Snake-oil stimulus dollars were supposed to be a cure-all for states faced with severe budget shortfalls. As it turns out, they may end up making a bad situation even worse.

While almost 130,000 students benefit from attending a public charter school in Texas, 40,000 more are prevented from attending due to space constraints. Clearly, demand is increasing for public charter schools, but supply is not.

The most important impact health care reform will have is on your personal health, and this particular issue has not received enough attention. It seems some in America take their current ability to make their own health care choices for granted.

Most objections to the Affordable Health Care for America Act, the federal health care legislation that narrowly passed the U.S. House on November 7th, relate to money. Fair enough. But one section relates to something far more precious than money—your life.

Congress has been so doggedly determined to pass a bill that it has: passed a "bill” out of Senate committee that was only conceptual and not actually written; ignored legitimate warnings regarding the bill’s multiple violations of the Constitution; forged ahead despite surging public disapproval as we discover the actual provisions and costs; and attempted to silence the opposition by engaging in open and vicious attacks against critics in business, media, and the public.

Consumers, taxpayers, and businesses all win when voluntary, market-based relationships work out complex problems like windstorm and homeowners’ insurance. However, when government steps in to fix the problem, it becomes a zero-sum game which pits one side against the other.

Does medical liability reform affect the cost and quality of health care? Supporters of President Obama’s health agenda allege, not much. CHRISTUS Health, however, might beg to differ.

But if not the Obama plan, or one of the similar proposals pending in the U.S. Congress, then what? Our research establishes that a patient-centered approach to health care reform would build on America’s world-leading quality and high patient satisfaction in a way that extends those benefits to even more people and empowers all patients to make their own medical decisions.

When we elect people to serve in Congress, we send them there as our representatives. In exchange for giving them our authority to make national decisions, they have the responsibility to provide us with sufficient information so that we can provide feedback on their decisions and gauge how well they represent us. Unfortunately, our current national leadership has scotched that understanding.

As American businesses navigate a challenging economy, it is imperative that any immigration reform legislation balance the private sector’s appropriate role in enforcing immigration laws with the need for greater fairness, predictability, and efficiency.

Renewable energy may provide a welcome contribution to the Texas and national energy portfolio. Consumers, however, must demand the hard facts of the matter. Wind power must shed the government supplement and meet the tests of the free market place to find its appropriate niche.

Current federal proposals would preempt common sense lawsuit reforms that Texans fought so hard to achieve and from which they have benefited so greatly.

Texas lawmakers need to examine whether the state’s bilingual education programs can be more effective at teaching students English. The new research report I produced for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Does Bilingual Education Work? The Case of Texas, examines this question and determines that current bilingual education programs are ineffective and should be replaced with sheltered English immersion.

Developing countries such as India understand energy reality far better than do many members of the U.S. Congress. An affordable, reliable, and plentiful supply of energy is critical to economic growth. And there are no near-term, comparable alternatives to the fossil fuels on which the overwhelming majority of world-wide energy relies.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed ACES (American Clean Energy and Security Act) in late June by a mere seven votes. How many of the 435 House members even scanned the contents of this huge bill? The August reading assignment for the U.S. Senate should be to read ACES and note that it includes the kitchen sink.

While in the short term some trial lawyers have certainly gained by their affiliation with the liberal agenda, it makes no economic sense in the long run that those who are busy pursuing negligence claims on a contingency fee basis would support those who are taking away the right to bring those claims through nationalized health care and the growth of big government.

Current proposals for health care reform are frightening—not so much because of stratospheric costs but because of the reduction of the quality of health care that these proposals will mandate.

After years of following the wrong path, Texas’ juvenile justice system is on the right track to become a national model rather than a source of embarrassment.

State lawmakers had an opportunity to fix this problem by expanding quality charter schools and raising the cap on the number of schools that can open. Unfortunately for Texas schoolchildren, politics prevailed over good public policy and the bill died in the closing moments of the legislative session on a technicality.

The proposals coming from Washington, D.C., put federal bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions, the fast track to government-run health care. A better approach, rooted in principles of individual freedom and choice, would provide patients with greater access to treatments and medical providers, and less interference from insurance companies, bureaucrats, and politicians.

Whether it is more government programs, renewable energy mandates, or trial lawyers looking out for the little people, all of these measures wind up costing consumers and taxpayers more money.

As Washington tries to lead the nation down the pied piper path toward government-run health care, it is incumbent on the people to examine the promises versus the reality.

A worrisome article that appeared recently in USA Today points out that federal aid has now surpassed the sales, property, and income tax as the biggest revenue generator for the states.

Next time gasoline prices jump, or electricity rates are going through the roof, or we find ourselves paying more for less car, we could do what everyone else does and blame the market. But whatever we do, we shouldn’t ask questions. After all, what we don’t know won’t hurt us.

Some people equate federal dollars to the states to supplement state unemployment insurance (UI) programs with a free meal that should be enjoyed for as long, and often, as possible. The reaction to governors who question the efficacy of the recent stimulus package – most notably Texas Gov. Rick Perry – is simply the latest example of this mistaken belief.

Instead of remaining in the corner created by the EPA Endangerment Finding and reluctantly supporting the 600-page juggernaut of a climate bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congress should pass a one-liner: “Under the legal terms of the CAA, CO2 is not a pollutant endangering human health and is not subject to regulation under this law.”

As it stands today, there is a good chance that after the legislature adjourns, Texas property owners will still be subject to the same takings that outraged the nation in the Kelo case.

It’s time for the Texas Legislature to stop writing “blank checks” to our state colleges and universities for tenured professors to spend as they please. Instead, all state higher education funding should be directed to scholarships, so universities once again will have to answer to the people who pay the bills. That’s the only way students, parents, and taxpayers will ever regain control of our universities.

Carbon cap-and-trade proposals have carried staggering price tags, but check out the carbon whopper in President Barack Obama’s budget plan.

I worked in Washington, D. C., with Congress virtually every day for nine years. I know how the place works, and I have come to the findings that most government activity can be boiled down to two words: coerced charity.

Mentally ill offenders will always pose a substantial challenge in the criminal justice system. But through initiatives like these, we can achieve our goals of enhanced public safety and reduced costs to taxpayers.

A simple law change to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners would help fix Texas’ broken health care delivery system by providing more primary care options and allowing these clinics to thrive in both urban and rural areas.

Wherever you wind up, Rush, we'd welcome your entrepreneurial spirit to Texas. Let’s hope that you join with another famous Texas transplant and freedom fighter, Davy Crockett, in saying, "You can all go to hell; I am going to Texas."

Policymakers who feel their constituents’ urgent need to “do something” don’t have to just sit back and watch the marketplace work. By repealing current subsidies, taxes, and mandates and rejecting new ones, they can save consumers as much as $4.3 billion a year.

There are better options to address the projected trust fund deficit that control the level of taxes paid by Texas employers and preserve Texas’ ability to manage our unemployment system as we see fit.

Performance pay can make the teaching profession more attractive by recognizing and rewarding talent, improving teacher morale, and preventing excellent teachers from leaving the profession or moving into administration for financial reasons. Texas has the largest pay-for-performance program in the nation, with funds available for the purposes championed by President Obama.

Texans are beginning to feel the pain of the national recession and a cooling state economy. The Federal Reserve recently updated its forecast and said Texas could lose nearly 300,000 jobs this year with an unemployment rate upwards of 8 percent. Perfect time for a massive tax increase? Sadly, several of our state legislators seem to think so.

The only people who could possibly fear a bonus system based on student satisfaction are those who fear being held accountable by the customers who pay their salaries. That’s exactly why we need such a system in the first place.

Just how much money should Texas businesses pay under the newly revised franchise tax? That is the question many legislators are trying to answer and one that will soon be up for serious debate.

Legislation creating this colossal carbon tax would be the biggest tax increase ever, surpassing in real dollars the 1942 law providing funds for World War II. If included in budget reconciliation bills – which cannot be filibustered – it would only require 50 votes in the U.S. Senate.

There are significant opportunities to reduce corrections costs to the state without compromising public safety.

To date, Texas has avoided the economic woes of California by avoiding high taxes, excessive regulation, and overspending. Texans would be wise to question the California example of state-only tailpipe standards and state carbon mandates.

Bringing jobs back to Texas is going to require smart, forward-thinking public policy that emphasizes low taxes, fiscal discipline, and limited government. How closely lawmakers choose to follow that model will dictate much of the coming economic recovery and how quickly all of us see an improved job market.

It takes only one moment of weakness by the legislature to raze the solid foundation of fiscal responsibility that allows us to stand strong while others collapse. Above all things the legislature considers, first, do no harm.

Lawmakers outraged at the staggering number of dropouts are looking for solutions. They should consider charter schools as a proven way to address the dropout crisis.

News coming out of the Massachusetts experiment with “socialized medicine lite” – the combination of insurance coverage that is free, subsidized, or mandatory to make it near universal – continues to be distressing for reasons other than the predictable, ever-escalating cost to the state.