Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of February 5, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

Facebook, Texas Tribune
Facebook, Texas Tribune
loading...

Abbott's Plan

Attorney General Greg Abbott has a proposal for border security according to the Texas Tribune. The $300 million dollar proposal would include more boots on the ground as well as high-tech equipment.

Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for governor, said Tuesday he wants to nearly double state spending to improve security along the U.S.-Mexico border, proposing a “continuous surge” with 1,000 new boots on the ground and millions of dollars worth of high-tech equipment.

The proposal, dubbed his “Securing Texans Plan” and unveiled Tuesday in Dallas, would also include tougher laws against sex crimes, gang activity and domestic violence.

At a cost of more than $300 million over two years, the proposal represents the largest government expansion he’s proposed as a candidate for governor. The border security package would entail the hiring of 500 new Department of Public Safety officers over four years — plus additional overtime and support staff — to help create what he called a “permanent border shield.”

“We must do more to protect our border going beyond sporadic surges,” Abbott said. “As governor I will almost double the spending for DPS border security. I’ll add more boots on the ground, more assets in the air and on the water, and deploy more technology and tools for added surveillance.”

Abbott would not specify any existing sources of funding to pay for the new programs. He said only that it would come from existing general revenue dollars.

“These are going to be budgetary priorities that must be paid first,” Abbott told reporters after his speech. He said seized dollars and asset forfeiture programs eventually would help pay for the border security portion, which exceeds $292 million over two years, but he wouldn't say how to pay for it before that money kicked in.

Asked if there were any programs that would have to be cut to pay for the dramatic spending increase, Abbott said, “I couldn’t identify them.”

“It would be whatever legislators may come up with they want to have funded. That is left to the ideas that will be articulated by the 150 state reps and 31 senators,” he said.

Abbott said he would not rely on “any new form of revenue,” including taxes or fees, to pay for the proposals.

“To be perfectly clear right now and forever: absolutely no tax increases whatsoever for any of my programs,” he said. “The Abbott administration will not have any tax increases.”

The campaign of Abbott’s expected Democratic opponent, Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, quickly issued a press release saying Abbott’s proposal matched a “nasty record” on border and immigration issues.

“Actions speak louder than words, and Greg Abbott’s actions are downright hostile,” said Davis spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña. “Greg Abbott’s positions don’t vary much from the ‘stop the invasion’ rhetoric we’re hearing from his allies. Abbott even went as far as comparing the Texas border to a third world country. Unlike Greg Abbott, Sen. Davis has a strong record of fighting for all Texans.”

Cruz vs. Obama

Think the Obama Administration is taking aim at Texas while expanding federal power? Senator Ted Cruz agrees with you and yesterday he released a report on that very issues. Cruz highlighted ten cases that had a direct impact on Texas.

“As Americans continue to suffer from a struggling economy, exacerbated by the misguided and botched Obamacare legislation, the worst thing the federal government could do is burden states that have managed to achieve economic growth in spite of the stifling federal regulatory environment,” Sen. Cruz said. “Unfortunately Texas must constantly defend itself against President Obama’s expansive view of federal power, and I applaud Texas’s legal challenges under the leadership of Attorney General Greg Abbott against this Administration’s assault on state sovereignty. I hope others will follow his lead.”

The cases highlighted in Sen. Cruz’s report include:

  • NFIB v. Sebelius (U.S. Supreme Court): Obamacare’s conditions on Medicaid funding are unconstitutional.
  • Texas v. United States (U.S. Supreme Court): The Department of Justice imposed unconstitutional preclearance on Texas’s redistricting plans.
  • Texas v. U.S. Department of Interior (Eastern District of Louisiana): The Department of Interior imposed an unlawful moratorium on offshore drilling.
  • Texas v. EPA (U.S. Supreme Court): The Obama Administration’s EPA tried to expand its power by regulating greenhouse gases.
  • Texas v. U.S. Department of Education (5th Circuit): The Department of Education illegally withheld from Texas $830 million in educational funding.
  • Texas v. EPA (5th Circuit): EPA tried to override Texas’s program for incentivizing facilities to voluntarily comply with air permitting regulations.
  • Luminant Generation Co. v. EPA (5th Circuit): EPA unlawfully blocked Texas’s air permitting program.
  • EPA v. EME Homer City Generation L.P. (U.S. Supreme Court): EPA illegally imposed a cross-state air pollution rule.
  • Texas v. Crabtree (Southern District of Texas): A Department of Commerce agency unlawfully promulgated an emergency fishing rule in the Gulf of Mexico.
  • Texas Pipeline Association v. FERC (5th Circuit): A federal energy agency illegally ordered pipelines to report intrastate business activities.

Additionally, Texas has the following lawsuits pending against the Obama Administration:

  • Texas v. EEOC (Northern District of Texas): A challenge to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s unlawful hiring guidelines that prevent employers, like Texas, from categorically excluding convicted felons from employment.
  • North Dakota v. EPA (District of North Dakota): A lawsuit to require EPA to designate areas of the country as complying with national air quality standards, after EPA missed the deadlines for doing so under the Clean Air Act.
  • Oklahoma v. EPA (Western District of Oklahoma): An action brought by 12 States against EPA, seeking to gain access under the Freedom of Information Act to documents between EPA officials and environmental groups.
  • State National Bank of Big Spring v. Lew (D.C. Circuit): A challenge to Title II of Dodd-Frank, which gives the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation unilateral authority to take over and liquidate large financial institutions.
  • Texas v. EPA (D.C. Circuit): A case challenging EPA’s designation of Wise County as an ozone non-attainment area.
You can view the full report by clicking on the link above.

Other Top Stories:

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.

More From News/Talk 95.1 & 790 KFYO