Greg Sindelar - CEO, Texas Public Policy Foundation Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Six, twenty two is our time here on Houston's Morning News. Well,
the winner was don Jay Trump, and he did take
them all. He took all seven battleground states. Was it
three hundred and twelve electoral votes? I don't know if
I added, and that includes Arizona or not, which was
finally finalized yesterday. Of course, we have to wait and
see how it works out with the House. But that
looks good. Send it in Republican control. All that means

(00:23):
there's some stuff is going to get done for a change,
at least we hope. Greg Sidelar joins us the CEO
of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Let's start with this, Greg,
before we get it specifically into Texas. How critical is
it for the Republicans to seize upon this massive win
and get things done, including a budget.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, it's extremely critical. You know, there's a reason that
they were kind of swept into the office. There absolutely
seems to be a mandate not only around the president
but around his agenda. You know, there's a lot of
people looking for a lot of things here here in Texas.
Obviously number one the border, and so I think getting
a budget done that matters, and that is fiscally responsible,

(01:05):
getting the border figured out. These are all things that
Americans are expecting them to act on and act on quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I think in the when it comes to the border,
I think they probably already have a plan, and they're
probably already in the process of writing the executive orders
necessary and or to be able to make the plan
go into effect on day one, don't you. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
I think a lot of it is just putting a
lot of those executive orders back in action that President
Biden took out on his first day in office, and
getting Mexico's cooperation, which you know, we have to remember
Mexico is not a good partner and is at this
point really just a failed narco state. But I think
more importantly, what you need Congress to do is actually

(01:45):
codify a lot of this. And so you know the
Houses already passed HR two, Well, they need to go
back and pass it in this new Congress, get it
to the Senate, and the Senate needs to move it
out as well.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Are there new immigration laws that need to be written
n If so, what do you think they ought to be?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, I think, first and foremost, I think that law
if you can get the strong Board Security bill that
the House already passed in in I think that gets
you way down the road. And then once you kind
of turn off this pigot per se and actually start
controlling the border, then you can you also need to
look at reforming asylum laws, and you need to then
also eventually start looking at how do you reform the

(02:22):
immigration system at large, which is also incentivizing people to
come across illegally.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, and that's always been the problem, right, Even when
Republicans have back controlled, they have been very reticent, you know,
to put new laws into effect regarding immigration. Sometimes they
say we don't need new laws, but the fact of
the matter is we probably do at this point, don't
you think.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, I think most of it is already covered under
current law, but there are some things that we can strengthen,
and so you do need a few things, absolutely, I agree.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Okay, let's get into education here for a second. Donald
Trump talked about removing the Department of Education. Do you
think I think he will make good on that?

Speaker 2 (03:03):
You know, his last administration, his whole campaign is on
promises may promises delivered, right, and so I think he
will do everything he can. You have to remember you know,
Department of Educations on the around what forty to fifty years,
we waste a lot of money and.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Through that department.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So I think absolutely there's been a long time concerned
effort within the conservative movement to that we don't need
a Department of Education. So I think I think by
the end of his term he probably will.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Have it gone. Okay, I'd like to see that too.
I would also like to see and I don't know
if he could do this by executive order or not,
but I would I love And this kind of relates
as well to illegal immigration. I love what I think
it was Oklahoma's head of education did by sending a
bill to Kamala Harris for four hundred and forty seven
million dollars that they determined was the cost of their

(03:53):
state alone for educating illegal alien children. Can you imagine if, if,
if President Trump will ordered every state to supply him
with the number of illegal immigrant children that they are
educating and how much it's costing.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, well, I think he should, and I think you
would make the American people blush to know that. And
I think beyond that, the states that Texas included should
also be sending an invoice for how much we've been
spending on the border as well when the federal governments
failed to do so. So I think there's probably billions
of dollars to the state of Texas and ode to
the states around the country based on the failed policies

(04:31):
of the Biden admin.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I think you're probably right, and there's healthcare and energy,
a whole lot of other things we can get into
some other time. But great, great, always a pleasure, sir.
Thank you. CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Greg Sindelar.
It's six twenty six