Opinion

On June 22, by popular demand, U.S. President Joe Biden asked Congress to pass a three month “holiday” on collection of the federal gasoline tax.

With prices hovering at around $5 per gallon, Americans want something done.

I’m all for it. I hate taxes, and I’m all for tax cuts, in any amount, for any length of time. Yay, Biden!

But before breaking into a collective happy dance over the holiday proposal and how great it's going to be for our wallets, let’s look at some numbers.

After the 2020 elections, GOP leaders bragged that Republicans held 82 of 101 seats in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Yet House leadership repeatedly declined to pass bills of significance this year.

A press release issued by House Speaker Charles McCall upon the conclusion of the regular 2022 session provided sad confirmation of that problem.

Roughly half the release focused on last year’s achievements — not measures that advanced in 2022.

A quick review explains why. The House was often the chamber where good bills went to die.

Time and experience can change the way a person thinks.

Thank God.

Some 30 years ago, I wrote in this newspaper what a clown Vice President Dan Quayle was for saying a television program could have a negative influence on our culture.

At the time, Quayle took the popular TV show “Murphy Brown” to task for the main character celebrating that she was giving birth to a child that would have no relationship with his or her father.

Dan Quayle. What a moron. How could television or the media have a negative impact on our culture?

No good deed goes unpunished. Last month, former NFL head coach Tony Dungy was among the attendees at a bill-signing ceremony in Florida for new legislation supporting fatherhood.

The bipartisan Responsible Fatherhood Initiative will set aside more than $70 million to help struggling Sunshine State fathers play a greater role in the lives of their children.

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently released the text of a proposal to suspend patents on COVID-19 vaccines. All WTO members will vote on the proposal in June.

The text won’t take effect unless all 164 members sign on. But if it is approved, companies in developing nations will be allowed to use medical technology from U.S. companies and inventors without their consent or supervision.

It all started from a giant baby bottle and a challenge to fill it with spare change.

Fresh Anointing took the challenge.

When the bottle was full, Brother Beau Davis, who had brought the bottle from Gateway Testing as a fundraiser, told the congregation that he would take a pie in the face when the bottle was full.

It took several months for the bottle to be filled, but when the bottle was full, then they raffled off chances for 50 cents to see who would get to throw the pie in his face.

Recently, the Stillwater Board of Education announced it will not change course on its policy of allowing boys to use the girls bathrooms unless given “no choice” by state officials.

They took that stance despite countless requests to change course from Stillwater parents and the fact that the rare non-gender-conforming student can easily use a single-stall bathroom at the school.

The Stillwater board stuck with recommendations from State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister’s agency and ignored both parent wishes and actual legal requirements.

“At Oklahoma State University, we celebrate LGBTQ Pride during April,” the OSU Office of Multicultural Affairs recently announced.

One of the many events and programs offered “in honor of LGBTQ Pride” was a “Drag Queen Story Hour” which was “geared toward ages 2-8.” (The age recommendation was scrubbed from the OSU website after a FOX News reporter inquired about it.)

Our nation is experiencing an unprecedented crisis at our southern border – a place that is supposed to be the bedrock of maintaining order, fairness and security for the American people.

Instead, President Biden opened the floodgates to illegal immigration on day one of his presidency by reversing the “Catch and Release” and “Remain in Mexico” policies. These dangerous decisions have threatened the safety of our country – and he is showing no signs of stopping.

The Biden administration announced earlier this month that the official end to Title 42 would be May 23, 2022.