Family, then finances—and opportunity. Those are what brought Lianne Halpern back to tiny Shamrock, a small, dusty stop on the famous Route 66 in the Texas panhandle. Like generations of Americans before, Lianne and her family had traveled west along that route in search of the golden promises of California. Lianne’s father worked in the...
As the federal government is seeking to expand the Obama Affordable Care Act by extending subsidies and giving more people coverage, bankruptcies linked to medical debt have not fallen. Instead, they have risen. Most Americans filing for bankruptcy over medical bills have medical insurance. The Affordable Care Act failed to cure medical bankruptcies. A 2019...
Texas local governments use taxpayer dollars to hire lobbyists to influence state legislation—creating conflicts of interest, distorting democratic accountability, and undermining the interests of Texas taxpayers. Key points: Taxpayer-funded lobbying expenditures more than doubled from the 85th to the 89th Legislature, now reaching as high as $111.5 million. Taxpayer-funded lobbyists consistently opposed legislation involving property...