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Gambling on hope

Columnists

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but on first glance it sure seems like both the Senate and House Finance Committees are sending messages to Gov. Patrick Morrisey. Perhaps the message is this: You can have a 10% personal income tax cut, or you can have the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program, but to have one, you’re going to have to accept changes to the other.  Morrisey’s general revenue budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 beginning July 1 is $5.493 billion, which is roughly 3.2% more than he proposed last year and the Legislature passed for the current fiscal ...

Jim Crow smears allowed by Democrat-aligned ‘Fact-Checkers’

Columnists

The people who call themselves the “mainstream media” have a remarkable tendency to take the minority position on an 80-20 issue, most recently on requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls. House Republicans have passed the SAVE Act, while Democrats have almost unanimously opposed it. But the American people do not. Gallup pollsters report 84% of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote — 98% of Republicans, 84% of independents, and 67% of Democrats. Large majorities of blacks and Latinos back it. Separately, 83% support the SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship when ...

Equal, fair and farce

Columnists

When NBC affiliates in Tennessee showed the movie “Necessary Roughness” in 1994, those affiliates were required to give a Democrat Senate candidate 4 minutes and 13 seconds of free airtime. The Democrat was running against Fred Thompson, the actor turned Republican Senate candidate. When Thompson ran for President in 2008, NBC stopped aired re-runs of “Law & Order” that featured Thompson, who had been the District Attorney on the show. The Equal Time Doctrine is not new. But the national press corps, always ready to pounce on President Donald Trump and Republicans, has suddenly ...

Why the best never stop getting better

Columnists

How do the best become the best? Achieving and maintaining elite performance is extremely difficult. There will be setbacks along the way. Yet the best are always looking for ways to improve their performance. An example of this truth was evident in a call I had with some leaders from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. I will be meeting with groups there in late April to work with them on how to provide a great patient and family experience. With all pre-calls, I do research into the organization. In healthcare, there is a lot of publicly reported data. It was no ...

Saga of MAGA

Columnists

During Donald Trump’s stormy career, he built or seemed to construct a movement which he called Make America Great Again. However, this was Ronald Reagan’s 1980 slogan and not a Trumpian original. In 2016, it was a slogan; by 2024, it became a movement with a legion of influencers masquerading as political philosophers. Consequently, MAGA remains a “concept” rather than a definable movement. And it gets even murkier in the new age of Jeffrey Epstein. Stephen Bannon, once hailed as the chief spokesman for MAGA, has seen his reputation taken down a notch because of his ...

Changes Needed

Editorials

Members of the state House Finance Committee are working toward some important changes to safeguard taxpayer dollars, ahead of a planned “universal expansion” of the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program. Without many of the planned changes, the program will remain wide open to waste, fraud and abuse, as too many have taken advantage of the state’s failure to install guardrails earlier. The originating bill, which has not yet been numbered, would cap the annual Hope Scholarship award to eligible families at $5,250, with $250 going to the State Treasurer’s Office for ...