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Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas

tcaeditors@tribune.com

Cal Thomas is one of the most widely syndicated political columnists in America. Based in Washington, he is a wide-ranging social commentator, not a "beltway insider," who supports traditional conservative values and the American "can-do spirit." He'll take on virtually any topic, from the decline of the family to growing terrorism worldwide.
A syndicated columnist since 1984, he is the author of “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires, Superpowers and the United States” (HarperCollins/Zondervan, January 2020). His latest book is “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen in 50 Years Reporting on America” (Humanix Books, May 2023). Readers may email Mr. Thomas at tcaeditors@tribune.com.

Columns by Cal Thomas

Congressional spending, debt and budget cuts illustration by Greg Groesch / The Washington Times

Solution to debt: Cut spending

Congress just passed - and President Biden just signed - the latest short-term government funding bill to keep the government running.

November 20, 2023
Virginia, Ohio elections and abortion illustration by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

Virginia, Ohio elections and abortion

Elections, especially in Virginia and Ohio, should convince pro-life Republicans of their need to come up with a different strategy when it comes to abortion.

November 8, 2023
Illustration School Choice by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times

A third try in Texas for school choice

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called a third special legislative session in an attempt to push through three priorities that previous sessions have defeated. School choice is one of those priorities.

November 6, 2023
FILE - Matthew Perry arrives at the GQ Men of the Year Party on Thursday, Nov.17, 2022, in West Hollywood, Calif. Perry, who starred as Chandler Bing in the hit series “Friends,” has died. He was 54. The Emmy-nominated actor was found dead of an apparent drowning at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles Times and celebrity website TMZ, which was the first to report the news. Both outlets cited unnamed sources confirming Perry’s death. His publicists and other representatives did not immediately return messages seeking comment. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

Matthew Perry and the cult of celebrity

The outpouring of grief from people who never met Matthew Perry was astounding. A Fox News sub-headline said the world mourned for him. The world? Really?

November 1, 2023
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Can House Speaker Mike Johnson cut the debt?

Among the top priorities for newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson was his announced intention to form a bipartisan panel to cut massive spending that has led to an unsustainable $33 trillion national debt.

October 30, 2023
Illustration on threats to Israel by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

Israel faces continued threats from its many enemies

For Israel, more delays in invading Gaza and destroying Hamas' ability to commit new acts of terror against the Jewish state is only one of several considerations faced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

October 25, 2023
Illustration on renovating a broken America by Alexander Hunter/The Washington Times

America needs a renovation

Some popular shows on PBS and cable TV are about renovating old houses -- taking dilapidated, out-of-fashion and dreary houses and turning them into modern, functioning and attractive places to live.

October 23, 2023
FILE - Los Angeles Unified School District interim Superintendent Megan Reilly, right, greets a family on the first day of school at the Normont Early Education Center in Harbor City, Calif., on Aug. 16, 2021. California’s Department of Education says that only 25% of students took statewide assessment tests in 2020-21 as schools scrambled to administer the exams in the midst of the pandemic.(Brittany Murray/The Orange County Register via AP, File)

Robbing children of their future

LOS ANGELES -- The second-largest school district in the country is suffering from academic afflictions of its own making. While test scores show a continuing decline at the high school level in math proficiency (21%) and reading (51%), is the district making improvement in these subjects a top priority? Apparently not.

October 12, 2023
Israeli soldiers dig in at foreground,under the eyes of armed and tense Egyptian troops while in the middle of the street, dividing the two armies is a small United Nations patrol working a makeshift guard station in Suez City, Egypt, Oct. 1973. (AP Photo)

The Yom Kippur War — plus 50

On Sept. 22, 2005, Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. It did not take someone with the power of an Old Testament prophet to predict what would come next.

October 9, 2023
Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he leaves the courtroom during a lunch break in his civil business fraud trial, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Trump: Not a great man

Donald Trump is not a great man. His rhetoric, which has included denunciations of those who have served in the military (while he dodged the draft five times with a limp excuse about bone spurs), ought to disgust all but those who are in complete denial of the danger he would pose to the Constitution and the country should he be elected president again. Humility is not part of his vocabulary, and words mean something, especially when they reflect character.

October 4, 2023
FILE - A Texas state trooper watches as young migrants walk along concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande as they try to enter the U.S. from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 6, 2023. U.S. authorities released numbers of illegal border crossings in July, the second month after pandemic-related asylum restrictions were replaced with new rules limiting access for people seeking humanitarian protections. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Some honest talk about immigration

With pictures showing -- and Border Patrol agents confirming -- that tens of thousands of migrants are crossing into the U.S. every day without authorization, it is a lie to say the border is secure.

October 2, 2023