How Paxton and Talarico Would Tackle Texas’ Affordability Problem

While campaigning in North Texas last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democrat state Rep. James Talarico offered differing plans for tackling affordability issues facing Texans.

Paxton, who held an event in Allen, discussed his plan for addressing affordability, which he called “Protecting the Texas Promise.”

Paxton’s plan centers on reducing taxes for homeowners and providing parents with a larger tax credit.

He proposed an annual $25,000 federal tax deduction for all out-of-pocket medical expenses, with an additional $25,000 deduction for each dependent; a $50,000 tax deduction for first-time homebuyers; and a $5,000 tax deduction for expenses related to a healthy lifestyle, such as gym memberships and GLP-1 medications.

Paxton also said he wants to double the child tax credit to $4,400 per child under 17 and make Trump Accounts for children permanent.

Meanwhile, Talarico held an event in Arlington, where he detailed his “New American Dream” plan to address affordability.

Talarico’s plan calls for rebuilding labor unions, canceling medical debt, and preventing hospitals from overcharging patients.

Talarico also said he wants to raise the federal minimum wage to more than $15 an hour, calling the current federal rate of $7.25 inadequate.

“I’ll fight to unrig this economy,” Talarico said during the Arlington event. “I’ll fight to raise your pay. I’ll fight to lower your costs. And unlike Ken Paxton, I’ll fight to keep your hard-earned money where it belongs, in your pocket.”

James Quintero, policy director for the Taxpayer Protection Project at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told the Daily Signal that an economic plan involving increased government spending and intervention is problematic.

“An economic agenda that calls for increased public expenditure or greater government intervention fundamentally misunderstands both the problem and the solution. It is destined for failure,” Quintero said. 

Talarico also criticized President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” which eliminated taxes on tips and overtime work and extended and expanded roughly $4.5 trillion in tax cuts to working class families.

Talarico called Trump’s bill the “Big, Ugly Bill.”

“It’s time to raise the minimum wage and expand overtime pay so workers can actually share in the wealth they create,” he said. “It’s time to repeal the Big, Ugly Bill’s tax breaks for the top 1% and give that $1 trillion to the middle class in the form of a cost-of-living tax cut.”

Quintero said that instead of increasing government involvement in the economy, affordability will rebound when government spending and intervention are reduced.

“Human flourishing will rebound when the spenders, schemers, and socialists are routed, and the family budget put first,” Quintero said.

The competing affordability proposals come as Talarico and Paxton remain locked in a closely contested Senate race.

According to the RealClearPolitics polling average, Talarico held a 1.6% lead over Paxton between June 3 and July 30.

Paxton’s and Talarico’s campaigns did not return the Daily Signal’s requests for comment by publication.