Commentary
48 Conservative Bills the Texas House Killed This Session
Examples of some of the legislation that died by the hands of House leadership.
Y’All Answered: House v Senate in 2023
Readers offer their insights and experiences.
Property Tax Relief Starts with Removing Illegal Aliens from the Housing Market
Recent discussions spearheaded by Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) brought attention to the strain that immigration places on the U.S. housing market and the burden it places on American citizens.
Just Be Faithful
True success is found not in worldly praise, but in the knowledge that we faithfully did what we were called to do.
Commentary Archive
TAB’s Hammond disdainful of an engaged public
“This is a stopgap bill, I don’t care how we cut it,” said Rep. Phil Stephenson, R-Wharton, about the transportation funding deal passed by the Texas House and Senate on Monday night. The bill, which puts in serious jeopardy our saving money to the rainy day fund,...
Protecting the ESF as an Endowment
A strong Texas needs a strong savings account. In 1989, Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment creating the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), commonly referred to as the "rainy day" fund, "…to be used to offset unforeseen shortfalls in revenue." After the...
Hilderbran goes soft on tax reform
TX Budget CompactI was saddened to see Rep. Harvey Hilderbran go soft on phasing out the state’s horrible business tax known as the margins-tax. Hilderbran, who is chairman of the House Ways & Means committee, appeared on Pratt on Texas at the start of the 83rd...
Tweet-less (updated)
Without warning or notification, social media mini-blog site Twitter on Monday simultaneously "suspended" the main Empower Texans feed along with the personal accounts of all staff. It is unsettling, to say the least, given the way the entity sells itself as a great...
Senate’s Misplaced Fear
Texas senators seem to believe they're members of an exclusive club, rather than elected public servants. Speaking for the club this week, State Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan), chair of the Finance Committee, told the press it “has always been … pretty hard to penetrate...
Government Debt Bubble Is the Next One to Burst
Greece is bankrupt. European Union nations are leading a bailout of that government in an attempt to prevent other financially troubled EU members such as Spain and Portugal from collapsing as well, which could bring down the entire European Union financial system....
Putting Texas Veterans Back to Work
A new study from the United States Department of Labor reports that the unemployment rate in 2009 for young returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan rose to 21.9%, far higher than the national unemployment rate for non-veterans in the same age group of 18 to 24....
Servant leadership vs. political management? We need the former.
If these last few months have shown us anything, its that people are shouting out across the nation for servant leadership, not political management. Why? What's the difference? Political management is a role in which people make decisions for you based on their...
What The Left Won’t Recognize
An editorial from the Austin American-Statesman, posits the idea that we should pay children a wage to study for school. The proponent of this idea is one Bruce Todd, a former mayor of Austin, who is running a project called the Tuition Incentive Program. In support...