On the House floor Thursday, a Florida man named Bill Posey, a Republican who has represented the Sunshine State’s 8th Congressional District since 2009, had a great deal to say about the dumpster fire that is Joe Biden’s handlers’ presidency, but his speech is much more likely to be remembered for how he ended it than for what he actually said: Posey concluded his remarks by saying, “Let’s go, Brandon!”
By now the whole world knows that “Let’s go, Brandon!” really means “F*** Joe Biden,” a secret code that everybody is in on, born when an NBC reporter tried vainly to cover for a NASCAR crowd that was chanting “F*** Joe Biden” while she interviewed driver Brandon Brown by claiming that it was chanting “Let’s go, Brandon.” Now “Let’s go, Brandon” has become a chart-topping rap hit and a wry expression of Americans’ dissatisfaction with the corrupt gang of socialists, internationalists, open-borders advocates, and worse that is running things, fronted by a man who, it is increasingly obvious, is barely even there.
Posey surveyed the way things are going as Biden’s handlers’ Build Back Better slogan has become Destroy More Things More Quickly, and said the regime’s program could not “pass a straight-face test.” Posey added: “Based on the false promise that he would unify America, President Biden got into the Oval Office. And my friends on the other side of the aisle gained a razor-thin majority in the House and Senate. But you know, we know, we all know, everybody knows the unification promise was a lie, and your majority is going to be short-lived. So you must feel compelled to rush through a radical agenda before the midterms.”
As a result, Posey said, Americans are “understandably frustrated” and “actually very angry,” and cannot be counted on to “sit back and take it much longer.” He said that Americans want Democrats “to help put America back where you found it and leave it the hell alone.” And then: “Let’s go, Brandon!”
Posey explained to Fox News: “Listen to my speech – like many Americans, I’m frustrated seeing the country quickly decline and the erosion of our civil liberties due to Washington’s policies designed to turn America upside down like the vaccine mandates, silencing parents at school board meetings, rampant crime, broken borders, rising gas and food prices, the weaponizing of the IRS, and a $5 trillion Green New Deal to restructure our lives.”
Indeed. Biden’s handlers have made a mess of things with remarkable speed, and the Florida Congressman didn’t even come close to mentioning all of them. He didn’t say anything about the Afghan refugees who are coming into the country by the tens of thousands despite the fact that no one knows who many of them are, and coming as they are from a jihadi hotspot, it is only reasonable to conclude that at least some of them could be jihad terrorists.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-24 10:52:092021-10-24 10:52:09VIDEO: Florida Man Who Became a Congressman Signs Off House Speech With ‘Let’s Go, Brandon!’
Friday on MSNBC’s Craig Melvin Reports, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn confessed that “there’s no way to pay” for President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” spending package, which the Biden administration ludicrously claims will come with “zero cost” to the American people.
“I don’t think that anyone ever thought that after doing the rescue plan of over a trillion dollars, that we would come back with a $6 trillion program,” Clyburn stated. “The question is, how do you pay for that? Because we’re committed, Democrats are committed to paying for what we do. We saw the Republicans do a nearly $2 trillion tax cut and pass it onto our children and grandchildren to pay for it sometime in the future. That’s not our philosophy. Our philosophy is, let’s do what we need to do, but let’s pay for it. And so, there’s no way to pay for a $6 trillion program.”
He continued, “And you may recall, I questioned as to whether or not $3.5 trillion could be paid for. In fact, I said at the time that I thought that somewhere between $1.5 and $3.5, we’ll be able to find a sweet spot. And that, it seems to be what’s taking place now. We are close to finding the sweet spot. And it will be between those two numbers.”
Regardless of the final number, the Democrat spending agenda will be disastrous for the country, because it will be oriented toward a far-left, social justice agenda, including the environmentalist boondoggle, the “Great Reset.”
In an August 16, 2017 interview on CNN, Clyburn said that the United States was becoming more like Nazi Germany with a Hitler-like Donald Trump as president. “We are approaching a place that we’ve been before,” he stated. “We remember from our studies what happened in the 1930s in Germany. I told a business group down at Hilton Head several weeks before the election, that what I saw coming was a replay of what happened in Nazi Germany.” Clyburn then asserted that both Trump and Hitler were elected by the people: “The fact of the matter is Hitler was elected as chancellor of Germany. He did not become a dictator until later when people began to be influenced by his foolishness. We just elected a president and he’s got a lot of foolishness going on, and I’m afraid that too many people are being influenced by that foolishness.”
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-24 09:51:412021-10-24 09:51:41Clyburn: There’s ‘No Way to Pay’ for Biden’s ‘Zero Cost’ Spending Plan
Although startups comprise less than one percent of all companies, they generate 10 percent of new jobs in any given year.
When discussing the economic growth of a post-COVID landscape, too often the role of angel investors is overlooked. Angel investors, or private investors who are often wealthy, finance small business ventures in exchange for equity. For small businesses, angel investors provide a much needed lifeline in the form of cash infusion that doesn’t have to be repaid, except in shared ownership. Private investment, most often through angel investors, is undoubtedly a driving force in technological advancement and job creation.
Unfortunately, angel investment has recently been threatened by the looming possibility of capital gains tax increases under the new administration. Long-term capital gains taxes are applied to assets, such as equity in business, owned for over a year when sold. As of now, long-term capital gains are taxed at 20 percent for wealthy investors. The White House is now calling for a 39.6% top federal tax rate, nearly double the current amount.
As Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at Downsizing Government, explains, “In biotechnology and other leading-edge industries, after-tax investor gains are often reinvested in the next round of risky startups, thus creating a virtuous cycle.”
One of the reasons that nearly all high-income countries keep capital-gains taxes low is to help ensure that investors and entrepreneurs are incentivized to take the risk of committing time and resources to relatively risky start-up ventures, typically reliant on the type of scientific and technical innovation that fuels job growth and progress in the long run.
According to Census Bureau data, although startups comprise less than one percent of all companies, they generate 10 percent of new jobs in any given year. The Kauffman Foundation’s Tim Kane pointed out that “without startups, there would be no net job growth in the U.S. economy.” In the same paper, he lays out the argument that “in terms of the life cycle of job growth, policymakers should appreciate the tremendous effect of job creation in the first year of a firm’s life.”
Wealthy angel investors have been behind many US corporations that have revolutionized their field and led to unprecedented growth and technological progress. Henry Ford, for example, received an infusion of cash from coal dealer Alexander Y. Malcolmson. The first investor in Apple was a millionaire retiree from Intel, Mike Markkula. Jeff Bezos obtained $8 million from Kleiner Perkins to build Amazon.
An increase in capital gains taxes would discourage such high-risk investments that provide much-needed seed money to startups, and induce investors to shift their investments to dividend-paying stocks or bonds. While safer, these avenues of investment do not produce the jobs or innovation that startups do, and would hinder entrepreneurship.
“Such tax increases would be a blow to startup investment and entrepreneurship,” Edwards writes. “People considering launching technology startups would instead stay in salaried jobs because earning a smaller after-tax gain from a startup would not be worth all the extra stress, risk, and hard work.”
This tax increase would also make it harder for startups to attract skilled workers. Three-quarters of Silicon Valley firms offer stock options to employees to lure them away from their salaried positions at large companies. A significantly higher capital gains tax would make that benefit much less appealing.
A capital gains tax increase would come as a huge blow to angel investors who fund the new technologies and ideas that we often take for granted. To ensure future growth and progress, it is imperative that we create and maintain an environment that allows angel investors to operate and thrive.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-23 07:53:102021-10-23 07:53:10Why a Capital Gains Tax Increase Would Be a Massive Jobs [and Wealth] Killer
Inflation is often described as a “hidden tax,” because it is driven by policy decisions and erodes citizens’ real purchasing power. But in 22 states, the high consumer price inflation observed over the last year could trigger direct tax increases as well, a new analysis warns.
The Tax Foundation’s Jared Walczak reports that 22 states and Washington, DC have at least one major provision of their state tax code that is not indexed for inflation. In 13 states, no major element is inflation-adjusted at all. These states are Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Virginia, and West Virginia, the Tax Foundation notes.
Often overlooked is what happens to state tax burdens when inflation is high.
Inflation is often called a hidden tax, but in many states it yields a far more literal tax increase as tax brackets fail to adjust for changes in consumer purchasing power. https://t.co/iPzOH7QiQo
This leads to “bracket creep,” Walczak explains, because people wind up in higher tax brackets as their nominal wages are inflated but their actual, real, purchasing-power wage has not increased.
“The absence or insufficiency of cost-of-living adjustments in many state tax codes is always an issue, as it constitutes an unlegislated tax increase every year, cutting into wage growth and reducing return on investment,” Walczak writes. “During a period of higher inflation, however, the impact is particularly significant.”
He offers the example of a Delaware resident who earned $60,000 in taxable income in 2019, and now earns $64,000 in 2021. Given the more than 5.4 percent consumer price inflation observed over the last year, her real income—purchasing power—hasn’t actually risen. Yet Walczak explains that her taxes would increase by about $264 because that additional $4,000 falls into a higher tax rate bracket.
The above example is just a hypothetical, but it could soon be a reality for the millions of Americans who live in the 22 states with a tax framework that fails to completely account for inflation. This is, frankly, bad news. The last thing the public needs after a year-and-a-half of government-induced economic struggles and harmful inflation is a tax hike to boot. It’s even more concerning that this tax hike will likely go unnoticed by many of the people it affects because of its indirect nature.
Voters shouldn’t let policymakers pull a fast one. If government officials want to raise our taxes, they should, at the very least, have to vote on it and be held accountable. We shouldn’t stand for this kind of underhanded, behind-the-scenes tax hike and the concerning precedent it sets.
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United Airlines CEO says airfare prices are set to soar by Christmas as jet fuel prices rise https://t.co/dr6eZshwJe
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-21 16:51:472021-10-21 16:51:47‘Bracket Creep’: Voters in These 22 States Could See Direct Tax Hikes Due to Inflation, New Analysis Warns
During a time in America when the price of basic household goods is rising and when employees across multiple sectors of the economy are facing a vaccine mandate or loss of their jobs, the Biden administration and progressives in Congress are now doubling down on making life even more difficult for the average American household. How? By making recklessly wasteful and counterproductive Green New Deal policies “the DNA” of the reconciliation spending bill that Democrats plan to push through by the end of October.
These Green New Deal policies will further drive up energy costs for those who can least afford it. They include forcing Americans to get 40 percent of their energy from wind/solar and other renewable resources within eight years. Not only would this policy dramatically increase the price for families to heat and power their homes, it could also potentially cost nearly 90,000 American jobs by increasing taxes on natural gas.
What’s more, the reconciliation bill also includes $222 billion in tax credits to pay for electric vehicles, which in reality turns out to be a tax credit for wealthy Americans, since they are mostly the ones who buy electric vehicles, which cost an average of $19,000 more than gas cars.
In addition, the bill includes eerily similar extraneous grants to what Obama did in 2011 when he gave a loan guarantee of $535 million to solar panel company Solyndra, which promptly went bankrupt. Biden’s bill includes $5 billion for “environmental and climate justice block grants” and another $100 billion in green energy special interest subsidies. It also includes $264 million for the EPA to conduct research with left-wing environmental justice groups on how to transition away from fossil fuels.
Other concerning aspects of the reconciliation bill include a push for Green New Deal policies in schools, including a $10 billion “environmental justice” higher education fund which is designed to indoctrinate college students. There is also an $8 billion grant to create a “Climate Conservation Corps” which would act as a kind of “climate police” in order to push far-left climate policies and programs.
To top it all off, the reconciliation bill includes an authoritarian Green New Deal forced compliance policy that punishes conservative states who fail to incorporate green provisions by mandating consequences for states that don’t meet green climate standards, while at the same time rewarding cooperating states with $4 billion in climate grants.
These are just some of the highly concerning and wasteful aspects of Biden’s “Build Back Better” reconciliation fiasco. For more on the ways in which Biden’s reconciliation bill undercuts families, be sure to read FRC’s new resource 6 Things to Know About Biden’s Anti-Family Budget Buster.
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“Your savings, investments, retirement, purchasing power, and the quality of life that you’ve spent a life time planning and working is being shredded.”
Rising consumer price inflation is not going away. This, of course, is counter to the “transitory” argument made by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell earlier this year.
Powell’s cohort, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, recently admitted inflation is not transitory. This admission comes with assurances the Fed will properly manage it. We have some reservations.
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The effects of rising consumer prices range far and wide. For one, the pinch rising prices put on consumers is extraordinarily disruptive. It acts like a hefty tax…eroding family budgets that are already stretched. In this ongoing stagflation, personal income gains lag far behind rising consumer prices.
Industrial materials and consumer goods companies also feel the pinch. They can pass on some rising prices to consumers. They can also absorb through lower profit margins some short term price increases. But there are natural limits to what price increases can be absorbed and passed along.
When input costs, including raw material and labor, push the costs of the final manufactured goods above what they can readily be sold for the business motive breaks down. Halting operations makes the most business sense.
One industry feeling the pinch of rising natural gas prices is the fertilizer business. As we noted several weeks ago, several fertilizer plants in the UK have had to suspend operations because of soaring natural gas prices. Here in the US we’re not aware of any fertilizer producers suspending operations. But fertilizer prices are up, nonetheless.
In fact, the Green Markets North American Fertilizer Price Index recently soared to a record high, thus eclipsing the prior record set in 2008. Sky high fertilizer prices will further raise the cost of food production for farmers.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization’s global food index, food prices are already at a decade high. Plus, when you factor in the grow season in North America doesn’t begin until late-March, the increased fertilizer input costs, could lead to persistent food inflation well into 2022.
But it’s not just food. Here’s one instructive example of how price inflation discombobulates the economy…
Someone Gets Squeezed
The price of cotton just surged to a 10-year high. Rising cotton prices translate into rising jean prices. Levi Strauss has already raised the price of its jeans, thus passing some of the price inflation to consumers.
Levi Strauss is also realigning its business to account for higher input costs. This includes aggressive negotiation with cotton suppliers and cutting out the middlemen. Here are several details:
“In its earnings call, Levi said it has already negotiated most of its product costs through the first half of next year, at very low-single-digit inflation. For the second half of the year, it expects to see a mid-single digit increase. And Levi said it plans to offset that hike with the pricing actions it’s already been taking.
“Levi has been shifting its business from a predominantly wholesale to a mixed base that has a growing share of direct-to-consumer sales. And with strong consumer demand and tightened inventories, it’s been able to sell more products at full price.”
As noted above, the price of cotton is at a 10-year high. Year to date it’s up 47 percent. If cotton accounts for 20 percent of the cost to make a pair of Levi’s jeans, and the company was able to negotiate product costs at a very low-single-digit inflation, then someone in the supply chain is getting severely squeezed.
How long will it be before whoever that is cries uncle, and reneges on its obligations?
For a cotton supplier, that would presumably be when the input costs – land, fertilizer, labor, and processing – are greater than their contracted cost with Levi.
In this respect, Levi may have a plan to account for higher cotton prices, for now. But will they really get a mid-single digit increase during the second half of 2022 as management anticipates?
How much more price inflation can they pass on to consumers?
Are You Prepared for the Mass Repricing of Goods and Services?
The answers to these and other related questions are being considered by management teams across all industries. The simple fact is when the price of raw materials and labor inflate, it becomes very difficult to plan operations and production. Hedging strategies may help manage for rapid, short-term price spikes, but they cannot ultimately prohibit a long-term repricing of materials.
In short, we believe a long-term repricing of materials, goods, and services, is now underway. Certainly, prices will continue to rise and fall to meet supply and demand dynamics. Yet this will take place in a range that is being repriced higher. It has happened before and will happen again…
In 1960, for example, a gallon of gas cost $0.31 per gallon. Similarly, in 1960 a gallon of milk cost $1.00 per gallon. Currently, the average price of gas and the average price of milk are $3.28 per gallon and $3.68 per gallon, respectively. That’s upwards of a 958 percent increase for gas and 268 percent increase for milk over the last 60 years.
Sure, the price of gas and milk could come down some from today’s prices. However, there’s no way they’ll ever drop back to 1960’s prices. They’ve been repriced higher for good.
Why? Are gas and milk somehow more valuable today than they were 60 years ago?
We surmise these essentials have generally the same utility value they always have. Yet the dollar has been greatly devalued. Moreover, this great devaluation is the consequence of rampant dollar debasement policies executed in tandem between the Fed and Congress.
The recent debt ceiling histrionics in Congress – and the elevation of the debt limit for what we believe is the 79th time since 1960 – are merely another milestone in the great dollar debasement saga.
Remember, price inflation starts with expansion of the money supply. These days the expansion of the money supply is conducted in tandem by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. In short, the Treasury sells new debt to the Federal Reserve, which the Fed buys using credit created out of thin air.
Congress, through its debt ceiling increases, provides the Treasury with an unlimited tab. Congress then spends this limitless money into the economy via spending programs galore. As this new money flows through the economy, prices adjust higher, as the supply of money increases much faster than the supply of goods.
The point is, through policies of mass dollar debasement, we’ve now entered the next stage of the mass repricing of goods and services in the economy. The price of just about everything will adjust upward by several hundred percent – or much, much more – over the next decade.
Pre-pandemic prices are gone forever…
…and your savings, investments, retirement, purchasing power, and the quality of life that you’ve spent a life time planning and working for will be shredded.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-19 08:52:192021-10-19 08:52:19The Mass Repricing Of Goods And Services
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-17 05:51:362021-10-17 05:51:36VIDEO: CFACT is at the 14th International Conference on Climate Change — ICCC-14
Democrats have inserted numerous provisions and subsidy programs into their $3.5 trillion budget that would benefit green energy companies and speed the transition to renewables.
“The whole thing is ridiculous,” Myron Ebell, the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It would be laughable except it’s not laughable because it’s going to have tremendously negative economic consequences.”
The budget would include a credit worth as much as $12,500 for consumers who purchase a new electric vehicle, $2,500 for electric motorcycles purchased and even $1,500 for electric bicycles, according to Ebell.
A key part of the budget is the $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program — the centerpiece of the bill’s climate agenda — which would incentivize energy companies to produce fewer emissions through a series of grants and fees.
Democrats have inserted numerous provisions and subsidy programs into their $3.5 trillion budget that would benefit green energy companies and speed the transition to renewables.
The Build Back Better Act would invest an estimated $295 billion of taxpayer money into a variety of clean energy programs in what would amount to the most sweeping climate effort passed by Congress, according to a House Committee on Energy and Commerce report. That price tag doesn’t factor in the other costly measures approved by the House Ways and Means, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Oversight and Transportation committees last month.
“This bill is crammed with green welfare subsidies, specifically for corporations and the wealthy,” House Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
“They are extending and creating a whole host of green energy tax credits such as electric transmission property, zero emissions facilities and clean hydrogen,” the Texas Republican continued. “These are no longer merely tax credits, which count against the taxes you owe. These are direct pay. In effect, they’re government checks from Washington.”
The credits Brady referenced would incentivize the development of new transmission lines delivering renewable energy nationwide, reward facilities that produce zero or net negative carbon emissions and offset major costs associated with producing clean hydrogen power. But these subsidies represent a small portion of the giveaways packed into the legislation.
Overall, the bill includes major aspects of the Green New Deal, the behemoth climate legislation first proposed by progressive lawmakers in 2019. The Green New Deal has an estimated price tag of nearly $93 trillion and would cost American families as much as $65,300 per year.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a rally about climate change issues near the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 13. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
‘The whole thing is ridiculous’
Democrats’ budget would include a credit worth as much as $12,500 for consumers who purchase a new electric vehicle, $2,500 for electric motorcycles purchase and even $1,500 for electric bicycles, according to Myron Ebell, the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Roughly $13.5 billion would be invested in building new electric vehicle infrastructure nationwide.
President Joe Biden recently set a goal for 50% of all vehicles purchased in 2030 to be electric. In addition, his administration said the U.S. would cut emissions 50% by 2030, have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
“The whole thing is ridiculous,” Ebell told the DCNF. “It would be laughable except it’s not laughable because it’s going to have tremendously negative economic consequences. We can’t meet any of these targets, but in trying to do so we can do a huge amount of economic damage.” (RELATED: Experts Slam Biden’s Plan To Build Government-Funded Wind Farms)
The budget is a key cog in the president’s aggressive climate agenda and crusade against global warming which his administration has labeled a “crisis” multiple times since he took office. Days into his presidency, Biden nixed the Keystone XL pipeline permit, opened the door for sweeping regulation on fossil fuel producers and banned new oil and gas leasing on federal lands, but each executive action was met with a fierce response from states.
Since then, the president hasn’t just railed against fossil fuels, instead actively promoting renewable energy technology. His administration said Wednesday it would build seven wind farms nationwide that would have the capacity to provide enough energy to power 10 million homes by 2030.
President Joe Biden speaks as he tours the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Arvada, Colorado, on Sept. 14. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
“These technologies aren’t science fiction,” Biden remarked after a Sept. 14 tour of a National Renewable Energy Laboratory facility in Colorado. “They’re ready to be installed across the country right now.”
The Build Back Better Act would additionally implement a production tax credit for wind, solar and geothermal energy, according to Ebell. There is also an investment tax credit in the bill that would benefit developers of energy storage devices.
Clean Electricity Performance Program
Perhaps chief among the climate policies found in the Build Back Better Act is the $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP). The program, which is the centerpiece of the bill’s climate agenda, would incentivize energy companies to produce fewer emissions through a series of grants and fees.
“The CEPP is a repackaged version of a number of green energy proposals that have been made both recently and over the years to — we used to say nudge — now it’s much more of a heavy push towards utilities generating at least 85% clean energy,” American Institute for Economic Research senior faculty Ryan Yonk told the DCNF.
If an energy supplier increases their clean output by 4% compared to the previous year, it would be eligible for a sizable grant under the CEPP, according to the Energy and Commerce Committee. Companies that don’t increase clean energy by that amount will be punished with a large fine payable to the Department of Energy.
The program mandates that companies use grants to make energy more affordable for consumers. It also prohibits them from passing program costs to consumers, but fails to outline how it would ensure price increases aren’t tied to CEPP fines.
CEPP, though, continues to face opposition from Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, who could be the deciding vote for the budget, Politico reported. Manchin reportedly wants to gut much of the program and include a broader definition of “clean energy.”
“It’s not based on science. It’s not based on an overall strategic plan. It’s a lot of feel good stuff,” Republican Utah Rep. John Curtis, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus, told the DCNF when asked about the budget. “What are we trying to accomplish? What’s the goal? Nobody’s articulated that.”
He noted, for example, that the U.S. falls far short of the grid capacity to handle the number of electric vehicle charging stations the budget would fund. The budget hasn’t received the support of a single elected Republican, not even Curtis, who has backed many climate policies.
The bill also fails to acknowledge the shortfalls of such a rapid transition to renewable energy, Yonk said. Many projects, such as wind and solar, are still not profitable decades after investment began pouring into renewables.
In 2020, just 12% of the energy consumed by Americans came from renewables, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Solar and wind, which account for a large fraction of renewable energy produced, are nature-dependent and can be unreliable.
While producers often tout the energy capacity of solar and wind, they produce less than half of that capacity on average, EIA data showed. A rapid shift to renewables in Europe was a catalyst in the ongoing energy crisis that has seen oil, gas and coal prices skyrocket, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Renewables require large battery storage facilities to overcome some of the problems posed by their intermittent nature, but the U.S. has a total storage power capacity of almost 2 gigawatts, according to an EIA report in August. By comparison, the U.S. consumed about 3.8 million gigawatts per hour last year.
“We really don’t know what an energy market could look like because we subsidize and regulate all the different pieces of it,” Yonk told the DCNF. “We’ve taken what could be determined by individuals making their own choices and substituted it with a political solution where the values of those who lobby — whether they be on the green side or the energy production side — are what actually determines where we get things from.”
“As a result, we get things like the production tax credit or the investment tax credit that says, ‘okay, if you do these narrow list of things, we will provide a subsidy,’” he continued.
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https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-17 05:51:352021-10-17 05:51:35Here Are All The Green New Deal Handouts Democrats Wedged Into Their $3.5 Trillion Budget
How does the Biden administration intend to pay for its proposed $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan? By taxing the same hardworking American families the plan claims to help. In addition to advancing a radical progressive agenda, the plan carries a hefty price tag that will affect Americans of all backgrounds, both present and future.
If passed, the Biden administration’s plan would usher in the largest tax increase in over 50 years. Despite Biden’s promise that families making under $400,000 will not see their taxes increase, the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has revealed that anyone making $30,000 or more would see their taxes go up. By 2027, taxes on families earning between $75K and $100K would go up by an estimated $3 billion. The Biden administration’s plan raises taxes on savings and investments as well as the death tax, which inhibits families from passing on property and inheritance to the next generation.
Although middle class taxes would increase under this plan, the majority of the new taxes are aimed at businesses, both large and small. These taxes on businesses would likely get passed on to the working class, impacting anyone with a 401(k), anyone who works for a business, or anyone who buys products from a business. In other words, everyone. Record rates of taxation will only undo the Trump administration’s work to bring businesses back to America and help rebuild communities hit hard by globalization. The Biden administration’s plan, in contrast, will incentivize businesses to move production overseas, benefitting countries like China that frequently abuse human rights for the sake of profit.
The taxes on businesses could also create even more job losses than the economy is already facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly enough, in the past three U.S. recessions, unemployment for professional workers only increased three percent, whereas unemployment for production and transportation workers increased 7.5 percent and construction workers nine percent. This is even further evidence that the Biden administration’s tax and spending plan hurts working-class families the hardest, not the wealthy corporations like it claims.
By pumping a dramatic amount of new spending into the economy in a short amount of time, this plan would likely force inflation even higher, raising the prices of everyday essentials from food and gasoline to shipping, lumber, and other transportation costs. Raising the costs of essential goods while simultaneously raising taxes on the middle class would be disastrous for many American families at a time when marriage and the birth rates are already at an all-time low. Families need more economic security and flexibility, not less, but this plan will only make it more difficult for families to get by.
Finally, the proposed $3.5 trillion in new spending comes on the heels of more than $5 trillion in COVID relief packages passed in the past 18 months. Add this to the $1 trillion in proposed infrastructure spending, and that’s $9 trillion added to the $28 trillion in existing national debt. Just this week, the Congressional Budget Office undercut Democrat talking points on the necessity to raise new taxes to make up for the deficit. In 2021, the government collected $36 billion more in tax revenue than expected — despite the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by President Trump. The notion that tax cuts are what is causing the increase in the national deficit is simply false. Because the government has continued spending massive amounts of money on progressive priorities, there is no money available to spend on things that could truly help families, like a true expansion of the Child Tax Credit or expanding 529 education accounts to include homeschooling expenses. As Democrats attempt to sell the necessity of this tax-and-spend plan over the next few weeks, it is important to remember that America’s hardworking middle-class families will ultimately foot the bill.
According to this administration, we must choose between massive inflation, shipping bottlenecks, and huge numbers of Americans dropping out of the workforce…or 10% unemployment. Good midterm messaging there. pic.twitter.com/3Zcvt07Y5u
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-16 16:52:102021-10-16 16:52:10Biden’s Plan to “Help” the American Family Is to Tax Them More
That the American people haven’t stormed the Bastille and thrown this fraudulent administration out on its treasonous ass is a testament to the continuing power of the Democrat propaganda media.
Is inflation still “transitory,” as the Federal Reserve and White House like to say? Not if you’ve been visiting the grocery store, gas pump, online retailer, or anywhere else across the U.S. economy. The Labor Department said the consumer price index rose 0.4% in September, up from 0.3% in August. This means the price level has increased 5.4% in the last 12 months and 6.5% on an annual basis so far in 2021. This is the largest year-over-year increase since 2008, and the details in the report add to the evidence that inflation is likely to be persistent (WSJ).
“Prices are rising, real wages are down, and Americans are struggling to get back to work—all hallmarks of Joe Biden’s Build Back Broke agenda. With consumer prices rising higher than expected and families facing the highest inflation rate in over 13 years, there could not be a worse possible time for Biden and Democrats’ trillions in reckless tax hikes and spending,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel released in a statement Wednesday morning (Townhall).
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-15 16:51:392021-10-15 16:51:39New Inflation Numbers See the Fastest Rise in 13 Years
American consumers should expect to see higher prices and even some empty shelves during their holiday shopping this year, President Joe Biden’s White House told Reuters on Tuesday.
The warning comes as the Biden administration works frantically to push back on skyrocketing inflation and strained supply chains across the country. Economists predicted earlier this year that the final months of 2021 would see total consumer prices rising 3.2% over 2020.
“There will be things that people can’t get,” a senior White House official told Reuters on Tuesday. “At the same time, a lot of these goods are hopefully substitutable by other things. … I don’t think there’s any real reason to be panicked, but we all feel the frustration and there’s a certain need for patience to help get through a relatively short period of time.”
A Sept. 29 study from Salesforce predicted that retail prices could rise as much as 20% compared to 2020. Women’s clothing, jewelry and watches had already risen 11.9% and 12.9% respectively as of August.
“Barriers at ports and skyrocketing costs of containers, two major pressures shaping holidays, should cause consumers to be concerned about product availability,” Salesforce warned.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki and other administration officials have repeatedly insisted that the inflation is “transitory” and will normalize sometime in 2022. The White House has repeated the line numerous times since worries over the economy began to outpace COVID-19 in polls across the U.S.
“What is the White House’s message to average Americans, including those who are on limited income though who are experiencing higher prices right now for food and clothing and other goods and services? You mentioned it’s expected to die down next year, but what is your message to them in the meantime, is it simply just to wait it out?” a reporter asked Psaki during a press briefing in July.
“That’s certainly not what I’ve ever said,” Psaki responded. “Our message is that we understand the threat that inflation poses. We will be vigilant about any responses needed. It’s important for Americans to know and understand that these impacts are temporary, and some of these price increases are a result of the economy turning back on.”
Some experts have disagreed, however, arguing that the inflation is here to stay “for years” thanks to Biden’s unprecedented spending programs.
“The 100% cause of inflation is the government,” Peter Schiff, the chief economist and global strategist at Euro Pacific Capital, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s when the government spends money that it doesn’t collect in taxes and then the Federal Reserve monetizes the resulting deficits by printing money.”
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-13 14:51:422021-10-13 14:51:42Biden White House Warns American Consumers Of Empty Shelves Come Christmastime
61-38: Senate ends a filibuster against increasing the debt ceiling by $480 billion to December 3rd. 60 votes were needed.
11 Republicans Blunt Barrasso Capito Collins Cornyn McConnell Murkowski Portman Rounds Shelby and Thune voted Yes with all Democrats. Burr did not vote. pic.twitter.com/X0F98EMj4Y
Here are the Senate Republicans who walked the plank: Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) all voted in favor of cloture. None are expected to vote for final passage.
Next steps: Senators move onto final passage of the bill that would raise the debt ceiling through early December. It needs just a simple majority, and Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to swoop in to break the tie.
Enough Republicans joined Democrats on a procedural vote Thursday night to advance the debt ceiling deal, 61-38.
60 votes are needed to overcome the filibuster, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was one of 10 Republicans who voted to proceed.
In addition to McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Richard Shelby, Senator Rob Portman, Senator John Barrasso, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Roy Blunt, and Senator Mike Rounds voted to advance the measure.
Here are the Senate Republicans who walked the plank: Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), John Thune (R-S.D.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) all voted in favor of cloture. None are expected to vote for final passage.
Next steps: Senators move onto final passage of the bill that would raise the debt ceiling through early December. It needs just a simple majority, and Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to swoop in to break the tie.
Enough Republicans joined Democrats on a procedural vote Thursday night to advance the debt ceiling deal, 61-38.
60 votes are needed to overcome the filibuster, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was one of 10 Republicans who voted to proceed.
In addition to McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Thune, Senator John Cornyn, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Susan Collins, Senator Richard Shelby, Senator Rob Portman, Senator John Barrasso, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, Senator Roy Blunt, and Senator Mike Rounds voted to advance the measure.
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https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-09 16:51:142021-10-09 16:51:14RINO ALERT: LIST Of 11 Republicans Who Voted With Democrats To Raise the Debt Ceiling by $480 Billion
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
And in living in a society with a moral code that glorifies taxation, you end up with what are known as “excise taxes.”
An excise tax is an indirect tax, unlike a sales tax. It is when the manufacturer/producer of a certain good has to factor a fixed tax or percentage into the cost of that good and then pay the government the tax themselves. Excise taxes are specific to individual goods and activities, whereas sales taxes or income taxes are levied on a general base.
Think of a pack of cigarettes or gasoline. Built into the advertised cost of those goods is a portion that is pure tax. A pack of cigarettes might cost $2, but 50 percent of its cost might be an excise tax levied by the local, state, or federal government, making the true cost $3. And that is before any sales tax.
So which states have the biggest excise tax burdens? Check out the Tax Foundation’s recent study on how much each state collected in excise taxes per person in the fiscal year 2016.
Most excise taxes are what are known as “sin taxes,” which are taxes placed on goods that the government considers to be detrimental to a consumer’s health or well-being (think alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, junk food, etc…). The purpose is to get the consumer to engage less in undesired behavior because higher prices lead to reduced consumption, but there is very little evidence to support that claim. As Janelle Cammenga from the Tax Foundation states,
Soda taxes have unintended consequences that make any impact on obesity negligible at best. Cigarette taxes are an unstable source of revenue. Excise taxes are levied on a relatively narrow tax base, and many regressive, with a larger share of the tax burden falling on those with lower incomes.
So while many believe that levying taxes on unhealthy goods—which is determined by our benevolent politicians whom exercise wise judgement—is a good way to promote a healthy and virtuous citizenry, there is little evidence that suggests the taxes are accomplishing what they were set out to do.
One great example of the failure of excise taxes is found in Philadelphia’s “soda tax.” The tax was implemented in 2017 at 1.5 cents per ounce of a sugary drink, equal to $1 per typical two-liter bottle of soda (which is $1.56 pre-tax). The goal was to reduce obesity by discouraging consumption of sugary drinks by raising the prices, but the result was anything-but-intended.
Scholars at Stanford, Northwestern, and the University of Minnesota conducted a study of Philadelphia’s soda tax and concluded the following:
We draw several lessons about the effectiveness of local sweetened-beverage taxes from these analyses. First, the tax was ineffective at reducing consumption of unhealthy products. Second, in terms of revenue generation, the tax was only partly effective due to consumers substituting to stores outside of Philadelphia. Third, low income households are less likely to engage in cross-shopping, and instead are more likely to continue to purchase taxed products at a higher price at stores in Philadelphia.
The lower propensity for low income households to avoid the tax through cross-shopping leads to a relatively larger tax burden for those households. In summary, the tax does not lead to a shift in consumption towards healthier products, it affects low income households more severely, and it is limited in its ability to raise revenue.
And this case study is just one example of the same occurrences in numerousotherplaces.
Good Intentions Do Not Equal Good Results
Excise taxes might sound like a harmless thing, but they are really a prime example of a policy judged by its good intentions rather than it’s results. As Milton Friedman said,
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
At best, excise taxes simply shift the consumption of disincentivized “harmful” products to other areas where the goods are sold cheaper. At worst, excise taxes make goods more expensive for people (particularly poorer people) who will still buy the “harmful” products in their respective area.
Either way, these policies rarely accomplish what policymakers intend them to do—unless, of course, the true goal of these taxes is simply to fund an increasingly costly and inefficient government apparatus.
Tyler Brandt is a copywriter at FEE. He is a graduate of UW-Madison with a B.A. in Political Science. In college, Tyler was a FEE Campus Ambassador, President of his campus YAL chapter, and Research Intern at the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2021-10-08 14:51:332021-10-08 14:51:33How Much Per Person Does Your State Collect in Excise Taxes?
That’s not ‘Building Back Better’—it’s shooting ourselves in the foot.
President Biden has heralded his $4.5+ trillion spending proposals and accompanying tax hikes as an investment in “leading the world versus letting it pass us by.” Yet, paradoxically, a new analysis exposes one huge way Biden’s plans would make the US less competitive on the global stage.
Key to financing the spending plans is a proposed increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 26.5 percent. When factoring in state corporate taxes, the US’s average corporate tax rate would reach a whopping 30.9 percent. And according to a new Tax Foundation analysis, this punitive level of business taxation would be the third-highest corporate tax rate among developed countries, outstripped only by Colombia and Portugal.
Well, the US would become a less attractive place for business investment, which is bad news for entrepreneurs, workers, and customers alike. Businesses would understandably be less likely to conduct business in the US when they could go to dozens of other developed countries with lower tax rates. As a result, our economic competitiveness would suffer.
“Returning to near the top of the OECD in corporate tax rates would… disincentivize investment and encourage firms to shift profits and locate elsewhere, resulting in fewer job opportunities for Americans and less tax revenue for the U.S. government,” the analysis explains.
Yikes.
Biden claims his tax-and-spend agenda is meant to reassert America’s dominance. But the costly tax hikes the president seeks would set our economic competitiveness back on the global stage. That’s not “Building Back Better”—it’s shooting ourselves in the foot.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-10-07 06:50:262021-10-07 06:50:26Biden Plan Would Sabotage U.S. Economic Competitiveness in One Huge Way, Analysis Finds
Socialism is hostile toward a wide range of liberties that Americans have cherished for hundreds of years. Socialism is very oppressive toward religious liberties especially towards Christians and Jews.
“This is the biggest step toward socialism in my lifetime.” U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declined to take a vote on the $3.5 trillion dollar socialist spending bill by her September 30, 2021 deadline after approximately two dozen members of the house indicated that they would not vote for it. Additionally, Senators Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Kyrsten Sinema (D- Arizona) voiced their opposition to the fiscally irresponsible legislation. Additionally, it appears that some other Democrat senators also indicated that they would not vote for the bill.
Since the overwhelming majority of Republicans are opposed to the $3.5 trillion dollar socialist spending bill Florida Family Association focused on encouraging 7 moderate Democrats in the Senate and 19 moderate Democrats in the House to oppose the legislation. Florida Family Association launched several email campaigns that provided prepared emails for subscribers to send to these moderate Democrats. These prepared emails were produced in a format that sent them through each subscriber’s own email client. This embedded email format was chosen in order insure their delivery. Florida Family Association estimates that each official received over 15,000 emails from Florida Family Association subscribers. Additionally and thankfully, there were conservative news media and talk shows that expressed grave concern regarding this radical legislation.
Why is Florida Family Association concerned about the $3.5 trillion dollar spending bill? This legislation moves America ever closer to oppressive socialism. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham described the $3.5 trillion dollar spending bill as “This is the biggest step toward socialism in my lifetime.” Socialism is hostile toward a wide range of liberties that Americans have cherished for hundreds of years. Socialism is very oppressive toward religious liberties especially towards Christians and Jews.
High inflation and gas prices caused by recent excessive congressional spending are hurting millions of American families and threatening our economy. Fox News Poll reports: “83% worry about inflation, majority says benefits hurting economy. Inflation tops the list of economic concerns for voters– ahead of taxes, unemployment, the federal deficit, and interest rates.” The increasing gasoline prices and energy costs will likely go even higher with the left’s obsession with the New Green Deal which is part of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill.
It is fiscally irresponsible for congress to throw more money on the inflation fire that will break the budgets of more American families and burden them with entitlement programs that will endure forever. Additionally, the $3.5 trillion plan will require much more money from the private sector to pay for more entitlement programs thus pushing America even closer to socialism while hurting our robust economy. This bill will increase energy costs and our dependence on foreign oil thereby weakening national security.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi extended the deadline for voting on this irresponsible socialist legislation to October 30, 2021. The $3.5 trillion amount will likely be reduced in order to garner votes. However, the bill’s passage becomes much less probable following this failure and as the calendar nears the 2022 elections when voters will be more likely to hold these officials accountable. Florida Family Association is prepared to launch more email campaigns if necessary.
Thank you for taking the time to send emails. Your emails made a difference.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Florida Family Associationhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFlorida Family Association2021-10-05 13:02:262021-10-05 13:02:26Socialist Spending Bill Fails To Move Forward
“Biden and his minions are bound and determined to Build Back Bigger Government.” – Dr. Rich Swier
So what does Build Back Better (BBB) mean? Didn’t the last President Make America Great Again? So is Biden’s intent to make America greater than his predecessor?
The Build Back Better Agenda is an ambitious plan to create jobs, cut taxes, and lower costs for working families – all paid for by making the tax code fairer and making the wealthiest and large corporations pay their fair share.
Since Biden’s inauguration has he created more jobs? Cut taxes? Lowered costs for working families?
Just look at the economy and you will see higher unemployment, lower wages, workers being fired for not taking the Covid vaccine, higher gasoline prices, shortages of goods and services (particularly in those states that have full or partial lockdowns) and more people looking for a job.
What we are seeing is the false notion that taxing corporations is good for us. Why? Because when any corporation is taxed more they either pass on that cost to their consumers or go out of business.
AOC’s dress with the statement in red to “tax the rich” is a false flag. History tells us that the rich find ways to avoid taxes and the working class gets a greater tax burden or worse workers are laid off because corporations cut staff when faced with more regulation and higher taxes.
Is Build Back Better Really Better, so far?
Biden laid out the following goals for his “Build Back Better” agenda:
“Build a Modern Infrastructure” [More government spending]
“Position the U.S. Auto Industry to Win the 21st Century with technology invented in America” [Mandate the auto industry comply or else]
“Achieve a Carbon Pollution-Free Power Sector by 2035” [Green New Deal]
“Make Dramatic Investments in Energy Efficiency in Buildings, including Completing 4 Million Retrofits and Building 1.5 Million New Affordable Homes” [More Green New Deal mandates]
“Pursue a Historic Investment in Clean Energy Innovation” [Green New Deal on asteroids]
“Advance Sustainable Agriculture and Conservation” [Famers required to be green or else]
“Secure Environmental Justice and Equitable Economy Opportunity” [Equal people are not free and free people are not equal]
The Biden administrations agenda has become very clear.
If the intent of Biden is to make the lives of every American better then as of October 5th, 2021 he is a complete failure.
According to Wikipedia Build Back Better:
The Build Back Better Agenda is a projected $7 trillion COVID-19 relief, future economic, and infrastructure package proposed by PresidentJoe Biden. It will include investments in infrastructure, and is projected to create 10 million clean-energy jobs. Expenditures would also include government funds on housing, education, economic fairness and health care.[1]
The plan is divided into three parts: the American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief package, which passed in March 2021;[2] the American Jobs Plan, a proposal to rebuild America’s infrastructure and create jobs;[3] and the American Families Plan, a proposal to invest in areas related to childcare and education.[4]As of October 1, 2021, the American Rescue Plan is the only plan that has been signed into law, though proposals featured in the American Jobs Plan have been passed in the Senate through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. [Emphasis added]
So Build Back Better is actually a massive government growth coupled with social a massive government spending spree. Not surprisingly it is inextricably tied to Covid.
To pass the Democrat/Biden Build Back Better agenda requires the American people’s cooperation. However, we are seeing more and more Americans taking up arms against this plan via civil disobedience.
Since Biden’s election his poll numbers have dropped dramatically as he and his handlers try to implement his BBB agenda.
Conclusion
Build Back Better is missing one word in its title “government.” Biden and his minions are bound and determined to Build Back Bigger Government.
There’s no better in Biden’s Agenda only worse
Using the office of the president Biden has not waited for Congress to implement his BBB agenda. Rather he and his administration are using federal agencies like the CDC, OSHA, IRS, Justice Department and FBI to suppress any and all opposition to the BBB agenda.
If you are in the medical profession and work in a hospital and you choose not to get the Covid vaccine you can be fired.
If you are in a company with more than 100 workers and you fail to get the Covid vaccine you will be fired.
If you are in the U.S. military and your choose to not take the Covid vaccine you could be dishonorably discharged.
If you don’t have a “vaccine passport” your ability to travel within the United States and overseas can be restricted or even denied.
The backbone of Build Back Better is comply or else.
Freedom of choice. My body, my choice only applies to killing the unborn, not to you if you don’t get jabbed.
We predict as the Build Back Better agenda moves forward more and more American workers and their families will move backwards.
Biden seems to be building backwards, not forward. He wants to empower government not the individual, and many Democrats are fine with this. This goes beyond socialism, this is Communism writ large.
Today, Jen Psaki said the $3.5 trillion spending bill costs nothing for Americans earning less than $400K.
Unless they buy groceries, fill up a gas tank, or heat their home.
Gird your loins. We have three years and two more months of Biden, unless something dramatic happens.
Can you survive? Can your family survive? Can America’s Constitutional Republic survive.
The midterm elections in 2022 will be a bell weather election. If conservatives, note I did not write Republicans, don’t take control of one or both houses of Congress we are doomed
Get out and vote. Insure your state implements laws that enhance election integrity.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDr. Rich Swier2021-10-05 09:04:122021-10-05 09:04:12Today is October 5th, 2021 and Joe Biden’s ‘Build Back Better Agenda’ is the worst in U.S. History
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” – Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels
My Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars.
Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes, and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America.
The anti-fossil fuels Green New Deal efforts to fundamentally transform American’s use of all forms of energy.
Biden’s support to defund the police, anti-Border Patrol and anti-law enforcement policies.
Biden’s anti-guns anti-self defense and anti-Second Amendment policies.
The radicalization of the Democrat Party and its move toward Communism in the U.S.A.
Biden’s policies to fundamentally transform our public schools into propaganda outlets for big government and centers to force Critical Race Theory on children, without parental concent.
More to be determined…
Biden Has Become a Joke and the Whole World is Laughing
Everyone is now laughing at the Biden administration. Biden and his handlers (he has handlers because he is incompetent) are the laughing stock of the whole world.
What is even sadder is that his policies and political positions are now harming working class Americans. Consumer confidence has now reached a 22 year low. It has not been this low since the DotCom implosion under Bill Clinton.
From Biden’s broken national security policies, to his disaster in Afghanistan, to the ongoing border crisis (the border patrol estimated that illegal aliens will top a million for the month of September), to a dangerous immigration policy, to the Democrat controlled Congress’ bills that raise taxes, increase spending and turn one group against another have many Americans of all races crying.
Biden is now openly anti-American in everything that he, and his administration, does. Americans are today paying over $1.00 more per gallon of gasoline at the pump. Oil prices reached $80 per barrel, double the price under Trump prior to the virus from China. And Biden is just getting started on implementing draconian energy policies to “save the planet” from climate change. Go figure!
Here’s striking example of yet another a demented Democrat policy in California:
In California you can get paid to not put a needle full of heroin in your arm but you can get fired from your job for not putting in a needle full of an experimental vaccine.
Today the Biden administration’s operative word is “mandate.” Biden is forcing Americans to get Vaxxed. But what about those who get vaxxed and either, get sick, have long term health issues, get Covid and die. Here’s just one example of a pro-vaxx professor in Florida who died after getting her third (booster) shot:
Professor Who Said, “Damn the Unvaccinated” Dies Two Weeks After Receiving 3rd Covid Shot https://t.co/pJMVTEgppc
Mandates are not leadership. Mandates are unconstitutional. Mandates are not the law.
Biden wants to mandate Covid vaxxing for every American citizen but will not test illegal aliens for Covid who are surging crossing our Southern border.
Dems Vote Against Bill Requiring COVID Test For Illegal Immigrants Before Their Release https://t.co/dFnXZiAaOj
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, sponsored by The ANTIFA by Jack Posobiec, for Tuesday shows that 41% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Biden’s job performance. Fifty-eight percent (58%) disapprove. The latest figures include 21% who Strongly Approve of the job Biden is doing and 49% who Strongly Disapprove.
This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -28. (see trends)
Conclusion
Political satire has now become public policy under Biden. But is anyone laughing? We think not. People are waking up and we are seeing civil disobedience protests against Biden and his policies growing, not just in the U.S. but globally.
Biden is just another in a long line of tax and spend big government socialists. From FDR to Carter to Clinton to Obama. They’re all birds of a feather who flock together to tax the rich and every single working American to death. Some have even characterized the Biden administration as Obama 2.0!
Gird your loins. Pray! Our only hope is to retake one or both houses of Congress in 2022.
We have made it a point to contest the uncontested absurdities we see. That is what I, as a citizen journalist, do each and every day. Sadly these absurdities have turned into legislation either pending or passed by the Democrats in Congress and pushed by the Biden administration.
The Biden administration will not be over until 2024. A ray of hope is if conservatives, note I didn’t say Republicans, take back a majority in the House of Representatives and Senate.
Be prepared. It will get worse. We hope and pray that one day we will reestablish our Constitutional Republican form of government where the power lies in the hands of the people not government.
It’s now clear that Biden’s Build Back Better agenda is causing crimes to be committed against humanity both foreign and domestic.
The bill is a death sentence for this country. A no vote is the only rational option. Anyone who votes for this devastating attack on the American economy.
Sen. Joe Manchin said there is not enough time to produce the legislative framework for a massive spending bill that House Democrats are demanding in exchange for supporting a critical infrastructure bill on Thursday. “No, it’s not possible,” Manchin told reporters as he walked from the Senate chamber back to his office building.
By: Susan Ferrechio, Chief Congressional Correspondent |Washington Examiner | September 29, 2021:
Sen. Joe Manchin, a key centrist Democrat whose approval is required to pass the party’s massive social welfare spending package, firmly rejected the proposal on Wednesday, criticizing the $3.5 trillion cost and the vast new entitlements it would provide.
Manchin issued a scathing statement about the massive spending package, criticizing the cost, tax increases, and social welfare programs that “spend for the sake of spending.”
The West Virginia Democrat’s thorough rejection of the measure follows days of talks with President Joe Biden and top Democrats, who had hoped to strike an accord with Manchin ahead of a House vote on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package.
“What I have made clear to the President and Democratic leaders is that spending trillions more on new and expanded government programs, when we can’t even pay for the essential social programs, like Social Security and Medicare, is the definition of fiscal insanity,” Manchin said in a statement Wednesday.
His rejection of the package likely jeopardizes the passage of the infrastructure bill on Thursday. House liberals said they plan to block the bill unless House and Senate Democrats agree to a spending level and framework on the social welfare spending bill. The Senate deal hinges on a few key moderates, including Manchin.
But Manchin signaled he’s in no hurry to help negotiate a deal by Thursday.
“In August, I recommended we take a strategic pause to provide time to develop the right policies and to continue to monitor how the pandemic and economic factors are affecting our nation’s fiscal situation before we spend more,” Manchin said.
In addition to opposing the staggering cost of the legislation, Manchin wants changes to tax hikes Democrats plan to impose to pay for the bill, which he said would weaken the nation’s economic competitiveness and would hurt small businesses.
“Overall, the amount we spend now must be balanced with what we need and can afford — not designed to reengineer the social and economic fabric of this nation or vengefully tax for the sake of wishful spending,” Manchin said.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer planned to huddle with Biden Wednesday to plot what to do next.
Earlier Wednesday, Pelosi would not promise a vote on the infrastructure bill on Thursday, blaming Senate Democrats for failing to strike a deal with Manchin.
“I can’t keep a commitment that the Senate has made impossible to do,” Pelosi said.
After Manchin’s statement made the rounds on Capitol Hill, liberal Democrats were more confident than ever they would block the infrastructure bill if Pelosi brings it up for a vote.
Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal said Manchin’s statement “has created a bunch more votes on the House floor,” against the infrastructure bill.
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Here’s a dismaying prospect: Paying 6, 8, or 10 cents in new taxes for every mile you drive. It may sound small, but at an 8 cent rate, that would be $1,144 in new annual taxes for the average American, who drives about 14,300 miles a year. Yikes!
Some on social media are claiming that this punitive tax scheme has been slipped into President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure spending legislation—which, after all, is nearly 3,000 pages and is chock full of unrelated waste and partisan pet projects. But are they right to be concerned about a mileage tax soon becoming reality?
Biden's new bill calls for a "Mileage Tax," taxing drivers at 10 cents a mile for the privilege of driving.
The infrastructure legislation does not include a mileage tax or another form of driving tax. What it does include is a pilot program to study and test the idea. The legislation authorizes $125 million in taxpayer funding for this test initiative. (A lot of taxpayer money for an experiment, no?)
“People would volunteer to be part of the test,” fact-checkers at local New York news outlet WGRZ-TV report. “The test would require volunteers to record their miles, pay the fees, and then be reimbursed by the government. This pilot program would go through the year 2026 and at that point, if Congress and the president like it, they would have to pass another bill making it into law. This infrastructure bill simply creates the program.”
Some people are claiming Biden's infrastructure bill contains a per-mile driving tax.
That's not quite right. It includes a pilot test program that will test out and study the idea, which could then be implemented in future legislation.https://t.co/IhtA6CJgEd
We can certainly question the wisdom of this endeavor. But rest assured that if the infrastructure legislation ultimately passes—a likely if not certain outcome—you won’t get a new per-mile bill from the IRS. However, this move does represent a shift toward mainstreaming and advancing the idea of a per-mile driving tax.
Such a tax would be highly regressive, meaning that it would disproportionately burden low-income Americans. So, too, the costs would fall harder on rural Americans who drive more than their city-dwelling counterparts. That said, proponents argue it simply funds highway infrastructure by taxing those who use it. They also note that it could replace the gas tax, which currently attempts to do the same yet fails to capture usage by electric vehicles.
Still, the prospect of sizable new taxes levied on working-class Americans solely for the privilege of being allowed to drive your own car isn’t an attractive one. Luckily, we aren’t actually facing this as an immediate reality, even if it is slowly being advanced into the mainstream.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-09-30 06:00:202021-09-30 06:00:20Does Biden’s $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Bill Include a Mileage Tax?
Why did U.S. incomes suddenly explode in 2018 after decades of tepid growth? The answer is not difficult to find.
For years, a school of economists has complained that US wages have been virtually stagnant for decades.
“Jobs are coming back, but pay isn’t. The median wage is still below where it was before the Great Recession,” former Labor Secretary Robert Reich said in 2015. “Last month, average pay actually fell.”
In fact, it’s not hard to find data showing that wages have barely increased since the 1970s, a figure many have used to stoke classy envy.
The truth is, there have always been problems with the claim that real wages (adjusted for inflation) have been stagnant for years. As economist Don Boudreaux has pointed out (see below), Reich and others overlook several important factors—including how inflation is calculated, compensation outside of wages such as healthcare, and the distinction between individuals and statistics.
Nevertheless, if one does choose to use Bureau of Labor Statistics data to measure family incomes over the last two decades, the picture is indeed a bit bleaker—at least it was.
Government statistics, which use the Consumer Price Index to measure inflation, show that from 2002 through 2015 median weekly earnings didn’t budge at all, but surged between 2018 and 2020.
The cart below shows BLS data on median weekly earnings between 1999-2020 for full-time workers (adjusted for inflation).
I’m not the first person to notice this stunning wage growth. Writing in Bloomberg, economist Karl W. Smith describes the growth in income using a slightly different metric, real median household income.
“In 2016, real median household income was $62,898, just $257 above its level in 1999,” writes Smith. “Over the next three years it grew almost $6,000, to $68,703.”
Indeed, median household incomes increased from $64,300 to $68,700 in 2018 alone—an increase of $4,400. To put it another way, US incomes increased more in 2018 than the previous 20 years combined. (Household incomes were $61,100 in 1998 and $64,300 at the end of 2017.)
Real median household income by year:
1999: $62,600 2016: $62,898 2019: $68,700
American workers finally got a raise (and a nice one) after a decade and a half of flat wages.
The question, of course, is why did US incomes suddenly explode after decades of tepid growth? The answer is not difficult to find.
The year 2017 saw massive deregulation and passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Estimates placed the deregulation savings at $2 trillion. But what was likely even a bigger factor was the cut businesses saw in corporate taxes.
Prior to 2017, the US had the highest corporate tax in the developed world (if not the whole world). With a top bracket of 35 percent, its corporate tax rate was higher than Communist China and socialist Venezuela.
This was a terrible policy on a number of levels. For starters, the revenue-maximizing rate of a corporate tax is 15-25 percent, which means anything above that isn’t even generating more revenue, it’s simply punitive and economically harmful. (Evidence bears this out. The United Kingdom, for example, reduced its corporate tax rate and saw revenues grow.)
Second, high corporate taxes actually hurt workers more than “Big Business.” Tax experts point out that roughly 70 percent of what businesses earn in profits gets paid to workers in the form of wages and other benefits. So it’s no surprise to see that studies show that workers bear between 50 and 100 percent of the brunt of corporate income taxes.
But the reverse is also true: cutting corporate taxes leaves companies more capital to grow and invest.
“Lower corporate taxes increase rewards for improving techniques, technology, and increasing capital investments, which increase worker productivity and earnings,” writes economist Gary Galles. “They expand rewards for risk-taking and entrepreneurship in service of consumers. They reduce the substantial distortions caused by the tax. And those changes benefit others, such as workers and consumers.”
So in 2017, when the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, companies saw their tax rate fall from 35 percent to 21 percent. Just that fast, businesses suddenly had more capital to spend to grow their business, improve productivity, and hire more workers—and few things attract workers more than higher wages.
Media scoffed at the possibility that corporate tax cuts would actually result in wage increases for US workers. But the data speaks for itself: Families saw incomes increase faster than at any time in generations.
Moreover, though median wages surged, showing the benefits were broad-based, every segment benefited from these wage gains.
“The lowest quintile increased their pay more than the upper quintile,” Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist recently pointed out in a conversation with FEE’s Brad Polumbo.
To be sure, reducing the corporate tax rate wasn’t the sole factor for the surge in wages, but it was likely by far the biggest.
The surge in family incomes no doubt helped soften the impact of the economic destruction the world suffered in 2020 during the recession precipitated by economic lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
Whether the wage gains continue may depend to some extent on the permanency of the corporate tax cut. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who appears poised to become the next US president, has signaled he’d restore the corporate tax to its 35 percent rate or raise it to 28 percent.
“Biden would make our business tax higher than China’s,” Norquist quipped. (He’s not wrong. China’s corporate tax rate stands at 25 percent.)
This appears unlikely to happen, however. Even if Biden’s claim was more than campaign rhetoric, it appears unlikely that he’ll have enough votes in the Senate to roll back the tax cuts.
Even more promising for US workers, Biden appears inclined to roll back Trump’s tariffs, which are basically taxes on Americans and imposed costs on businesses.
“When you put a tariff on steel, you make American cars not competitive anymore. You make everything made with steel less competitive,” Norquist observed. “We did a lot of damage to the American economy that way.”
If a Biden administration rolls back Trump’s tariffs while leaving the corporate tax rate in place, the US economy could build on the gains made prior to the arrival of the lockdowns.
That would be a winning formula for US workers, businesses, and the US economy.
Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-09-29 06:54:272021-09-29 06:54:27U.S. Household Incomes Increased More in 2018 Than in the Previous 20 Years—Combined
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