Daniel Miller’s pre-Christmas Late Night Coffee Talk stayed light on holiday cheer but heavy on accountability. Most of the night circled back to a single theme. Texas politicians make promises to win office, then break them the moment things get hard. Miller walked through two new videos built entirely from the current lieutenant governor’s own public footage, where he pledged to lower property taxes, secure the border, and stand up to Washington. None of it got done. Miller’s answer to the objection that the lieutenant governor cannot do those things was blunt. The office is the most powerful position in Texas government under the constitution, and if you could not deliver, you should not have promised.
He tied the failure directly to House Bill 1359 and the legislature’s refusal to let Texans vote on independence, calling it a deprivation of the right of self-government under Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution. He pointed to a Quinnipiac poll showing Abbott and Patrick underwater, and to coverage already framing the lieutenant governor race as a two-man fight. On the policy side he laid out how property taxes can be abolished without a state income tax, which he called a third rail that will never happen in Texas, leaning on the Texas Public Policy Foundation plan to broaden the sales tax base, cut wasteful spending, and shift toward a consumption tax he considers the fairest and most transparent.
His prescription for a broken legislature was equally direct. Play hardball. Nothing moves, no pet bills, no naming highways, until the real priorities pass, even if that takes twenty special sessions. The compromise and capitulation, he argued, is exactly why Texans are still taxed out of their homes, the border stays open, and the federal government keeps trampling Texas rights.
Questions answered in this episode
- Will there be a repeat guest appearance, and will other Texas First candidates come on the show?
- When will a list of pro-Texas candidates go up on the website, and how does the Texas First Pledge fit in?
- Should Texas pursue more autonomy now, such as refusing federal money for schools and roads or standing up a state OSHA?
- If Texas leaves the union, will federal military pensions, Social Security, and Medicare still be honored, and could Texas take those systems over?
- What is the case for abolishing both the property tax and the income tax in favor of a consumption tax?
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