Governor's Editorials

• Friday, May 11, 2012 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  USAF Decision Puts Gulf Coast Lives in Danger
  As Hurricane Ike neared the Texas coast in 2008, hundreds of hospital patients and nursing home residents were in harm's way, facing a difficult escape from the storm's path. That's when the C-130s of the 136th Airlift Wing based in Fort Worth, Texas, went into action. That year, for the first time in U.S. history, C-130s were utilized to help move patients to safety ahead of a storm's arrival. In all, between Hurricanes Ike and Hurricane Gustav, 800 people were airlifted to safety.
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• Tuesday, April 24, 2012 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  An Opportunity to Strengthen the Texas Budget Process
  In less than a year, newly-elected members of the 83rd Legislature will take their seats and begin crafting the budget for the next biennium. This two-year state budget is a particularly important piece of legislation; one that can chart the course for our state for many years, even decades, to come.
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• Thursday, March 01, 2012 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Obama Administration Placing Pro-Abortion Politics Over Women’s Health
  President Obama's Administration plans to cancel funding for a long-standing and cost-effective health and wellness program for more than 100,000 Texas women. This move will cut off access to screenings for breast and cervical cancer, hypertension and diabetes, STD testing and family planning services for Texas women who otherwise could not afford them.
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• Friday, August 19, 2011 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  WGU Texas Latest Step To Help More Texans Earn College Degrees
  Last week, Texas partnered with the Western Governors University in the creation of WGU Texas, an accredited, online university offering degrees in more than 50 areas of study, many of them vital to meeting the demands of the growing jobs market here in the Lone Star State. We all know attaining a college degree is among the most effective ways to improve anyone’s quality of life, and ensuring a steady stream of college graduates ready to take on the high-tech jobs of the future is imperative to our mission of keeping Texas on top of the nation in job creation.
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• Tuesday, July 19, 2011 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Pledging To Work Toward A Stronger Future
  As governors of states whose citizens, like all Americans, are desperate for the restoration of fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., we are proud to have signed the Cut, Cap and Balance Pledge in the midst of the ongoing debate over once again raising the federal debt ceiling.
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• Monday, May 16, 2011 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Separating Truth from Fiction in Higher Education Research
  One proven tactic of propaganda is that if you want to distract people from the conversation you should be having, don’t be afraid to lie … and lie big. The big lie currently making the rounds in Texas is that elected or appointed officials want to undermine or deemphasize research at our colleges and universities. This disinformation campaign is nothing more than an attempt to shut down an open discussion about ways to improve our state universities and make them more effective, accountable, affordable and transparent.
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• Friday, March 18, 2011 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Texas Still At Forefront of Energy Picture
  Since the earliest days of the Spindletop strike in 1901, America has turned to Texas time and again for its energy needs. With many of the world’s energy capitals in turmoil, the nation can continue to depend on the Lone Star State in the ongoing quest for energy independence.
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• Monday, December 13, 2010 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  States Need Freedom to Solve Challenges of Health Care
  The biggest problem with federal health care 'reform' is that it assumes every state can solve its health care problems in exactly the same way. Washington fails to take into account that states have different populations, different economic conditions, different geography and different infrastructure; why, then, assume that a one-size-fits-all approach to supplying health care would effectively meet each state’s unique needs?
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• Monday, December 06, 2010 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Storm Clouds Gathering Along U.S.-Mexico Border
  Embroiled in an ongoing clash between rival drug cartels, the region of Mexico directly across the border from Texas has become one of the most dangerous places in the world, with more than 28,000 people killed since 2006, a death toll more reflective of a war zone than a nation ostensibly at peace.
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• Monday, September 13, 2010 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Lessons Learned from Storms Past
  Two years ago, Hurricane Ike barreled into the Texas coastline with a brutality unsparing in its destruction. Trees were uprooted, cities were flooded and homes were reduced to nothing more than the concrete slabs upon which they were built. Among the costliest disasters in U.S. history, Ike indiscriminately devastated schools and churches, businesses and farms, and communities and families alike.
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• Monday, July 26, 2010 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Texas Programs Have Cleaned Air, Boosted Economy
  The need for clean air is something we all can agree on. Texas has seen significant improvements in air quality in recent years – a 22 percent decrease in ozone and 53 percent reduction in the pollutant nitrogen dioxide (NOx) – since 2000. Despite these gains, a new and economically threatening issue has emerged. The Obama Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is putting bureaucratic process and centralized federal control ahead of environmental progress by unilaterally taking air quality decisions out of Texas and transferring control to ideologues and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
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• Tuesday, May 25, 2010 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Small Business Drive Ecomony, Innovation
  The next chapter in the Story of Texas isn’t necessarily being written around a boardroom table somewhere. Instead, it’s being scripted in small pieces, over kitchen tables and on living room couches, as inspired people dream and plan, gathering the money and the courage to make the leap from employee to owner of their own small business.
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• Thursday, April 08, 2010 • Austin, Texas • Editorial
  Health Care Fight Isn't Over
  President Obama’s signature on Congress’s disastrous health care plan was a disappointment to everyone who values limited government, bipartisanship and – most of all – quality and affordable health care. In forcing through this bill, Democrats from Speaker Nancy Pelosi on down have substituted their own desires and political goals for the good judgment and common sense of the people they represent. Indeed, the more the American people learned about these socialist proposals, the more they hated them.
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