Crenshaw Looks Back at Accomplishments
11/10/26 – I first met Dan Crenshaw before the 2018 elections when he reached out to leaders of the Lake Houston Area Flood Prevention Initiative to research flooding issues in our area. Since then, I have seen his ability to study issues in depth, develop sound public policy around facts, and achieve results that improve the lives of his constituents. The Harvard-educated Navy Seal likens politics these days to his days in combat. In this series of three posts, I will cover his achievements, his advice to new office holders, and his advice to voters. The posts are edited for brevity from a 2-hour interview.
Congress Like Combat: The Wins
Rehak: What do you think are the greatest things that you’ve managed to do in the last eight years while representing us in Washington? That’s no easy task. It’s like going into combat.
Crenshaw: It’s much worse, actually. When I first started, politics was fun – even though I was in the minority party, I was a junior congressman, and I didn’t have much power. In later years, I got on the right committees and worked on big bills, such as Medicaid reform.
And I consider that a big achievement. We saved a lot of money on Medicaid. I also got on the Intelligence Committee and did important work there.
$200 Million for Flood Mitigation
Crenshaw: I also helped bring about $200 million back to the district, mostly for flood mitigation. The dredging we did after Harvey dramatically reduced flood risk on the San Jacinto River where so many lost homes and lives. And we got funding for new flood gates on the Lake Houston Dam to let floodwaters out sooner and faster.
Rehak: The money you secured for the Walnut Lane Bridge in Kingwood saved the Diversion Ditch Project. And $50 million worth of projects are also underway for Taylor Gully expansion and more Woodridge Village detention capacity. Not to mention the flood walls for Kingwood High School.
Crenshaw: Thank you. But politics have obviously deteriorated massively over the last few years. So, politics have become much less fun.
Rehak: Give me an example.
The Untold Story Behind the Affordability Crisis
Crenshaw: Take the “affordability crisis,” which everyone keeps yelling about. Without the One Big Beautiful Bill it would have been a lot worse, because your average family of four would be paying about $10,000 more in taxes. People don’t appreciate that, nor realize it.
The cost savings came from reforms in programs like food stamps and Medicaid. That was another big achievement.
Some will say we’re soulless, heartless people. But we just implemented work requirements – very, very light to moderate work requirements – that 80% of the public agrees with. We also put requirements in place that force states to really clean up their Medicaid rolls. A lot of people are on Medicaid that don’t even know it.
You might think that doesn’t cost anything. But it does. Because states have to contract with Medicaid providers. And they still get paid even they though the person isn’t using Medicaid. That happens a lot. Some people are enrolled in two states and don’t know it.
Then, there are people who got on Medicaid through fraud. For instance, they lied about their income.
Cleaning up that kind of stuff gets 12 million people off Medicaid. It wasn’t by kicking poor, sick kids off. But that’s how it got played.
Overpowering Data Center Benefits
Rehak: Can you give me another example?
Crenshaw: Data centers. We had a bill that created pathways to make it easier to permit data centers using their own energy sources, so they’re not taking from the grid, which is what everybody’s worried about. The fear was that they would cause shortages and run up power costs.
The legislation received almost 100% support in the House. But Senate Democrats blocked it because they didn’t want to give Republicans a win before the mid-terms.
Insider Trading Smear
While running on corruption issues, they also blocked the Insider Trading Act to stop members of Congress from trading stocks. They spread rumors that I made millions on insider trading. But the truth is I made a grand total of $45,000 on stock transactions during my eight years in Congress.
Rehak: Are the misrepresentations coming just from the Left?
Woke Right as Bad as Woke Left
Crenshaw: The Woke Right is as bad as the Woke Left. They’re all getting their news from social media and podcasts. And if that’s how you get news, you’re going to believe that everyone’s against you. You’re going to believe the clickbait and “victimhood narratives.”
People on the extremes are always victims of “the establishment.” Everything’s “us versus them.” They only engage in emotional reasoning, not logical reasoning. Everything’s a single variable analysis that can be explained by buzzwords, like “endless wars.”
Policies have nuances that should be looked at thoughtfully – by analyzing their trade offs.
Rehak: What has to change to have real debates around those nuanced policies?
Crenshaw: People have to vote.
More on that in the next post.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 11/10/26
3360 Days since Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
