This NBC news article highlights the efforts of Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Conservative Coalition as they call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution requiring a Balanced Federal Budget.

Please join us at the Tenth Amendment Town Hall, hosted by TCC, to explore solutions to restore Texas' constitutional rights, and to limit the growing power and influence of the federal government.

According to the Heritage Foundation, each of the health care bills moving through Congress expands Medicaid by making the government-run program available to all adults with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty line (PVL). The change would dramatically multiply eligible recipients: 33 states would see increases of at least 30%, including 10 posting jumps of 50% or more.

The Wall Street Journal columnist writes in this 2004 piece: "Election fraud, whether it's phony voter registrations, illegal absentee ballots, shady recounts or old-fashioned ballot-box stuffing, can be found in every part of the United States."  

The Wall Street Journal columnist writes in this 2008 op-ed: "In ruling on the constitutionality of Indiana's voter ID law - the toughest in the nation - the Supreme Court had to deal with the claim that such laws demanded the strictest of scrutiny by courts, because they could disenfranchise voters. All nine Justices rejected that argument."

Wall Street Journal Columnist writes: "The conservative movement is not at a loss for proven ideas, and in the U.S. the most powerful of these -- running in an upward line since the Industrial Revolution -- is the idea of private economic growth. The Democrats don't want the private economy anymore and conservatives have forgotten how to talk about it. Democrats are betting their opponents will forget even where Ronald Reagan is buried. They should be so lucky."

The NY Times columnist writes about President Obama's first budget: "Team Obama sounds hollow, chanting that "the status quo is not acceptable," even while conceding that the president is accepting the status quo by signing a budget festooned with pork."

The budget the president released last week provides some certainty about where we are headed: higher taxes on small businesses, work and capital investment. Congressman Ryan lays out guidelines for how a constructive opposition party should call out the majority when it falls short.

Representative Phil King has been sitting in on the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding which has held numerous hearings on the federal stimulus package recently passed by Congress.  Representative King gives an overview of the issues discussed by the committee and issues his concerns surrounding the allocation of the $16.8 billion dollars in federal stabilization funding that Texas will inevitably receive.

The key to a strong, vibrant economy lies not in handouts or bailouts, but in sound and responsible tax, fiscal, and educational policies that encourage growth, risk-taking and opportunity.  Representative Ken Paxton outlines the top fiscal policy priorities for the 81st Texas Legislature to help strengthen our economy.