The House of Representatives voted yesterday to enact a package of tax cuts that it says will be offset by projected increases in state revenue. Because, you know, money grows on trees.

Oh, boy. Haven’t we learned anything from Washington, D.C.?

I want my legislators to cut spending first and then cut taxes. I want them to do both, but I want them to do it in that order. I’ve had my fill of Washington lawmakers promising less taxes and less government but only following through on the cutting taxes side of the equation.

My column this week is on the need to develop more homegrown scientists, engineers, and other smart people. I base it on numerous reporting encounters I have had in which the person producing the gee-whiz technical advancement almost always seems to be someone born in another country. This isn’t an anti-immigrant column; we need to continue to attract the world’s best minds at the same time they are developed here at home. Because someday those best minds may not feel a need to come here.

Here’s the column.

My column this week is about the Common Core State Standards, a state-led initiative that has created national standards in English language arts and math for all participating states. Arkansas is one of 41 states that have signed on to the Common Core, plus the District of Columbia.

The Common Core is meant to ensure that students in Arkansas learn something close to the same material as students in Louisiana because in our mobile society, it’s entirely possible that they might live there. The reverse certainly was true after Hurricane Katrina, when Arkansas was inundated with students from New Orleans who might as well have come from a foreign country.

The standards are also more focused than what is currently taught. The current state of education is a mile wide and an inch deep – students cover a lot but don’t learn enough. Common Core seeks to address that.

I think it’s a good thing. Here’s the column.

My Arkansas News Bureau column this week is about a legislative committee’s decision to vote against a bill that would oppose the health insurance mandate passed last year by Congress and signed by the president. (I don’t like calling it “Obamacare.”)

My point is that the Constitution is clear that state law can’t trump federal law. In fact, it’s pretty hypocritical that legislators would attempt to do something unconstitutional because they say that the health care law is unconstitutional. Dang, I should have written that in the column.

And then I go on a brief rant about how to “fix” health care, as if I know. Basically, I think the big problem with our health care system is that consumers don’t act like consumers. We pay a big lump sum to our health insurance company (or a lifetime of taxes to Medicare) and then access the system without much pain at the point of purchase. We need to pay for more of our health care at the doctor’s office or hospital. That way we’ll use less of it and demand better prices and service.

Here’s the column.