How many pages does it take a state commission to announce that the state issues too many reports? 668.  

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission, in an 18 month review, has found at least 1,600 reports that must be issued by state agencies. According to the Commission, more than 400 of those reports are obsolete, duplicative of other reports, or produced more frequently than necessary. Hopefully the Commission's report on reports will be the impetus for reducing reporting requirements.  

The Commission must be chastised, however, for their hypocrisy. Click below to read more...

As the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) was passed by the U.S. House last night, the case for a veto is overwhelming. 

S-CHIP provides taxpayer-financed health insurance to children and families across the country; most states currently operate the program for families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). 

The proposed legislation would increase spending on S-CHIP by between $35 and $47 billion over the next five years and could double S-CHIP’s original income limit to 400 percent of federal poverty so that it would cover children in families of four earning up to $82,600. This would vastly expand the program, making 71 percent of American children eligible for public assistance.  

President Bush, who oversaw the introduction of the Texas S-CHIP program when he was Governor, must veto any bill that expands the program beyond 200 percent of FPL.  Any family earning in the region of $80,000 is not even close to living in poverty.  The Census Bureau reports that median household income is only around $46,000. 

The photograph accompanying this post on the Reason Magazine’s blog is noteworthy: a symbol of capitalist economics juxtaposed to the father of communism and most noted critic of the free market. 

Beyond that basic contrast however, there is lesson.  The photograph was used by another blog site to illustrate its reporting of Walmart’s decision to close its stores in Germany.   

Contributing to that decision were German labor regulations that make the cost of doing business in the country prohibitively high for a company with margins as tight as the Arkansas-based retailer.   

The less-stringent labor laws here in the U.S. allow for large employers such as Walmart to flourish, create jobs, and spur economic growth.  Legislators across the state and nation must continue to preserve America’s strong economic climate and resist attempts from labor unions to drive up the cost of doing business.

A Washington State woman is in the doghouse for voter fraud.  

Turns out that Duncan M. McDonald, a formerly registered voter in Washington State, is an Australian shepherd-terrier mix. A dog. Duncan's owner, Jane Balogh, narrowly avoided jail time for registering her dog in order to make the point that vote fraud is too easy.  

Not only did Ms. Balogh register her dog, she returned the dog's ballot with the word "VOID" written on it and a paw print on the signature line. At this point, Ms. Balogh confessed to registering her dog to vote.

  But in a move of sheer ineptitude on the part of election officials, Duncan M. McDonald, the dog, still received two more absentee ballots. After the paw print stunt, and after Ms. Balogh's confession, election administrators gave Duncan the Dog two more chances to vote illegally.

A Houston Chronicle article published over the weekend addressed the growing trend toward so-called “concierge medicine.”  The piece drew an enticing picture: 

“Patients enjoy same-day scheduling, routinely empty waiting rooms, appointments that linger as long as it takes to unhurriedly answer questions and access to doctors via phone and e-mail during non-office hours.” 

However, the article erred by getting stuck on the cost of such excellent health care: 

“There is a catch: It costs $1,800 a year out of the patient’s own pocket.” 

The El Paso Times is reporting that an illegal immigrant who was injured by a Border Patrol agent while being detained has been released on bond: 

“Alberto Bustos Nambo, the undocumented immigrant who was shot and wounded by a Border Patrol agent last month, has been released on bond from the immigration detention center, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.” 

Releasing illegal immigrants on bond is a disturbing trend [see “A Deadly Trend: Illegal Immigrants as Repeat Offenders,” August 23 blogpost] because of the risk of repeat offenses and the difficulty of removing an illegal immigrant from the county once you have released them from custody. 

There is good news for democracy in Guatemala. The top five contenders for the country's presidency debated last night in what has been called a "landmark step" for the country.  

But there is some bad news for the United States and Texas: Two of the five presidential nominees in the debate labeled Guatemalans who illegally migrate to the United States as heroes.

The implications for the United States are very real. While we fight illegal immigration in the United States and Texas, we need help from the illegal immigrants' home countries, like Mexico and Guatemala.

With political corruption and rampant violence (40 candidates for office have been murdered since May), there is much to run from in Guatemala. While all five presidential candidates took tough stances against the corruption and crime, their ability to deliver on campaign promises remains to be seen.  

In the United States and Texas, we can only hope for an effective Guatemalan president who does not glamorize illegal immigration.

As September 1 approaches, so does a whole slate of new laws. One new law is highlighted by the Dallas Morning News today. 

The new law requires persons 79 and older to renew their license in-person, every two years (as opposed to six years). This law is predicated on the fact that enough elderly drivers are licensed and on the road to warrant new public safety measures. But doesn't that conflict with what we heard from the left during the voter identification debates in the 80th Legislature? A voter identification law, they argued, would disenfranchise the elderly.  

What a sadly disingenuous argument.

Poverty in the United States is down, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Median household income is up in fifteen states, including Texas. In the face of this great news, we've got to ask: why does spending on social programs, designed to help the poor, continue to grow?  

First, consider what "poor" means today. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation has compiled facts about those that are labeled as "poor" by the federal government. Some of Mr. Rector's findings, taken from various government reports, follow:  

• Forty-three percent of all poor households actu­ally own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.

• Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.

• Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.

• Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.

"Poor" today is a very different, far more affluent notion than "poor" in the Great Depression, when Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot". The figures above indicate that the majority of the "poor" have sufficient income to pay for their own chickens and their own health care.

You’d think United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) would have enough on their plate:  There are around 11 million illegal immigrants residing in the U.S.; meanwhile, the process through which someone can apply for a visa to come here legally is costly, arduous, and significantly backlogged.  Both of these problems seem to be getting worse and the cost and inflexibility of the visa application process doubtless drives some portion of the illegal immigration that takes place. 

Despite this, the San Antonio Express-News is reporting that USCIS is upgrading the “green card” that is currently held by around 750,000 legal permanent residents.  The upgrade only applies to individuals who hold an old version of the card that carries just their thumbprint.  Newer versions of the card—generally issued since 1989—contain more high-tech features such as holograms, digital photographs, and various other anti-fraud measures.