Today, two years after COVID-19 first hit these shores from China, most studies confirm that the heavy-handed government lockdowns of businesses, restaurants, schools, churches and parks did more harm than good to our health and well-being.
I'm the kind of guy
Who never used to cry
The world is treatin' me bad
Misery -- The Beatles
The tally for how much the federal government spent to combat COVID-19 is now estimated to be $5 trillion. It is more than the combined costs of World Wars I and II. The left is celebrating that politicians in Washington saved us. Really? From what exactly?
When I came to Washington, D.C., in 1985, Ronald Reagan was president. I was working for the Reagan budget office. We did something we weren't very proud of at the time. We introduced the first $1 trillion budget in American history, which was unthinkable. One trillion dollars. There are 12 zeroes in a trillion. A trillion is a million dollars times a million. The budget deficit hit $200 billion and 6% of our entire GDP. Again, unthinkable.
Once, during a meeting with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump inside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York, we discussed energy policy. I told Trump that if we went all out to produce America's abundant supply of oil, gas and coal, the United States could be energy independent in four years.
It started in Chicago, where an incredible 91% of union teachers voted to go on strike and refused to do what they get paid to do, which is teach. Then the union walkouts spread to Maryland, New Jersey and California.
Why don't the union bosses in America represent their union members anymore? Could it be because the union leadership has become more beholden to the Democratic politicians in Washington than the rank-and-file workers who pay the dues?
When running against Donald Trump for president, Joe Biden often made the now-ironic charge that any president who has allowed so many deaths from COVID-19 should never be in the White House. Today, there are more deaths from COVID under Biden than under Trump -- and that is even with the vaccine.
How much do solar, wind and electric vehicle companies get in federal handouts and tax loopholes in President Joe Biden's Build Back Better bill? Well over $100 billion in taxpayer largesse. If all the tax credits are included, that number could reach half a trillion dollars. No other industry in American history has ever received this lucrative a paycheck.
One of the most popular provisions of the 1994 Contract with America was a rule requiring Congress to live by the same laws that families and businesses are subject to.
How would you feel about Congress snatching away your credit card or preventing you from participating in credit card reward programs?
When he announced last week that he would release more oil from the American Strategic Petroleum Reserve, President Joe Biden told the American people he is doing everything possible to bring down gas prices at the pump.
Not long ago, President Joe Biden made an offhanded comment that "Milton Friedman isn't running the show anymore."
Be honest. Does anyone really believe that any of these new schemes that President Joe Biden conjures up every few days to "tax the rich" will cause Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Warren Buffett to pay more taxes?
A good friend who owns a major auto dealership in the Dallas area recently told me he typically has about 500 to 1,000 cars and trucks on his lot. Now, he has 15. That's how severe the supply chain problem has become.
If you think the supply chain problems, empty shelves in stores and higher inflation are problems now, wait a few weeks; they are likely to get worse. And this isn't a result of hurricanes, the pandemic or other acts of nature. It's all due to political incompetence that starts in the Oval Office.
Back in early 2016, when Larry Kudlow and I suggested that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump propose a 20% business tax rate for U.S. companies (down from the highest in the world rate of 35%), he enthusiastically endorsed this "America First" policy -- not because he loved corporate America but because he realized that as long as small and large American companies were paying the highest tax rates, jobs and factories would continue to move offshore.
With each passing week, it looks like World War III -- between America and China -- is coming sooner than we think. It's not going to be fought with bullets or aircraft carriers, although the Chinese are building up their military in an aggressive and threatening way.
While the greens in America, including their champion zealot, President Joe Biden, howl their primal screams over climate change, the rest of the world is turning to coal. The dark stuff. The satanic fuel. But it's back big-time across the globe.
President Joe Biden keeps boasting that all the new jobs his programs will supposedly create will be "good-paying union jobs." But, Joe, what about the 93% of private sector workers who are (SET ITAL)not(END ITAL) members of unions? Does he care about them?
