“…we would rather die in these ditches than give it up to the enemy.” James Bowie, Feb. 2, 1836

There is no more resistance to tyranny. Rather, Texas leaders try to make friends with it.

There is no more resistance to the lawbreaking and rule breaking in the Texas House. There is no more resistance to the Speaker who purposefully empowered Democrats (so much so that they bragged about it).

Prediction: Today, there won’t be any real budget battle to rein in the vulgar spending spree that grows TX gov’t, doles out corporate welfare & steals a surplus that should go to the people. (42.8% increase in state funds; 27.4% increase in all funds since the 2022-2023 budget).

Patterns repeat. Speaker Burrows and his foot soldiers have determined which “good” budget amendments they will allow to pass to put on a show. This is both the bait and cover the Speaker will provide for obedient, “no-resistance” State Reps to vote for passage of “the most conservative budget ever.”

Then, the spending bill will go to the Senate/House Conference Committee where 90% of the spending will go right back in.

Resistance will need to come from the People of Texas who no longer believe the Surrender Wing’s Alamo rhetoric – words that result in nothing but bigger government.

The Texas DOGE isn’t doing it for us.

While we support bills like HB 3770 that change Legislative Budget Board reviews of state agencies from “periodically may review” to “shall review,” this doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of BIG State Government.

For starters, the Republican officials heading up the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) already have the power to DOGE state government – but don’t appear to be the least bit interested.

The LBB is a permanent joint committee of the Texas Legislature, co-chaired by the Lt. Governor and the Speaker of the House. The remaining board members are specified by statute – Chair of the Senate Finance Committee; Chair of the House Appropriations Committee; Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee; three members of the state senate appointed by the Lt. Governor; and two members of the House appointed by the Speaker.

The LBB itself must be reformed. How do we know? If they were serious about an Elon-like “search and destroy” mission to find fraud, waste, needless regulations, and taxpayer abuse, the LBB would have already rolled out an aggressive, innovative DOGE plan for ALL of state government. They would have made it public and asked the Legislature to codify it.

If you are tired of the fakery, fiction, and good intentions leading to taxpayer hell, lean on Texas Republican officials to take a page out of Florida’s DOGE playbook. How about an aggressive plan to put Texans First – a plan to eliminate redundant state departments, agencies, programs, boards, and commissions? How about DOGE-ing state university and college operations and spending? Utilizing AI to examine state agencies to uncover hidden waste? Auditing the spending habits of local governments to shine light on waste and bloat?

As it stands now, there’s just no visible “business urgency” from statewide Republican leaders to do anything more than spend as much as possible. Want proof? How about almost $50 Billion in new spending?

Once again, the TX Senate (and soon the House) will show us that their big spending plans to grow state government are far more important than tax relief for people. Example #1 of many vulgar instances of Republican spending abuse – SB 22 will give $500 MILLION in sales tax revenue every 2 years to a Hollywood-style slush fund for film and media companies.

Nobody in power is serious about matching money, mission, and results for every part of state government. If they were, there’d be a hiring freeze in place along with modernization of state government to use AI and new technologies to identify more waste and noncompliance.

Opportunities to put Texans first abound. A genuine Texas DOGE should work in conjunction with the Comptroller’s Office to audit local governments, taking a close look at local government spending by simply utilizing publicly available county, school district, municipal and special taxing district spending records to expose bloat within local governance.

Trouble is – nobody with the power is interested in the heavy lift. It’s too much trouble to put Texans first.

Texans want to stop government sprawl. Their politicians don’t.

Texans need a real Texas DOGE – not a fake one.

In the TX House there are only two sides – bare knuckles, in-your-face corruption or “For the People.”

• its willful disregard for the TX Constitution which requires a quorum to conduct the People’s business, using trickery by inviting staff to fill the seats.
• its willful disregard its own House rules, allowing Democrats to chair powerful budget committees, where they allocated billions of tax dollars to fund Democrat priorities, doing so in secret (clear violations of House transparency rules).
• its willful standard of dishonesty by allowing Republican-led Calendars committee to meet in secret with no recording of deliberations.
• its willful empowerment/extra funding of Democrats as House Committee Vice-Chairs, poised to STOP conservative bills.
• its willful contempt for “Consent of the Governed,” blocking public testimony on the bloated state budget, which – like the Senate Budget – INCREASES FUNDING for gov’t entities engaged in DEI and gender ideology, among other utter nonsense.
• its willful hatred for Texans by gutting priority bills to render them meaningless – bills to protect The People from future alien invasions, land purchases from foreign enemies, and kids from porn & trans pushers.

Time to pick a side. There won’t be enough excuses, perfume, or whitewash to cover what’s about to unfold.

If you aren’t visibly fighting, you’ve identified yourself with the Corrupt.

Most sincerely, JoAnn Fleming, GAWTP Executive Director

Conservatives elected in 2024 – county, state, federal – we warned you NOT to drink the political Kool-Aid!

In three short months, some of you have already bellied up to the “cool people bar.” You love having photos made with the political ruling class. (Aren’t you proud they aren’t treating you like a skunk at the party?)

Some of you are “knocking back” that Kool-Aid with gusto. Some of you have even started pouring the Kool-Aid, while trying to convince your dimming conscience that it’s smart, strategic, and oh so pragmatic to just relax and not be so “inflexibly” principled.

Days, weeks, months soon fly by…

Politicians invariably fritter away time. Soon, there’s a crisis that, in most cases, they themselves created. Before you know it, they’ve helped spawn new government programs, laws, and regulations.

Why? Because the Governor wanted it. The Lt. Governor wanted it. Hollywood stars in cowboy hats wanted it. The Lobbyists wanted it. The County Judge, the Mayor, the Ivory Tower locals wanted it. The government employees wanted it. (See, all the really cool people wanted it!) With all those glitterati, no wonder the poor taxpayer saps are left behind!

Put down the Kool-Aid.
Back away from the bar.
Stop being a groupie.
Get to work for the people you’ve so quickly forgotten!

If you aren’t working every single day on an aggressive plan to CUT COSTS – stop fraud, waste, and taxpayer abuse – you will end up pushing the standard “we had no choice” tax increase excuse.

If you aren’t working every single day to stop the political barnyard fertilizer you said you hated, you soon won’t be able to see it or smell it. You. Will. Be. It.

The people are sick of excuses, and they’ll take it out on the very first political hide they can get at the ballot box. We say “Godspeed” to that.

The People have very long memories with screenshots of your campaign promises.

Tick. Tock.