Op-Eds

When I was a kid, my mom used to make beef vegetable soup when the weather got cold. It was one of my favorite meals, and it provided sustenance and warmth during those infrequent cold winter days in East Texas. Her soup was packed full of things I loved — tomatoes, corn, peas, carrots  and potatoes. Oftentimes, though, it had the one thing I avoided most as a child — lima… Read more »

A panel of judges is openly defying Trump administration policy — and effectively allowing a Chinese firm to keep stealing an American semiconductor technology used in everything from self-driving cars to satellites.   These judges are not members of the judicial branch. They are executive branch employees, and the Trump administration has the authority to overrule their… Read more »

This column ran in the Texarkana Magazine on February 3, 2025. This year, there will be two Super Bowls for Americans to watch. One will be played on a physical field made of artificial turf, highlighting two high-caliber professional football teams, while the other—something I like to call the “Super Bowl of Tax Policy”—will be played on the political field of Washington, D.C.,… Read more »

This column ran in the Texarkana Magazine on October 3, 2024. As fall arrives in East Texas, the temperatures drop, the crackling of bonfires fills the air, and football can be found on televisions everywhere. However, this fall, we will also observe another critically important tradition—Election Day As we approach November, let’s remember that voting is not just a right, it is a… Read more »

This column ran in Fox News on June 4, 2024. On his first day in office, President Biden made it clear that he wanted amnesty for nearly 12 million undocumented migrants and that he would no longer pursue policies that prevented others from coming to America. It was a message heard around the world: under his administration, it was now OK to enter the United States illegally, ignore… Read more »

This column ran in The Dallas Morning News on October 16, 2023. As an evangelical Christian, a freedom-loving Texan, and a sitting member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, the events in Israel this past week are of utmost concern to me. But beyond that, they should concern every East Texan and, frankly, every member of humanity regardless of religion, ethnicity, race,… Read more »