Every Friday morning at 8:30 a.m., I join the Cardle & Woolley show, Talk 1370 Radio, in Austin where we discuss who made the list of Winners & Losers for the week. The Texas Legislature is officially sworn in, the House has selected a speaker and we have 72 more hours left of President Joe Biden. We are going to miss him on Winners & Losers.
According to the last polls taken this week, the Biden administration is viewed as one of the biggest losers of all time. The latest CNN poll found that only 36% of Americans approve of the way Biden has handled the presidency. And 64% view the Biden presidency as an overall failure.
Gallup has Biden’s approval at 39% and they show that under his leadership Americans believe the country has lost ground on virtually every issue that matters. Sixty percent of Americans believe America has failed on the economy, reining in the national debt, immigration, terrorism, trade, national defense and maintaining our position in the world. We frequently say we are a divided nation, but we are not equally divided when it comes to Joe Biden—it’s more like a third who support him versus two-thirds who don’t.
Biden’s awful “farewell to the nation” speech on Wednesday night makes it clear he has no idea why he (and Kamala) lost the election. He actually doubled-down on his losing messages while trying to get people to believe that Democrats were beaten by oligarchs and tech moguls with lots of money, forgetting that their team spent millions more than Trump.
Unfortunately, this isn’t all going to end in 72 hours. Much of the Democrats’ ridiculous questioning of Trump’s cabinet nominees this past week as well as their votes in the House come out of the same playbook.
Winner: Attorney General Nomination Pam Bondi’s Confirmation Testimony
All of Trump’s nominees did pretty well this week during their confirmation hearings. Rubio was exemplary, but my favorite response came from Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi who faced down crazed Democrat zealot Sen. Richard Blumenthal who tried to inject a litmus test into the hearing: “You have to be able to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. … You have to be able to say that January 6 insurrectionists who committed violence shouldn’t be pardoned,” Blumenthal said.
Bondi didn’t buy it and she slapped him down: “No, I don’t. … I’m not going to sit up here and say anything that I need to say to get confirmed by this body. I don’t have to say anything.”
Like Biden, Blumenthal and the other malicious senators who questioned the nominees didn’t get the message Americans sent on Nov. 5—they care about the economy, the border and crime—they don’t care about Jan. 6 or the 2020 election.
Winner: House Bill Banning Men in Women’s Sports
After the November election, it should not be difficult for any elected official to support a mandate that men should not be allowed to play on women’s sports teams. In fact, 69% of Americans say they oppose boys in girls’ sports and that percentage is increasing.
Still, only two Democrats (both Texans) voted in support of the Protection of Women and Girls Sports Act—Congressmen Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez. The bill will prohibit federal funds from going to schools that let boys who think they are girls participate on the girls’ team.
In a desperate search for some kind of moral high ground, the rest of their Democrat colleagues managed to contort themselves into crazyville, suggesting the legislation would lead to genital inspections by sexual predators. Hard to figure how they got to that. The wording of the legislation is clear—your sex on your birth certificate determines which team you can play on. Apparently, House Democrats weren’t paying attention to what happened to the last public official who championed “they/them” over us.
Winner: Ceasefire Agreement Could be a Winner
But we’ll have to wait and see. Getting some of the hostages out is a huge victory, but Hamas is notorious for violating these agreements and Israel is right to be more than a little suspicious. However, there’s no need to get into the debate over whether Biden or Trump deserves the credit for the deal—it’s not debatable. Trump absolutely did it with his “hell to pay” promise. If Biden could have gotten it done sooner, why didn’t he?
Winner: Texas Gets $27 Billion from Fossil Fuel
Texas oil and gas producers this week announced that the state received $27 billion in royalties from the fossil fuel industry last year—about $75 million a day, to support schools, public safety and essential services. Speaking to the massive forces pushing to shut down the fossil fuel industry both in Texas and the world, Texas made it clear that here we see fossil fuels as an asset, not a liability. Since the royalty subsidies began in 2007, they have contributed $275 billion to state coffers.
This week, Texas also got the announcement that Texas has a $24 billion budget surplus—making Texas taxpayers winners after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reiterated his commitment to making property tax relief a top priority for the surplus funds.
Loser: California Again
Apparently, even the devastation of the wildfires has not changed the progressive “climate change, open border” delusions in California. As the fires were still burning, they doubled the amount of money they will spend to “Trump proof” the state against the new administration’s policies. California lawmakers slapped down $50 million, including $25 million to provide lawyers to help residents who are about to be deported.
State Senate Budget Chairman, Democrat Scott Weiner, said California faces two massive challenges, the wildfires and the Trump administration, which is threatening to deport residents who are here illegally. Seriously?
Gov. Gavin Newsom did announce that he is rolling back the massive permit requirements from California Environmental Quality and the California Coastal Act that routinely delay building projects for years. Local government regulations will still be in place so it remains to be seen if enough Californians get that the hellish bureaucracy that they have created not only prevented government from taking steps to prevent the fires, it could also prevent residents from being able to rebuild and recover.
Winner: Mark Zuckerberg Again — It’s the Vibe Shift
After I put Zuckerberg on the winner’s list last week, several people, mostly men, told me that that Zuckerberg is faking his born-again anti-wokeness. They insist he’s not really one of us and he doesn’t believe what he’s saying. My response to that is, “so what?” It doesn’t matter. Getting rid of DEI programs at Meta and on all his platforms is not simply ending the program, it is abandoning DEI’s ugly core mission. Meta had diversity-based hiring and recruitment wired into everything they do. They got all their materials and vendors from “diversity-based” sources and they had rigid quotas on virtually everything linked to racial and gender identity. Zuckerberg says all that has to go. As we have seen in higher education in Texas that is easier said than done, but the first step is to say it and now Zuckerberg has.
Granted, he may just be courting Trump. He put up a million for Trump’s inauguration and added Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to his Board of Directors, but again, “so what if he’s courting Trump?” Like his announcement last week that he’s dropping Facebook fact checkers and moving the monitoring operation to Texas, Zuck’s changes represent what has been called the biggest “vibe shift” since Trump’s re-election in November. Whether he’s truly seen the light or just pretending, it will be hard to roll it back. Others will follow.
Loser: Texas A&M’s Trip to Chicago
University leaders across the state have repeatedly assured the Legislature they are fully on board with Senate Bill 17, passed last session, which prohibits DEI programs and activities that divide students on the basis of race and gender. Still, it is not uncommon for news stories like this to pop up revealing that Texas A&M was recruiting black, Hispanic, and Native American students to attend a conference in Chicago where white and Asian students were not eligible to participate. When asked about it on Twitter, Gov. Greg Abbott became an instant winner for immediately tweeting:
“Hell, no. It’s against Texas law and violates the U.S. Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone.”
Texas A&M President Mark Walsh quickly backed down after Abbott’s shout out but the controversy will undoubtedly continue. DEI is deeply embedded in every cranny of university life and culture. It will take vigilance and commitment to finally root it out.
Winner: Jane Nelson Gavels in the Texas House
After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the Texas House finally elected a new speaker on Tuesday, under the watchful eye of Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson. Nelson, who served in the Texas Senate for over 30 years, brought the same precision, tone and grace to the proceedings that she used while chairing the powerful Senate Finance Committee for over a decade. Nelson reminded the lawmakers in the lower chamber that they are all Texans—all family, and they need to take care of each other. We’ll be watching to see how that works out—but it was great to see a strong, competent woman in the chair.
Winner: Monday, January 20th
Hundreds of Texans will be in Washington, D.C. on Monday to watch Donald J. Trump be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. If you are staying home, you can see them on TV. The Lone Star State loves Trump and as the biggest red state on the map, lots of Texans are naturally called to represent.
There’s also a big football game Monday night. Ohio State has the line, but I’m betting on Notre Dame. It’s a God thing.
Winner: Rumor that Coach Prime is Going to the Cowboys
Who knows, but this Sports Illustrated report sure makes it sound like it’s a real thing.
Sherry Sylvester is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and the former Senior Advisor to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
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