Priorities For the Texas Lege

There is a silver lining to that $9 billion hole in the budget that Susan Combs has predicted. Now the Texas lege has more important things to worry about than the phony Global Warming Threat.

It is easy to worry about the economy: "There is no way out of this mess without a reduction in the standard of living for US households." Texas will no escape being a part of the global recession. First, oil prices down mean the oil & gas industry is not going to make the money it made recently, and oil royalties are way down. That in turn will hit Texas Permanent School Fund and other revenue streams. Companies like Dell, TI, IBM, Toyota (making trucks in San Antonio) are cutting back. Construction has dipped. Yet Texas will do better than most states, having a record of stronger job growth than most states during the growth period.

What the Texas lege needs to do about it all is simple enough: Balance the budget without raising taxes or harming prospects for jobs and growth. That means, yes, to saying "No" to any job-killing regulations on CO2. Since 2008 temperatures were colder than 8 of the last 11 years, there has been no real global warming since 1998. Global cooling is happening just in time to save us from very dangerous regulations, and the recession is a reminder of what the real priorities should be: 1. Economic growth 2. Jobs 3. Fiscal responsibility.

Now if only the politicians in Washington were smart enough to figure that out too, we might not have gotten into this mess.