For the last four months the news cycle has been buzzing about increases in healthcare.gov enrollment, Medicaid disenrollment eclipsing 20 million Americans, and a renewed click bait “fight” for Medicaid expansion. What do all of these articles have in common? They all end up corralling reform discussions to narrow legislative proposals which fail to address...
The implications are not just limited to espionage but extend to the potential for creating societal disruptions and furthering the CCP’s global influence campaign in America. President Joe Biden has completely abandoned U.S. border security. Of the some 10 million people who have illegally entered America under Biden’s unwatchful reign, a particularly alarming threat has...
The following commentary is published on Thursdays as part of TPPF’s subscriber-only newsletter The Post. If you would like to subscribe to The Post, click here. On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Education will have a hearing to monitor the implementation of the new ban on DEI programs at public universities in Texas. It’s not uncommon...
Every Friday morning at 8:30 AM, I help choose the week’s Winners & Losers on the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin. It’s a lightning round that runs the gamut from public policy and political trends to sports and culture in Texas, America and the world. Here’s my list for the week...
It’s been all quiet on the electric grid front for a few months — but don’t get your hopes up. Over the last month, electricity prices came near the $5000/MWh regulatory cap three separate times because the wind wasn’t blowing enough when the sun went down. If this sounds familiar, you’re not wrong. You may hear...
A lot of professors at the University of Texas at Austin were really angry when UT President Jay Hartzell announced he was firing 49 people last month who were associated with so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Then, after Hartzell followed up a warning to pro-Hamas protesters with a call to the State Police...
On Saturday, local governments of all types (i.e. cities, counties, school districts, and special districts) asked Texas voters to decide on nearly 275 separate bond propositions worth $17.4 billion (principal only). Using the Texas Bond Review Board’s bond election database, the Municipal Advisory Council of Texas’ website, and social media, we’ve tracked the results for...
By April 28, even House Democrats had had enough. A group of them demanded that Columbia University “act decisively” and evict the overtly pro-Hamas protesters who had been occupying the campuses, shutting down education at the close of the semester. Is this the watershed moment? The turn of the tide? Or did that come even earlier—when state legislatures (such as...
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region will likely see real-time market prices approach the regulatory cap of $5,000/MWh on Wednesday, not long after price spikes on April 28 and April 16. The fact that the market is showing signs of scarcity in the spring, long before the heat of this summer or the...
Late last month, the Houston Chronicle published an article noting the Foundation’s longstanding effort “to see ETJs abolished completely.” What prompted the friendly mention was Tesla’s recent announcement that it would be using a new state law, Senate Bill 2038, to petition to have its electric vehicle factory, located in eastern Travis County, “removed from...
Public Schools Plead Poverty—What Do the Numbers Say? We are less than nine months away from the start of the 89th Texas Legislature, and public-school elites and special interest have already started to claim that our public education system is underfunded. Facing a $60 million budget deficit, Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said that the...
On Tuesday, the University of Texas announced that law enforcement had seized weapons from pro-Hamas protesters—including, according to reports, “guns, buckets of large rocks, bricks, steel-enforced wood planks, mallets, and chains.” Social media was replete with images of buckets filled with throwable chucks of concrete, staged in key areas where protesters expected resistance. But the weapons at...