Jeeves! Fill 'Er Up!

OK, I promised I would talk about the positive proposals from Ken Paxton and James Talerico. I know, it's way more fun to talk about multiple genders and cheating on your wife, but you really ought to be thinking about what each says he wants to do.

Will they do it? Of course not, but at least you'll know which promises they broke.

So I went to AI and asked for summaries. I know, it will kill us all right after taking all our jobs, but right now, it does make this kind of thing easier. OK, here goes.

Major proposals from James Talerico...

The "New American Dream" Economic Plan

• Tax Reform: Cut middle-class taxes, expand the Child and Earned Income Tax Credits, repeal Trump-era tax cuts for the top 1%, eliminate Social Security tax caps for income over $400k, and increase taxes on corporations and billionaires.
• Wages & Labor: Raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, expand overtime pay, pass paid family leave, support the PRO Act, and rebuild labor unions.
• Housing & Affordability: Curb corporate landlord housing manipulation, streamline home building, provide down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, cancel medical debt, and cap credit card interest rates.
• Cost-of-Living & Energy: Deliver cost-of-living tax cuts, invest in renewable energy development and grid weatherization, create geothermal and hydrogen jobs, and require AI data centers to fund infrastructure.

Healthcare & Social Programs

• Prescription Drugs & Care: Lower healthcare and prescription drug costs, cap insulin prices (building on his legislative record of capping insulin), create a public option, enable Canadian drug imports, and reverse Affordable Care Act (ACA) cuts.
• Medicaid & Family Support: Expand Medicaid access by accepting federal funds in Texas, expand universal Pre-K, provide universal childcare, and protect safety-net programs like SNAP and WIC.

Public Education

• Increase teacher pay, expand public school investments, and oppose school vouchers.

Democracy & Anti-Corruption Reforms

• Campaign Finance & Ethics: Refuse corporate PAC money, ban corporate PACs and Super PACs, and repeal Citizens United.
• Conflicts of Interest: Ban members of Congress from trading stocks while in office.
• Governance: Implement congressional and Supreme Court term limits, enforce ethics codes, and pass a nationwide ban on gerrymandering via independent redistricting commissions.

Immigration & Foreign Policy

• Border Security: Utilize X-ray technology at the border and prioritize the deportation of violent criminals.
• Immigration Reform: Create earned citizenship paths for long-term immigrants and DREAMers.
• Foreign Policy: Repeal tariffs, oppose new conflicts (such as a war with Iran), and support Ukraine while ending "forever wars".

==================================

Now, the Ken Paxton proposals...

The "Protecting the Texas Promise" Economic Plan

• First-Time & Primary Homebuyers: Offers a $50,000 tax deduction for individuals buying their first home or moving into a new primary residence.
• Medical Expenses: Provides an annual $25,000 tax deduction per family member for out-of-pocket medical and prescription drug expenses.
• Healthy Living Deduction: Proposes a $5,000 deduction for preventative health and wellness spending, including gym memberships, nutrition programs, youth sports, and physician-prescribed GLP-1 medications.
• Child Tax Credit: Aims to double the child tax credit to $4,400 per child under 17.
• Trump Accounts: Proposes making Trump savings/investment accounts for children a permanent fixture.
• Energy & Gas Tax: Proposes a permanent end to the federal gas tax and targets rising energy costs. For data centers, he proposes repealing certain sales tax exemptions while banning Chinese tech and exempting off-grid power systems.

Border Security & Immigration

• Border Enforcement: Focuses on completing the southern border wall, advancing mass/criminal deportations, and continuing aggressive legal actions against federal immigration policies.
• Guest Worker Programs: Has indicated openness to a guest worker program only under the condition that the border is fully secure.

Texas Land & Foreign Adversaries

• Senate Bill 17 Enforcement: As Texas Attorney General, Paxton proposed strengthened implementation rules for SB 17 (which bans land purchases by entities connected to designated foreign adversaries like China).
• Transparency & Task Force: The new rules create a specialized OAG task force to track and stop foreign land ownership and allow any citizen to submit violation complaints.

Health, Food, and Conservative Values

• Big Pharma and Food: Targets chronic illness, corporate transparency, and federal overreach in healthcare.
• Constitutional Rights: Defends 2nd Amendment rights, anti-abortion/pro-life policies, and parental rights.

Now, both these guys, whatever you think of them personally, are proposing spending a lot more money. Any way you slice it, this will cost more. We are now $40-trillion in debt which now matches our annual GDP. If you count all that we owe long term, it's around 121% of GDP.

Major economies vary widely in their ratios—for instance, Japan is around 249%–264%, Italy is near 144%, the U.S. is around 121%–123%, China is near 86%–99%, and Germany is around 60%.

That hasn't happened here since it hit 119% at the end of World War II. Running up debt is bound to happen when you are fighting a world war, I think you'll agree.

At the end of the Carter Administration it was 31%. At the end of the Clinton years, it was 33%. Oh, and in 2000, the budget had been balanced for 3 years. Zero new debt was accumulated. That was just 26 years ago. Now, the annual deficit is running right at $2-trillion so far this year. That is 12% higher than last year.

Hell, the tab for the Iran war is nearly half a trillion alone. By 2035, 9 years from now, the idiotically named "Big Beautiful Bill" will add almost $5-trillion more to the debt.

Gas is through the roof, due to an unnecessary war of choice. Food costs are through the roof due to the cost of fuel and the idiotic tariffs paid, not by foreign countries, but you and me. Medical bills are still the largest single cause of bankruptcy. College is becoming unaffordable.

Look gang, I hate taxes as much as the next guy, but this is not free money and if you want to stop the bleeding, you have to ante up. Nothing is free, or even cheaper than last year, not B-2 bombers or local school supplies. If we want them, we have to pay for them. The British call making extended payments for something paying on the "Never-Never."

We have been paying on the Never-Never for too long, and both parties had better wise up. Promises were made to the American people in the form of good public schools and a decent retirement. Now some are attacking both those ideas, in return for promises made to the Zuckerberg's and Musk's of the world.

Well frankly my dear, they don't need it. We and our kids do. "Trickle Down" tax cuts have never paid for themselves, and the debt keeps rising. Bezos and the Trump sons, Uday and Qusay don't have to worry about it. They are feathering their own nests right now, some at the expense of you and me.

And yet, what is the second biggest battle cry in this midterm election? Well, right after "The Muslims are Coming???!!!!"

"So and so candidate is going to raise your taxes!"

Look, Republicans used to bill themselves as the "eat your peas first" party. Now, neither of them are and it's time to stop before we are as bankrupt as Trump University.