The Baines Report
Back in August, I attended a Policy Primer titled “The Great Texas Land Grab” hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF). The majestic offices were appropriate for a group that can (through its affiliation with the State Policy Network) trace a significant portion of its funding to the Koch brothers. There were three panelists […]
Photo Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Speaker of the House John Boehner created a media splash on Friday September 25, 2015 when he announced that he would be stepping down from both his post and seat in Congress at the end of October. His statement comes only a day after Pope Francis addressed a joint session of Congress, […]
Photo Credit: AFP / Baraa al-Halabi Refugee Ceilings and Admitted Refugees to the U.S., FY 2009-2014, American Immigration Council, 2014 The Syrian Civil War has created the largest refugee crisis of the twenty-first century. Some 40% of Syria’s population has been forced to leave their homes and seek safety elsewhere, either abroad or in Syria itself. […]
photo credit: UTPAL Baruah/Reuters Third and final in a series by Steven Damiano (LBJ MGPS Graduate) covering his internship at Bread for the World. In my previous blog post, I noted the role taxation and domestic resource mobilization plays in international development. In this post, I lay out the policy recommendations from my upcoming Bread for […]
On September 15 and 16, 2015, one of the most famous University of Texas alumni returned to campus to promote his organization. Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan readily admitted that the CIA does a poor job of communicating its value to the American public, as evidenced by the fact that only 50% of the […]
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich struck a cautiously optimistic note when he spoke at the LBJ School as part of the Liz Carpenter Lecture Series on Tuesday, September 8th. Although Reich was quick to catalogue the challenges facing the United States economy, he sketched out ways that US workers—and not just corporations—can thrive in the […]
On Wednesday September 9, Julian Castro — Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) — delivered the keynote address at the 2015 Reimagining Cities Conference, hosted at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs on the UT-Austin campus. The conference, which consisted of a series of panels and speeches emphasizing the importance of urban […]
On August 28, Darren Goforth – a Texas Sheriff’s Deputy – was killed in an act of unprovoked violence. Goforth had stopped at a gas station to refuel his squad car after responding to an unrelated accident in Harris County. He was in uniform, effectively minding his own business while on active duty, when he was […]
The Eurocrisis forced Spain and Portugal, like Greece, to ask Europe for financial support. In return, by mandate from their creditors these countries implemented budget cuts and unpopular structural reforms. As a consequence of these austerity measures, one out of two young people in Spain and Greece is unemployed; in Portugal, this number is nearly […]
The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution changed how Americans select senators and, in doing so, fundamentally changed how Congress operates. The people form the basis of power and hold the sovereignty in our democratic republic. The people in turn surrender some sovereignty to the states, through charters and constitutions. During the Revolutionary War […]