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Volume XVI Number 6 - April 6, 2017     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

Any Hope For Conservative Legislation In Texas This Year?

Will Medicaid Bust Our Budget?

The Left Bags Another Victim

Assimilation - Only Way For Immigration To Continue To Work For U.S.

Here's An Idea: Singapore's Health Care System Holds Valuable Lessons For U.S. (Thanks To Karen Feldsher)

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Gary Polland
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Thoughts This Fortnight

Any Hope For Conservative Legislation
In Texas This Year?

In a word, maybe, while the conservative Senate has passed property tax relief, the keep men out of women's bathrooms bill, a bill requiring a vote on revision bonds, a bill on school choice and budget, and a bill prohibiting sanctuary cities (coming soon) with more to come. The House is moving slowly at a pace dictated by its leader Speaker Straus, and makes conservative initiatives slow played to death.

Will Medicaid Bust Our Budget?

With thanks to budget expert Dan Mitchell, if you look at the charts showing runaway Medicaid spending, you see an ugly future. It's past time for fundamental reform in this area.


The Left Bags Another Victim

If you follow conservative press, you heard about the outrageous rape and sodomization of a 14-year-old girl in Maryland by an 18-year-old adult illegal immigrant who was on INS release after being arrested at the Texas border.

Instead of showing up for court since the Obama administration set up a catch and release program, he went to Maryland.

The case has lots of questions, but one answer is clear, sanctuary cities and states are not appropriate. A second would be what is an 18 year old illegal adult being educated in our public schools at taxpayers expense! Anyway, why did the mainstream media fail to cover the story?

Assimilation - Only Way For Immigration To Continue To Work For U.S.

Friend, Dennis Prager, recently penned a wonderful column relative to Immigration and Assimilation.

Prager coins a "rule", in order to maintain a country with a low crime rate and social stability, a nation has two choices: "Don't allow immigration into the country or allow them but BE CERTAIN TO ASSIMILATE them in the population as soon as possible."

The latter is what we have followed in the U.S for a long time and it has worked.

But in the last fifty years, the left has moved us away from what works, to a system that celebrates national/ethnic identities. Prager says correctly that this is the beginning of the end for the U.S.A. as we have known it, as "America was never just a nation of immigrants," it was a country that immigrants came to, who sought to become Americans.

In fact, Prager is right that America's great strength has been forging an American identity out of diversity.

Here's An Idea: Singapore's Health Care System Holds Valuable Lessons For U.S.
(Thanks To Karen Feldsher)

The United States could learn a thing or two from Singapore when it comes to providing quality health care at reasonable cost, according to biologist, entrepreneur, and author William Haseltine.

The fact is that the Southeast Asian nation spends only 3% of its GDP on health care in contrast to the United States' nearly 18% - yet has a healthier population!

Mr. Haseltine thinks that Singapore's emphasis on "social harmony" - on ensuring that everything in society works well and smoothly - is a key factor in that nation's health care achievements. "They believe that nobody in their country, even a foreigner, will go without health care."

Singapore has a range of policies that support health care, Haseltine said. For example, Singaporeans are required to have a health savings plan, called Medisave, that works like a 401K retirement savings plan in the U.S.; the government sets both policies and prices for private insurance companies; health care costs for services and procedures must be completely transparent; there's a minister of "wellness" who emphasizes the importance of a healthy diet and exercise and works to curb smoking; there are high health care subsidies for those with low incomes; and the government invests heavily in medical education.

There's also a compulsory savings program for workers called the Central Provident Fund that can be used to pay for housing; as a result, 85% of Singaporeans own their own home. "That is a big social stabilizer, and a big stabilizer of health," Haseltine said.

Haseltine acknowledged that the Singapore government's heavy hand in the marketplace and in society wouldn't go over well in the U.S., but he thinks that some health care ideas from Singapore could work here, such as mandatory health savings accounts, greater transparency about costs and prices, and more regulation of insurance company prices and policies.

TCR Comment: Good ideas. Best practices in medical health care should be looked at.


TCR on the Air

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland and liberal commentator David Jones on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8, replaying Saturday at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8, Monday at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpublicmedia.org.

Red, White & Blue Returns! Thanks for all of your support!
04-07-2017: Texas Legislative Session with special guests, State Senators Paul Bettencourt and Sylvia Garcia.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his nineteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last sixteen years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 13 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his 15th year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston, longest running political talk show in Texas history. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

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