The Daily Signal - #499: Her Think Tank Helped Forge the Texas Miracle

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

In the last 15 years, Texas has led the way among red states showing how small government is the path to prosperity. But the Texas economic miracle can’t be told without mentioning the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the leading conservative think tank in the Lone State State. Brooke Rollins built that foundation up to become a policy powerhouse promoting freedom and limited government. She talks about her years in think tank leadership, and how they prepared her for her current role in the Trump administration. Plus: A new poll shows Americans rarely seek guidance from their clergy. We also cover these stories:•Iran is officially in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.•New York takes another step toward exposing President Trump’s tax returns. •President Trump isn't happy with Britain or Prime Minister Teresa May, after the British ambassador's unflattering comments about the Trump administration were leaked. The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, July 9th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Well, in the last 15 years, Texas has led the way among red states showing how small government is the path to prosperity. But the Texas Economic Miracle can't be told without mentioning the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the leading conservative think tank in the Lone Star State. Brooke Rawlins built that foundation from almost nothing to become a policy powerhouse, promoting freedom and limited government.

She's now at the White House. House, and I recently had the chance to talk to her about her years in think tank leadership and how that prepared her for her current role in the Trump administration. Today, we'll play that interview. Plus, a new poll shows Americans rarely seek guidance from their clergy. What does that mean? By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or subscribing and encouraging your friends to give it a listen to help us grow.

Now on to our top news. Iran is officially in breach of the 2015 nuclear deal. A spokesman for Iran's atomic energy organization on Monday said that it had surpassed the level of enriched uranium allowed under the deal, though the rate of enrichment is still far lower than what's needed to produce a nuclear weapon. Last week, Iran's president had said they'll enrich as much uranium as they want unless terms for a new deal are reached. Iran's economy has been crippled in recent months by tough sanctions brought by the U.S. ever since President Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration. European nations remain party to the deal, and Iran has given them until September 5th to reset the terms of the agreement.

Financierge Jeffrey Epstein pled not guilty on Monday. The Southern District of New York said in a press release that, quote, The indictment unsealed today alleges that between 2002 through 2005, Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money. Epstein allegedly worked with several employees and associates to ensure that he had a steady supply of minor victims to abuse and paid several of those victims themselves to recruit other underage girls to engage in similar sex acts for money. Here's the U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Berman speaking about the charges. The alleged behavior shocks the conscience.

And while the charge conduct is from a number of years ago, it is still profoundly important to the many alleged victims, now young women. They deserve their day in court. We are proud to be standing up for them by bringing this indictment. Epstein previously did serve 13 months after being indicted for sex crimes and fly. Florida in a deal arranged by now Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who is then a U.S. attorney in Florida. Epstein's lawyer, Reed Weingarten, said, per CNN, to us, this indictment is essentially a do-over. And this is the very stuff that was investigated by the feds in Florida. Well, New York took a step on Monday toward exposing the president's tax returns.

Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill giving the U.S. Congress, full access to state tax records relating to Donald Trump's business. Democratic State Senator Brad Hoyleman, who authored the law, said it would provide Congress a safety valve if its efforts are blocked by the Trump administration. The new law comes one week after Congressman Richard Neal, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, filed a lawsuit to obtain President Trump's tax returns from 2003 to 2018. President Trump isn't happy with Great Britain these days. He tweeted Monday, I have been very critical about the way the U.K. and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit.

What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way. I do not know the ambassador, but he is not liked or well thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him. The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new prime minister. While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent state visit last month, it was the queen who I was most impressed with, end quote. A leak to the media exposed that British ambassador to the U.S., Kim Derrick, had written in a memo per Reuters. We don't really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal, less dysfunctional, less unpredictable, less faction-riven, less diplomatically clumsy in inept, end quote.

A spokesman for Theresa May called the leak, quote, A matter of regret and unacceptable. Well, New York City is set to host a ticker tape parade for the U.S. women's soccer team, which over the weekend won its fourth World Cup championship. The U.S. women beat the Netherlands 2 to 0 to take home the gold on Sunday. The parade will kick off Wednesday at 9.30 Eastern Time. Next up, we'll feature Daniel's interview with Brooke Rawlins about the role of think tanks. If you're tired of high taxes, fewer health care choices, and bigger and bigger government,

it's time to partner with the most impactful conservative organization in America. We're the Heritage Foundation, and we're committed to solving the issues America faces. Together, we'll fight back against the rising tide of homegrown socialism, and we'll fight four conservative solutions that are making families more free and more prosperous. But we can't do it without you. Please join us at heritage.org. Well, I'm joined here by Brooke Rollins. She comes to us from the White House,

and she previously served as president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation and oversaw some very formative years there. Brooke, thanks for taking the time to join us here. Oh, it's an honor to be here. Thank you so much. So, Brooke, I want to ask you about lots of stuff relating to states and how the White House is working with states.

But first, you really, you know, cut your teeth in Texas with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Policy Foundation. That's right. And you guys really pioneered a lot of policy ideas that became national. So I want to ask you about how are states, particularly conservative states, leading the way in public policy? You know, one of the greatest benefits, which I did not realize at the time, of starting

in the states, and I led the Texas Public Policy Foundation for more than 15 years. So it was not a short stint. And when I started back in 2003, there were only three of us. It was very small, really only worked on education reform, textbooks, a little bit of tort reform, and that was really it. And so I sort of realized the incredible opportunity, having come from the governor's office, I was Governor Rick Perry's first policy director and general counsel, deputy general counsel.

And so I kind of had an idea of how you can really impact the world of public policy. What it wasn't was just writing white politics. And so when I went to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, I said, there are only a handful of us, but what are we doing to impact the everyday public policy process in Texas? The capital, the legislators, the media, what are we doing? And writing white papers is important, and having a book every now and then is important. The ideas drive everything. But at the end of the day, how are we translating that?

And so when I left a year ago to join the administration with the president at the White House, we had grown to over 100 employees in that 15-year span. We had really reached into almost every policy area from just starting, like I can say, an education, to reform, to health care and criminal justice reform and taxes and spending and regulatory work, sort of all of the above. And so seeing that play out in Texas and seeing the model that Texas became for conservative ideals

and what less taxes and more freedom means to everyone, but especially for those at the bottom of the economic run, bottom of the economic ladder was really a gift. And so now translating that to my job today has been pretty amazing. And when you look back, what would you say are some of the main successes from your time there in Texas? You know, the general thought and idea that less regulation, less government, lower taxes, that's how you build a job and a job's economy where all people can thrive. And so 15, 16 years ago in Texas, our economy wasn't much different than a California or in New York

or the other Illinois, the other big states. But then you saw, led by TPPF at some of our elected leaders, you saw a march toward less government, you saw us rolling back regulations, you saw the state cutting taxes, you saw us fighting off an income tax, and at the same time, we became the job engine for the country. So for five years running, Texas had more jobs created

than every other state combined. I mean, that is an astonishing statistic. But what's really important, and perhaps even more important than that statistic, is during that time our poverty rates decreased, decreased, decreased. And we like to compare ourselves to California because it sort of is the tale of two states. You have one state that went the way of a Washington, D.C., prior to this president,

of higher taxes, more government. And their state government in California was 50% larger than ours in Texas. 50%. They taxed their people 50% more than we did in Texas, and their poverty rate was twice as much as Texas's. I mean, it's really an amazing sort of model. to see how all that came about. So all this to say that that was probably the most enduring win

is just proving out what a lot of people say is impossible, that you can roll back government, that you can cut taxes, that you can do all that, and in doing so, lift all people. A little bit more than that, criminal justice reform started at TVPF at my think tank 12 or 13 years ago, and we had the idea that Texas being the reddest of the red states, that being the toughest on crime, both Republicans and Democrats, Democrats ran on the idea of putting people in prison and walking them up and throwing away the key.

And what we realized when we looked at it very closely is that it didn't work. 95% of those people were sending into the prisons are eventually coming back out. But while they're in, they're actually becoming more hardened. And when they get out, they can't get a job. They can't find a place to live. They're separated from their families. They're completely disassociated from their communities. And so instead of building more and more prisons, let's focus that money on rehabilitation.

drug addiction and build some drug courts and look at mental health. And so we did that over the last 12 years. And when we started our criminal justice work, it was slated in the budget to build a couple more adult prisons. And then keep in mind, then you have a population explosion because of the jobs in Texas. Right. But instead, we never built those two or three prisons that were in the budget. We closed eight prisons in that 10 to 12 year span and closed 11 juvenile facilities and put that money into, like I say, rehabilitation and drug addiction services and things like that.

And our crime rate is down 32%. So that really started a nationwide, in many respects, a worldwide reform effort, all based in Texas at the Little Texas Public Policy Foundation that culminated in a large way with the First Step Act, which the White House and the President championed, which was a big part of my work there. And also other countries around the world have come to Texas to review what we've done and have taken those lessons back to their own countries. So it's been really, really neat to see that, that sort of play out in such a dramatic way.

Yeah, that really is what the founders wanted states to be, right? That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Experiment on these policies. Before we get to the Trump administration and how it's working with the states, you were with the Texas Public Policy Foundation during the Obama administration, I understand. Eight years of a lot of battle. We had Texas A.G. Ken Paxton on this podcast last year, and he talked about some of his fights with the administration. I'm sure you guys worked together.

Oh, very closely. So what were some of those battles like? I mean, any memories, any victories that you recall? Oh, yeah. You know, it was during the Obama years that we worked to really think about strategically how to protect freedom and how to fight for freedom. And what we realized, speaking about my good friend, Attorney General Paxton from Texas, is that the right has not properly utilized the litigation. system in the courts to really fight what's unconstitutional and bad. Not that there haven't

been some great litigation opportunities and organizations doing that, but what I realized in Texas is that we can pass as many good laws or stop as many bad laws as possible in our state. But until we really start to push back against the federal government, which the court system is probably the best way to do that, then it will just run amok. So from Obamacare to the Endangered Species Act, to the Clean Power Plan, to pretty much every single policy issue under the last president, but frankly under Republican presidents too, had in many ways overreached what we believe the Constitution said the federal government should be involved in.

So how do we use litigation? And in my old organization, TPPF, we launched a litigation center that's now staffed by a significant number of attorneys that is really fighting freedom, sort of the tip of the spear on every front. So we had a pretty successful couple years and even more successful now are the litigation efforts that are still working to repeal a lot of the Obama era rules and are doing it successfully. Well, and with all the new Trump judges on the court, it's all the more opportunity to push back on bad laws. That's right. That's exactly right. So this administration has worked a lot with governors and with states to get their feedback and their buy-in to federal

policy. Tell us about how that process works and how this administration thinks about its relationship with states. It is such a joy to go to work every day and think about, you know, the president, he coined it to drain the swamp. And he's so brilliant in how he talks to everyday Americans because he can stand up and give a 30-minute beautiful speech on, we need to do less regulation, and we need to stop having so many rules. And people understand that intrinsically and inherently, but draining the swamp really means something. It means that power has been taken away from you, the people, and it has been given to the far-off elites in Washington, D.C. And so how do we change that?

How do we return the power to the people? And the way you do that is through the states. And when Obamacare passed all those years ago, I called my really good friend Ted Cruz, before he was Senator Ted Cruz. before he was Senator Ted Cruz, and he was an outstanding appellate lawyer in Houston, and I said, we have to do something about this Obamacare. This is so unconstitutional. Do you have any ideas?

I just want to brainstorm. This is literally the day after. And he said, Brooke, we need to completely revive the whole concept of the 10th Amendment, that power should run through the people in the states, not the federal government. So before I ever even thought I would ever be at the White House, which I never did,

before I ever even thought I would ever be in Washington, which I never did. We were back in the states talking about how to devolve power out of Washington back to the hands of the people. And so now to sort of live that firsthand every single day when I walk in the West Wing, what can we do today to empower the people of this country?

And there are so many great governors out there that Governor Ducey, you know, we're here in Arizona today, Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky, Governor Bergam of North Dakota, just governor after governor after governor that's ready and willing to stand up and fight for conservative principles and ideals and wants that opportunity to take that back from Washington. And every single day we see it, we talk to them, we bring them into the White House,

and we're working very, very closely with them. Well, so it's a real blessing to have that in the White House because it's not always in the White House, depending on the administration. Yes, and we would love to work with Democrats too. That's, you know, that's sort of been one of the great, obviously there is a lot of media around the divisiveness and the toxicity. of Washington, D.C. and not to underplay or downplay that, there certainly is. But what you don't hear and what you don't see is that there is such an effort on our part, but also on many on

Capitol Hill, to work together, to really try to find common ground. The criminal justice effort was a great example of that. My dear friend Ivanka Trump has a lot of initiatives. She's working on workforce with a lot of the Democrats. So we're always looking for Democrat governors to come in, too. I think we want them to be successful. We want them to innovate. We want to hand them the power back and let's all work together. Fantastic. Well, Brooke, we really appreciate your perspective from the state and the White House.

And it's a pleasure to have you on. Oh, thank you so much. Nice to see you. Do conversations about the Supreme Court leave you scratching your head? If you want to understand what's happening at the court, subscribe to Skodas 101, a Heritage Foundation podcast, breaking down the cases, personalities, and gossip at the Supreme Court. So, 75% of Americans never or rarely seek guidance from the clergy, according to a poll released by the Associated Press N-O-R-C Center for Public Affairs Research.

However, among those who go to church twice a month or more, though, so regularly, nearly half do seek guidance from the clergy. So, Daniel, what did you think about this? Yeah, I thought it was interesting that among those who attend twice a month or more, half, I guess roughly half, 49% said that they often or sometimes ask their faith leader or pastor for advice, but that's still only half. And that's of those who are like, you know, devout, faithful attending people. And it's something that I found kind of not really surprising, I guess, but I mean, in my personal experience, that is something that's been like

a thing. I mean, usually a pastor or an elder at my church is someone that you can talk, go talk to for advice. It's someone that is a friend and like a mentor. But the religious landscape in America is so diverse and some churches are just so big these days that you really can't get FaceTime with one of your pastors. So I think the fact that so many churches are so big and the fact that for some people, churches is not a place where, you know, you necessarily subject yourself to a pastor's council, you know, I can see that making sense.

But I'm curious from your experience, though, does that make sense? As a Catholic, someone who is friends with priests, I know you have priest friends. One of your brothers is a priest. Yeah, no, well, I mean, I don't ask my brother for advice. No, every once in a while I do. Yeah, I thought actually, from the Catholic perspective,

one thing that I was curious, and I wasn't able to find more details on the survey, but I wondered if they asked explicitly about confession, which, you know, is the Catholic sacrament where you confess your sins to a priest and believe that Christ forgives you through the priest. And it's pretty common for people to ask questions. In fact, sometimes if the line is moving really slowly, you might wish that someone was maybe asking fewer questions. But I don't know if people would consider that seeking guidance from clergy or a sacrament or what. So anyway, that was sort of interesting to me. But I would say the other thing is one time when I was younger, I went to a priest for advice outside of confession.

And he actually was like, I think you should talk to a therapist. And he was completely right about that. And I think a promising sign, at least in the Catholic world where I'm more familiar with, is there is more awareness among, I think, priests and, you know, nuns as well that, like, there are spiritual problems and they probably are the experts on that. But there's also other problems that may manifest themselves spiritually, but maybe have a different root source and you should go to the professionals in that matter. Yeah, I think that's totally fair. I think, you know, one of the first times I ever got advice from a pastor was actually where to look for college, which is funny enough. My pastor in eighth grade went to the college that I ended up going to, and he's the reason that I looked at it. and he also did advise us to get gelato on our trip to Italy.

So that was also another really good piece of advice from the pastor. Very solid advice. But, you know, today I actually think of, so at my church we have lay elders who are not clergy. They're not like officially on staff, but they are part of the elder governing structure of the church. And they just have normal jobs. And I actually live with one of them. He like owns my house and several of us rent from him. and like he's actually a source of spiritual guidance and encouragement all the time,

just like informal conversations. So I would actually almost put that under clergy, even though he's not like on the payroll of the church. He is like part of the governing structure. And so that's a kind of interesting application. Yeah, I think that's a great point that like there are religious leaders who aren't technically clergy or who can bring religious principles. to bear. Yeah, I don't know. I think the overall sort of takeaway to me was like this is yet another sign of like even though, you know, in some ways America is still a relatively religious country, it's sort of often a detached religiosity. I mean, if you're like never asking clergy for

advice, I think in a lot of cases, that's probably indicative of a, you know, maybe a Sunday only mindset or, you know, whatever your faith tradition has the holy day as, as opposed to it being a broader part of your life. Yeah, I think that's definitely, definitely true. Well, we will leave it there for today. Thanks for listening to The Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google, Play, or SoundCloud, and please leave us a review or rating on iTunes to give us any feedback. We'll see you again tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is executive produced by Kate Charenko and Daniel Davis. Sound designed by Lauren Evans and Thalia Rampersad.

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