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Fiery But Mostly Peaceful?

What to Know: The media loves to portray recent protests in “mostly peaceful… but” terms.

The TPPF Take: The “mostly peaceful” moniker lets perpetrators of violence off the hook.

“The clearly intended message is that Black Lives Matter is moral in both its aims and its methods,” says TPPF’s Kevin Roberts. “Immoral methods—for example, burning down city blocks and terrorizing local residents and entrepreneurs—are not representative acts. It’s time to discard euphemisms like ‘mostly peaceful’ and speaking forthrightly about BLM’s leading role in fostering violence. That very role also means that we stop talking about it as a protest and start talking about it as an insurgency — or insurrection.”

Not Really News

What to Know: Six months into the pandemic, our economy is struggling.

The TPPF Take: The RESTART Act (S. 3814) could help U.S. businesses to get back on track.

“In our analysis of the RESTART Act, we found that while it is a step in the right direction to helping Americans recover from the effects of COVID-19 and government lockdowns, the addition of a rehire provision to the legislation would go a long way towards helping to keep business operating and workers working while bringing unemployed people back to the dignity of work,” sats TPPF’s Vance Ginn. “The cost of this Act could be funded by reallocating unspent CARES Act dollars which prevents adding more to the national debt.”

Keep It Conservative

What to Know: When lawmakers return to Austin for the new legislative session in January, they’ll be facing a budgetary shortfall.

The TPPF Take: Texas’s state government budget has often grown considerably faster than Texans’ ability to pay for it.

“Fortunately, growth in the budget has been better aligned with Texans’ financial means since we created the Conservative Texas Budget in 2015 based on the growth in population plus inflation,” says TPPF’s Rod Bordelon. “Limiting budget growth to not exceed the CTB, and even reducing it as Texas families have done with their budgets during the recession, will give Texans more opportunities to flourish.”