Georgia finished in early April, but around the country a number of state legislatures are concluding their sessions about now. They may not know it yet, but these could have been the happiest days this generation of state legislators will ever know.
Category: Tom Baxter
Showdown in Texas: Dispatchables vs. renewables
As the Texas legislature grinds toward a June 2 sine die, T. Boone Pickens must be turning over in his grave.
Along county lines, the shape of a national issue
Push has come to shove in American politics, and that famous location turns out to be somewhere down on the Coweta County line.
With trade war looming and time on his side, Kemp spurns Senate race
With so much high-level pressure on him to run, Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision not to challenge U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff next year has to be considered something of a surprise, but really it wasn’t. A race between the state’s two most talented politicians would have been great fun to watch, but in pondering his options, […]
Austin Scott opens the Medicaid can of worms
U.S. Rep. Austin Scott is the longest-serving of Georgia’s nine Republican congressmen, but you wouldn’t know it from the headlines he’s generated.
Stuck without a quorum, TVA charts a new course
Compared to other federal agencies, President Donald Trump’s dealings with the Tennessee Valley Authority haven’t drawn much attention outside the giant utility’s service area, but they have been stormy.
Firing the tax collectors is no way to reduce the national debt
It’s easy to muster sympathy for CDC scientists doing critical research and National Park rangers protecting the environment, but this April, the nation’s tax collectors could use some love as well.
Foreshortened session, resignation and long-awaited PSC races signal a political reset
This year’s General Assembly got off to a late start due to inclement weather, and ended unexpectedly with a number of issues still unresolved. In times as dangerous these, what more could a sensible lawmaker ask for?
In new administration, retribution trumps the price of eggs
A flurry of pundits, several polls and the president himself have all agreed that the last election came down to the price of eggs and bread. Did it?
Kemp’s big win, Ossoff’s race and Mississippi’s typos
It was fitting that after the last arms had been twisted and the deciding votes locked down, the concluding words spoken in opposition to Gov. Brian Kemp’s tort reform bill came not from Democrats, but indirectly from Donald Trump.
With swagger, DOGE approaches the third rail
Social Security is often called “the third rail of American politics,” a term that harkens back to the old streetcar days when most city folks understood that touching the third rail of a trolley line could kill you.
Wildfires, measles and the long-term effect of DOGE
We should probably be more worried about wildfires and measles than we have been so far.
Trump and the wire services: When being there’s not worth it anymore
The wire services have a problem, and maybe also, a golden opportunity.
DOGE firings smack more of payback than efficiency
My dad was quite the joker. Sometimes, driving past a city or state work crew back in the 1950s, he’d roll down the car window and yell “Got it made!”
In harm’s way: The challenges of 21st Century warfare
Last week, a merchant ship bound from the Suez Canal to Romania collided with the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean.
State of Capture: A story with a familiar ring
Most Americans aren’t familiar with the story of the Guptas, but you can bet your bottom bitcoin that Elon Musk knows it very well. Like so much of the history being made these days, it’s an immigrants’ tale.
Not Like Us: A sentiment many Americans agree with
It is cosmic irony, at the moment when the new administration is plunging into a trade war with Canada, that the Grammy Song of the Year, quite possibly the song that will begin the Super Bowl halftime show next weekend, is a diss track that targets a Canadian rapper.
Where poultry’s king, bird flu is a crisis
If any state has reasons to worry about bird flu, it’s Georgia.
The ‘new era of national success’ begins with crypto
The “golden age of America,” the “totally new era of national success,” had begun in a big way for President Donald Trump even before he took the oath of office.
As disasters spread, spite eclipses sympathy
Increasingly, we’re seeing events which in the past would have stirred public sympathy being transformed into vehicles for politicized spite. This can’t end well.
