2010 Texas Straight Talk PDF Print E-mail

For Texas Straight Talk from other years, please click on one of the following links:
2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 |

To subscribe to TST's RSS feed, click here.

November 2010
  • November 29, 2010Don't Raise the Debt Ceiling!

    As of November 7th, the total U.S. public debt outstanding reached an astonishing $13.7 trillion. This means that although Congress just raised the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion back in February, the new Congress will face another debt ceiling vote almost immediately next year.  Otherwise, the Treasury will not be able to continue issuing debt to fund government operations.

  • November 22, 2010Are Air Travelers Criminal Suspects?

    The growing revolt against invasive TSA practices is encouraging to Americans who are fed up with federal government encroachment in their lives.  In the case of air travelers, this encroachment is quite literally physical.  But a deep-seated libertarian impulse still exists within the American people, and opposition to the new TSA full body scanner and groping searches is gathering momentum.

  • November 15, 2010The World Shorts the Dollar

    A remarkable confluence of recent events has brought unprecedented but very welcome attention to both U.S. monetary policy and the global political economy in general.  First, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke recently announced that the Fed would embark upon another round of monetary easing by purchasing $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasury debt.  This amounts to an admission that markets have run out of patience with our profligacy, and therefore our own central bank literally must serve as the buyer of last resort for Treasury debt.

  • November 8, 2010Reject the Welfare/Warfare State

    Last week’s midterm elections have been characterized as a victory for grassroots Americans who are fed up with Washington and the political status quo.  In particular, the elections are being touted as a clear indicator that voters demand reductions in federal spending, deficits, and debt. If the new Congress hopes to live up to the expectations of Tea Party voters, however, it faces some daunting choices.  For all the talk about pork and waste, the truth is that Congress cannot fix the budget and get our national debt under control by trimming fat and eliminating earmarks for “Bridges to Nowhere.”  Real reductions in federal spending can be achieved only by getting to the meat of the federal budget, meaning expenditures in all areas.  The annual budget soon will be $5 trillion unless Congress takes serious steps to reduce spending for entitlements, military, and debt service. Yet how many Tea Party candidates who campaigned on a platform of spending cuts talked about Social Security, Medicare, foreign wars, or bond debt?

  • November 1, 2010Saudi Arms Deal is About Iran

    This month the US Administration notified Congress that it intends to complete one of the largest arms sales in US history to one of the most repressive regimes on earth. Saudi Arabia has been given the green light by the administration to spend $60 billion on some 84 new F-15 aircraft, dozens of the latest helicopters, and other missiles, bombs, and high-tech military products from the US weapons industry.

October 2010
  • October 25, 2010Government and Job Creation

    As the current economic downturn shows no signs of lifting, we hear quite a lot of rhetoric from current and potential office-holders about what government can and will do to create more jobs.  This is especially disconcerting to those who understand that the best thing government can do for job creation is to simply get out of the way.

  • October 18, 2010More Inflation Fears

    Inflation fears are heating up this week as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech in Boston on Friday, causing further frantic flight into gold by those fearful of the coming “quantitative easing” the Fed is set to deliver in November. Others who view gold as a short term investment engaged in immediate profit-taking after Bernanke's speech.

  • October 11, 2010A Spooked Economy in October

    Last week we received worse than expected unemployment numbers, challenging recent claims that the recession has come and gone.  Also, as the economy continues to suffer the after effects of the Federal Reserve-created bubbles of the last decade, there is renewed interest in gold.  Fears that the Federal Reserve will pump even more money into the system had caused the price of gold to reach new highs. Also contributing to enthusiasm for gold is continued instability in the banking industry, symbolized this week by fraud allegations that have caused many banks to halt foreclosure proceedings, thus further destabilizing the housing market. Yes, October has a reputation for being a scary month economically and this month is shaping up to be frightening, as well.

  • October 4, 2010Free Markets Create Jobs

    In this struggling economy it is essential for politicians to take a step back and think about what government has been doing to business in this country.  In less than 200 years, the free market, property rights, and respect for the rule of law took this nation from a rough frontier to a global economic superpower. Today, however, our nation and our economy clearly are headed in the wrong direction.

September 2010
  • September 27, 2010Healthcare Reform: A Huge Misdiagnosis

    This week marked six months since Congress passed the healthcare reform bill in what has become all-too-typical legislative chicanery.  Those in power crafted a mammoth piece of legislation and rammed it through Congress under a dire sense of emergency.  Insisting on time enough to read the bill was dismissed as dangerous and crazy in a time of crisis.  We were told that if we really wanted to see what was in the bill, we would have to pass it first.  I cannot imagine the founding fathers intended for Congress to legislate in this manner.  I would think if a Member is not absolutely certain the entire legislation meets Constitutional muster, the default vote should be “no” in accordance with our oath of office.

  • September 17, 2010Are Consumers Finally Winning in Washington?

    This past week the administration announced its choice for the first credit czar at the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  This bureau was created as part of the supposed Wall Street reform bill recently passed by Congress.  This new bureau, which represents nothing more than another layer of useless Washington bureaucracy, will be housed within the Federal Reserve-- one of the most anti-consumer institutions in Washington.   

  • September 13, 2010On More Stimulus Spending

    Faced with continuing economic decline and an impending election, the administration, predictably, is entertaining the idea of another stimulus package.  To explain why the last one didn’t work, adherents to the Keynesian economic philosophy are claiming that they actually did work - it just looks like they didn’t because we don’t realize how much worse off we would be right now without trillions of dollars of public spending.  The last administration bought into Keynesianism just as much as this one does, unfortunately.  Until we have leaders who understand that debt is not the way to prosperity, there will be no stopping runaway government spending.  

  • September 7, 2010Successful Economic Policies? For Whom?

    Last week, in the wake of another uptick in the official unemployment rate, the administration continued to claim that their economic policies were working, just not fast enough.  This administration inherited an unemployment rate of 7.7% and promised a peak of no higher than 8% if their policies were followed.  Not only does the administration have a funny way of ending a war, but now they claim their economic policies are successful.  For whom, I wonder?

August 2010
  • August 30, 2010Iraq - An End or an Escalation?

    Amid much fanfare last week, the last supposed “combat” troops left Iraq as the administration touted the beginning of the end of the Iraq War and a change in the role of the United States in that country.  Considering the continued public frustration with the war effort, and with the growing laundry list of broken promises, this was merely another one of the administration’s operations in political maneuvering and semantics in order to convince an increasingly war-weary public that the Iraq War is at last ending.  However, military officials confirm that we are committed to intervention in that country for years to come, and our operations have in fact, changed minimally, if really at all.

  • August 23, 2010Let the Housing Market Normalize!

    Recently there have been some encouraging signs that Congress is finally willing to admit what should have been evident two years ago.   Even after a $150 billion bailout, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still bankrupt and should be abolished.  Indeed Rep. Barney Frank, a longtime champion of Fannie and Freddie has made a few statements alluding to this and I have signed on to a letter asking him to clarify his remarks and hold hearings on this topic.  There seems to be a growing consensus in favor of abolishing Fannie and Freddie.  This is the good news.

  • August 16, 2010Washington's Idea of Fiscal Restraint

    It has been months now since the new healthcare reform bill was passed into law. As is so typical, this massive piece of legislation was passed with a sense of urgency so acute that leadership declared America could not afford to wait until legislators, their staff and the general public had time to thoroughly read the bill.

  • August 9, 2010The Cycle of Violence in Afghanistan

    Last week the National Bureau of Economic Research published a report on the effect of civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq that confirmed what critics of our foreign policy have been saying for years:  the killing of civilians, although unintentional, angers other civilians and prompts them to seek revenge.  This should be self-evident.  

  • August 2, 2010The Trouble With Unconstitutional Wars

    Our foreign policy was in the spotlight last week, which is exactly where it should be. Almost two years ago many voters elected someone they thought would lead us to a more peaceful, rational co-existence with other countries.

July 2010
  • July 26, 2010On the Bloated Intelligence Bureaucracy

      I have often spoken about the excessive size of government, and most recently how waste and inefficiency needs to be eliminated from our military budget.

  • July 19, 2010When There is No Rule of Law

    Last week ended with some promising news on finally stopping the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Unfortunately, the administration still seems to believe that shutting down working oil wells is a higher priority than effectively dealing with the broken one.

  • July 12, 2010Funding Corruption and Waste in Afghanistan

    Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to say what a lot of Americans already know – that our involvement in Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable.

  • July 7, 2010More Power for the Fed

    Last week I was pleased to see my Republican colleagues take up the cause to fully and completely audit the Federal Reserve by including my language from the Federal Reserve Transparency Act in a Motion to Recommit the financial regulation reform bill. Although this effort was defeated by the Democrat majority, there were many good reasons to support it.

June 2010
  • June 28, 2010The Military Can Waste Money Too

    This past week various news events once again made it abundantly clear that our foreign policy is an abject failure. Unfortunately, in spite of this the administration is determined to stay on this destructive course, despite any past promises to change it. For Afghanistan especially, if ever there was an opportunity to admit shortcomings and change strategies along with leaders, this past week was it.

  • June 21, 2010Too Much Government in the Gulf

    Sadly, the disaster in the Gulf continues this week as BP's efforts at containment keep hitting snags and residents along the coast scramble to clean up and defend their shores and wildlife.

  • June 13, 2010Authoritarianism is Bad for Your Health

      The administration's terrible healthcare reform bill is now law, but the debate over how-- and whether-- the federal government should be involved in providing healthcare services is not over.  It is not too late for America to correct its course and stop the march toward a government run, "single payer" healthcare system.

  • June 6, 2010Why Governments Hate Gold

      This past week several emerging and ongoing crises took attention away from the ongoing sovereign debt problems in Greece.  The bailout

May 2010 April 2010
  • April 25, 2010Socialism vs Corporatism

    Lately many have characterized this administration as socialist, or having strong socialist leanings.  I differ with this characterization. 

  • April 18, 2010End the Mandate

    Last week I introduced a very important piece of legislation that I hope will gain as much or more support as my Audit the Fed bill.  HR 4995, t

  • April 11, 2010Passing the Buck

    Last week the federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held hearings as part of their continuing investigation into the causes

  • April 4, 2010Government and Gasoline

    As we head into the summer driving season and gasoline prices are again creeping up, the administration has announced plans to explore opening up mor

March 2010 February 2010 January 2010