Top Stories
- A revolving door for retirees at Texas school districts – Dave Lieber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- Perry, Dewhurst reject debt study findings – Curt Olson, Texas Budget Source
- Puncturing the poverty myth – Chuck DeVore and Brooke Rollins, TPPF
- Texas has universal health care – Arlene Wohlgemuth, Daily Caller
- UT’s Missing Brief and Justice Kagan’s Recusal – Hans A. von Spakovsky, National Review Online
Recommended
- Rick Perry Displays Varied Stance Toward Crime – Deborah Sontag, NYTimes.com
- Non-Partisan Report Highly Critical of Red Light Cameras – Jim Forsyth, WOAI News
- Texas Senate: Is Ted Cruz Getting Smeared by an Opponent? – Bryan Preston, Pajamas Media
- Texas House Speaker Joe Straus: We have to correct the deficit – Zahira Torres, El Paso Times
When GOP pols start reciting the Texas Dems’ favorite justification for tax increases in Texas (“Structural Deficit! Structural Deficit!”) nobody should be surprised when conservative leaders condemn them. - Straus Channels Obama: 'No More Cuts, Hike Revenues' – Michael Quinn Sullivan, Empower Texans
See above. - Dewhurst endorsement: Is this his idea of conservatism? – David Jennings, Big Jolly Politics
- Cost of Powerball will rise, and so will prize amounts – Anna Tinsley, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
- Rick Perry discovers it's not so easy to refuse to debate – Wayne Slater, Trail Blazers Blog
The problem is that the Perry for President campaign never said they were refusing future debates altogether (that was something Slater/Burka and others misreported as part of their own agenda, apparently), but that they might participate more selectively given the number of upcoming debates. - Perry will debate after all – Paul Burka, BurkaBlog
See above. - 38 arrested in Occupy Austin demonstration – AP
This must come as news to the Statesman staff reporter who was singing the praises of the Occupy Austin folks last week! - Despite Rocky Start, Texas' Weatherization Program Thrives – Becca Aaronson, Texas tribune
Commenter Erin Anderson provides perspective/balance that seems to elude Trib reporters/editors more and more of late:So, to recap: $327 Million taxpayer dollars for 1,000 (temporary) jobs (when the “stimulus” money is gone, so are the jobs), 8,600 homes “weatherized” (with half of homes inspected found “deficient”), agencies unprepared to administer the program, shoddy record-keeping, and outright fraud. Yet the conclusion is that this program is successful and thriving??
Recipients of free money are always happy with the results. But the other 24 million Texans who did not get free weatherization or a government-subsidized job do not believe this was a “successful” use of our tax dollars. Throwing around “free” money (aka “stimulus”) is an inefficient way to allocate resources that always results in high levels of waste & fraud.
And since the U.S. is almost $15 TRILLION in debt and borrows $0.43 of every dollar it spends, that’s about $140 Million that will have to be repaid with interest by taxpayers. But most importantly, that’s $327 Million that now cannot be spent on any other higher-priority uses, such as hiring more teachers & firemen like the President is always talking about (for example, 6,500 teachers at $50,000 each). Not the definition of success.
