Government is the Problem
What to know: Texas’ most progressive city is incredibly hard for the average person to afford. In fact, “the typical household in Austin needs 8.2 years to save for a down payment, easily topping the national average of seven years.”
The TPPF take: Government is the problem. The free market is the solution.
“Progressivism tends to make housing affordability worse, not better. The reason is easy enough to understand, as Texas progressives wholeheartedly embrace taxation, regulation, and government intervention, all of which put upward pressure on a home’s final price,” says TPPF’s James Quintero. “One obvious way to ease today’s affordability crisis is to constrain the excesses of government and allow markets to work properly.”
For more on housing prices, click here.
We Have That In Common
What to know: Congressman Gene Wu believes that minority groups in Texas should unite against “the same oppressor” to “take over this country,” according to audio from December 2024.
The TPPF take: Political rhetoric can go too far.
“It has been, and remains, the white, heterosexual male who is cast as a permanent moral offender for the progressive left in America,” says TPPF’s Cameron Abrams. “These ‘oppressors’ are framed as eternally culpable and structurally tyrannical regardless of individual conduct or circumstance. The left has found its necessary antagonist, a symbolic repository for collective guilt that must be sustained in their effort to preserve the coherence of a disordered narrative — and justify its permanent posture of accumulating power.”
For more on political rhetoric, click here.
It’s Coming
What to know: U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says we are facing a billion-dollar threat in the New World Screwworm, as that parasitic fly moves north from Mexico.
The TPPF take: If left unchecked, the screwworm could decimate American cattle, horses, and wildlife.
“Once it’s here, eradicating it could take decades and cost billions,” says TPPF’s Selene Rodriguez. “The last time it happened, our livestock industry took 30 years to bounce back. While Mexico cries foul, it’s time we stop pretending we’re dealing with a friendly, cooperative neighbor. We’re not.”
For more on screwworm, click here.