trump’s March Executive Order, which threatens universities that fail to uphold the First...

July 31, 2019