The Texas economy is the envy of the country. Businesses flock here because of our educated workforce, low regulatory environment, and relatively low tax burden. Individuals and families come for the opportunities and quality of life an economically healthy, wealthy, and prosperous society provide. Texas leaders routinely tout the state’s success, and it’s justified. For...
Access to inexpensive and reliable energy has helped make America the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, with Texas front and center in this effort. Our state was originally powered largely by renewable fuels: water, wind, and biomass. It wasn’t long, though, before renewables were replaced by more efficient coal and kerosene,...
“A rising tide lifts all boats.” Jack Kemp understood that economic growth was the key to human flourishing. This is achieved with an institutional framework that provides economic opportunities for people across the income spectrum. This happens best in free market capitalism. Socialism, on the other hand, fails everyone. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)...
In Plato’s Gorgias, Socrates compares the person who battles for genuine political reform to a doctor. This doctor, in Socrates’ analogy, is called up on child-abuse charges. His accuser is a pastry chef. Moreover, the jury assembled to decide the doctor’s fate consists entirely of small children. The pastry chef’s case for the prosecution consists of...
High taxes are always and everywhere a government spending problem. This point is a good reminder for the 86th Texas Legislature because the actions so far include too much government spending and little to no tax relief. Without spending restraint, tax relief efforts will fail like they did in Kansas and Louisiana. The 18 groups...
Often, the most effective way to make a point is to tell a story. And that’s what NPR does in its new report on high-deductible health policies (HDHPs) that are keeping too many Americans out of their doctors’ offices. Susan, who carries a gene that makes her predisposed to breast cancer, has one of those policies....
The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2% annual rate in the first quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Analysts expected a far slower growth rate of 2.3%. President Trump has consistently said that his pro-growth policies—tax cuts and regulatory reform—would shift the economy into higher growth than was experienced under his predecessor, President Obama. The economy...
Last week, Steve Adler, the mayor of Austin, Texas, announced that city taxpayers would be paying $460 million for a biomass power plant they’d previously paid $128 million to help build on top of a yearly payment of $54 million for six years—that generated electricity for all of two months. The Nacogdoches Generating Facility in East Texas...
We’ve seen too many stories lately about school districts squandering money on big-ticket items like a $20 million waterpark and golden parachutes for departing superintendents. Investing in public education is important. To make sure that investment is sound, it’s time for the Legislature to step up and require efficiency audits of local school districts to make sure dollars...
Amid a groundswell of criticism, San Antonio has recently extended the timeline for revision and public comment on the draft of its Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, or CAAP. Unfortunately for San Antonio’s businesses and especially its poorest residents, any plan for the city to reach “carbon neutrality” by 2050 is bound to dramatically drive up the...
Did you know the United States leads the world in clean air? As I walk the halls of the Capitol, meeting with members of Congress and their staff about the energy policies that help and hurt our country’s future, I’m shocked how many people don’t know and can’t believe this fact. Over the last 50...
President Donald Trump is opening the floodgates to America becoming an energy superpower. That’s the significance of two executive orders he recently signed to update federal procedures for building energy infrastructure across the nation, making America more prosperous and secure. The orders will remove unnecessary federal barriers to the construction of oil and gas infrastructure, including pipelines,...