As the author Emily McKay providentially said, “when you’re lucky enough to catch lightning in a bottle, you put the lid on as fast as you can.” The Legislature caught proverbial lightning in a bottle with the passage of the Alabama Credential Quality and Transparency Act (Act 2023-365) sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins and championed […]

President Biden and his administration have repeatedly abused their power and failed to seek congressional approval to pass various pieces of its radical agenda. During President Biden’s first year in office, he created new rules and regulations that carry a price tag of more than $200 billion. For reference, this is more than four times […]

Renowned Alabama historian Dr. Wayne Flynt has chronicled and penned a marvelous book appropriately entitled “Afternoons with Harper Lee.” This gem is published by New South Books with editing by Randall Williams. It is receiving worldwide acclaim. If you are a fan of Harper Lee and her novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” it is a […]

It doesn’t matter what side of the political aisle you find yourself on. Right, left, center, there’s one thing that I believe most Americans want, and that is the best for our country. One of the reasons for the division that we experience today is not being able to look at somebody who thinks differently […]

Right now, our national debt is $31 trillion. That’s larger than our entire economy. In fact, the ratio of our debt to our economy has never been higher. We spend more on interest on this debt than we spend on our veterans. And as debt and interest rates both go up, soon we’ll spend more on interest […]

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall recently summarized the problem of so-called “environmental, social, and governance (ESG)” investing well, telling a congressional committee that “[a]n unelected cabal of global elites is using ESG to hijack our capitalist  system, capture corporations, and threaten hard-earned dollars of American workers.” Or, as I recently said in an interview, “ESG […]

Adam Smith, the anchor of that group of inquisitive Scotsmen who spawned the Scottish Enlightenment and significantly changed the world, was born 300 years ago this month. The era of his birth was still primarily agrarian with superstition superseding science. He would alter this status by observing his community, pursuing the life of a scholar, […]

The easiest and most politically advantageous choice for my career is to vote against the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but I couldn’t put myself and my political future ahead of the needs of this country. I couldn’t say “no” to the biggest spending cut and the largest deficit reduction in U.S. history. In fact, this spending […]

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a debt ceiling compromise with President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Unsurprisingly, fiscally conservative Republicans are criticizing the Speaker. Economics helps understand the  challenges in attaining the best bargain possible under given circumstances. House Republicans’ Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 revealed their debt ceiling wish list. Items included […]

Alabama Girls State may be eclipsing the boys in this generation, given the amazing array of women who are currently leading our state.

Owning an electric vehicle (EV) has transformed my driving experience and also left a lasting impression on my family. My children have grown up in a Tesla, and our journey together has been nothing short of electrifying. Since I first purchased a Tesla in 2013, I’ve definitely experienced my fair share of early-adopter issues, such […]

Economists think about jobs in a seemingly counterintuitive way. While noneconomists see job creation as a primary goal, economists view labor as a scarce resource to be conserved. This leads to differences of perspective on everything from government incentives to businesses to the impact of automation, including artificial intelligence (AI). To understand the economic perspective, […]

Responsible energy and infrastructure development can help create jobs, support local businesses and industries while attracting new ones to our state, and strengthen Alabama’s entire economy. However, there is a major roadblock standing in the way of these critical efforts: Our broken, far-too-complicated federal permitting process. The permitting and approvals process for new infrastructure and […]

On Christmas Day, 1952, Sgt. Arthur Hullett received the news that his 22-year-old brother Ervin had been killed in Korea. They had grown up in a close-knit family, as two of eight children. The news understandably came as a shock. He realized that he’d never see his brother again. Both Hullett brothers had faced unimaginable […]

It is hard to imagine that it was only a little over 100 years ago that women were given the right to vote in the United States. The 19th Amendment to the Constitution giving women full suffrage was finally ratified in 1920. In recent decades, many folks have lamented that there are very few women […]

As the CEO of the Business Council of Alabama and a former banking executive, I can confidently say that Alabama is one of the best states for conducting business. With the opportunity to host the U.S. Space Command, we have the potential to advance and protect the interests of our nation right here in Alabama. […]

One of the biggest reasons I started the series “Elevating Young Voices” is to, obviously, elevate the voices of the youth in Alabama. There are so many young people throughout this state that have so much to offer their communities, their state, and their country. But the biggest goal that I have for this series […]

It is graduation season. Social media is saturated with photos of new graduates from every institution of learning. Some of these graduates have so many colored ropes draped over their shoulders they can barely turn their heads. Others are just happy to get school behind them. Some of them are going off to a university […]

Over the last decade, there have been multiple convictions for absentee ballot fraud across the state of Alabama. As a Probate Judge, a legislator and now as Secretary of State, I am committed to eliminating election fraud in our state. HB209, sponsored by Rep. Jamie Kiel, makes incredible strides in protecting the rights of Alabama […]

A lot of attention has been focused this session on the Alabama Legislature’s efforts to cut taxes. Bills have been introduced to lower or eliminate a large portion of the state’s grocery tax. Also, there are bills to lower the state’s top income tax rate and eliminate the lowest rate. I had hopes that the […]

Last week, I joined dozens of my colleagues from the House and the Senate at a press conference urging President Biden to work with us and start negotiating a responsible solution to our nation’s debt limit crisis. For weeks, Speaker McCarthy has been asking the President to sit down with him to negotiate, but President […]

The United States faces potential default in June as we run up against the debt ceiling, currently at $31.4 trillion. Whether the debt ceiling is good policy depends largely on one’s attitude toward Federal spending. Is our national debt sustainable? I will defer to the judgment of financial markets. Interest rates compensate savers for being […]

Kay Ivey is Alabama’s second female governor. Lurleen Wallace was the first. Appropriately, Kay Ivey’s idol and impetus for striving to be governor was Lurleen Wallace. Kay’s first involvement in state politics was as a campaign worker for Gov. Lurleen’s 1966 race for governor when Kay Ivey was a student at Auburn. It was 55 […]

Technology has revolutionized our lives over these last three decades, and it has also revolutionized eye care. Yet, in Alabama, optometrists are still subject to a 28-year-old Optometry Practice Act which no longer reflects the level of training and expertise of today’s optometrists. Educators at the UAB School of Optometry and optometry schools across the […]