Texas DOGE
What to know: Acting Texas Comptroller Don Huffines is moving quickly to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse at the agency and save taxpayer money. In one of his first acts, the new Comptroller has asked department heads to identify possible staff reductions under the rationale that: “One of our largest objects of expense is salaries, so we must consider the potential need to reduce salary expenditures.”
The TPPF take: More DOGE, less government.
“The new acting Texas Comptroller’s latest efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse is exactly what’s needed right now, both from the standpoint of easing the affordability crisis, promoting public trust, and setting the example for other state agencies to follow suit. Cut, cut, cut all unnecessary government spending,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “When government is small, the opportunity to prosper is enormous.”
Classical Learning
What to know: Texas has approved the Classical Learning Test, which will play a role in college admissions, alongside the SAT and ACT.
The TPPF take: The Dallas Morning News takes exception to this move, worrying that standards might be too high.
“Over the past 30 years, the SAT and ACT have increasingly been reshaped to satisfy political demands for greater accessibility and demographic balance rather than to preserve the academic rigor that once made them respected measures of college readiness,” says TPPF’s Tom Lindsay. “The SAT-ACT monopoly — which has already bent to ideology — doesn’t serve rigor. Letting the CLT compete does.”
A Healthy Start
What to know: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has proposed a slate of healthcare reforms that give Texans more options by nixing state mandates.
The TPPF take: The governor’s healthcare plan is a solid start.
“The answer to much of what ails healthcare is patient control over their own care. Medical care is 50-90% cheaper when bypassing all of the middlemen,” says TPPF’s Dr. Cliff Porter. “As long as our care is left in the hands of insurance and corporate administrators it remains at the mercy of their agendas, not yours. Without change, the electorate will reach for the easy empty promises of government run healthcare, leading to rationed medical care and higher taxes like Canada and the UK. Texas needs better healthcare options.”