State Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, addressed the Business Before Breakfast meeting of the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce Friday morning. Aside from touching on the familiar conservative talking points, King went out of his way to ask the public to stand behind their elected officials in the budget-cutting times to come.

For that, he deserves an attaboy.

There are budget-cutting times ahead, and everyone who holds public office right now is going to have to make some tough choices. Tax revenues are down, and this recession is showing no signs of letting up any time soon. Even the mighty Texas economy, the best in the U.S. by far, is expected to contract by $18 billion over the next two-year budget cycle.

When the 82nd Texas Legislature convenes in January 2011, our state will face many challenges.

We must balance the budget without raising taxes in the face of a projected $18 billion budget shorfall. We must resist continued encroachments by the federal government on our liberty. We must secure our elections and our border. We must continue to reform and reduce property taxes - homeownership is increasingly at risk. We must allow the free market to thrive in order to get Texans back to work.

State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) brought before a packed house of Rotarians last week, a summary related to the Texas economy. His comments concerned the state's budget, the ever-pressing school finance system and the economy as a whole.

King told the group that Texas had the largest 10-year growth in private sector jobs in the country and that in pre-recession 2008, more jobs were created in Texas than all of the other 49 states combined.

State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) received the formal endorsement last week of Governor Mike Huckabee, former presidential candidate and host of the popular Fox News talk show, Huckabee. King is seeking re-election to the Texas House of Representatives District 61 seat he currently holds.

On the eve of the Republican Party of Texas state convention, GOPAC-TX held an Issues Seminar for state legislative candidates and incumbents to discuss key issues facing Texas such as the budget, property rights and taxes, energy and healthcare, school finance, and redistricting. Over 80 candidates and incumbents attended this seminar.

State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) remarked, “The attacks on the State Board of Education ignored the transparent approach that the Board took toward developing curriculum standards for Texas school children, misstated many of the changes that the Board proposed, and sought to undermine the Board’s diligent work to execute its constitutional and statutory obligations. The Board should be applauded for their conscientious efforts; Texas school children will be the long-term beneficiaries.”

For several months, the elected members of the Lone Star State's board of education have considered extensive revisions to the state's K-12 social studies curriculum. After months of efforts, the board's conservative majority tentatively approved a new curriculum in March, and on April 15 the board published its proposal, which it may adopt after allowing 30 days for public comment.

The comment has been vocal. Critics in Texas and across the nation have decried the changes as educational malpractice, with news reports characterizing them as "historically inaccurate" and reflecting "far right" bias. The board allegedly expunged Thomas Jefferson, minimized constitutional safeguards for religious freedom, and ignored the struggles of women and minorities for civil rights. A letter signed by several historians at the Universities of Texas at Austin and El Paso claimed the board "undermined the study of the social sciences in our public schools by misrepresenting and even distorting the historical record." Newsweek ridiculed the "Texas Curriculum Massacre."

Despite the allegations, however, no one has pointed to a particular significant error of fact. My own review of the proposed curriculum did not reveal anything plainly false, and the oft-repeated accusations of outrageous omission are demonstrably false. The board did not excise Thomas Jefferson, downplay constitutional religious freedom, or minimize the role of women and minorities. On the contrary, the curriculum is replete with specific references to Jefferson, religious freedom, the civil rights movement, and the achievements and struggles of women and minorities.

On the eve of the “Tea Party” movement’s anniversary, conservative legislators in Texas have banded together to form a new organization – the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas. With conservative voters organizing like never before to protest the unprecedented overreaching intrusion of the federal government, voters need to know there are Republican legislators who share their beliefs and will uphold their principals.

The Constitution was written to restrain our federal government. Last night the Democrats in Congress and President Obama basically threw our constitution out the window. That may sound strong, but friends, it is a steep and slippery slope when government ignores its most fundamental law.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently concluded that man-made greenhouse gas emissions — including carbon dioxide — are harmful pollutants and must be regulated. The lawsuit I filed challenging that finding does not address the disputed science surrounding global warming. Instead, it focuses on the indisputable fact that the EPA relied on information that has been discredited, manipulated, lost or destroyed, and sometimes evaded peer review. The lawsuit does not attempt to show that the globe is not warming. It does, however, show that the process used by the EPA in deciding to regulate greenhouse gases is riddled with errors that render its conclusion untrustworthy.
Before regulating man-made greenhouse gas emissions, the EPA was required to conduct a scientific assessment. Rather than conduct its own assessment, the EPA relied on reports by third parties. The EPA's conclusions rest primarily on information gathered by a creation of the United Nations called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC — an organization that has become mired in scandal because the reliability, objectivity and scientific validity of its work has come under fire.