We’ve told our readers that the Biden tax plan is a declaration of war on American business. It is downright unpatriotic and plays into the hands of our competitors and adversaries. Now the Tax Foundation has released this chart that proves our point.
The Biden plan makes the U.S. higher tax than average in every category, #2 only to Colombia in corporate tax, and the absolute #1 highest in the OECD in capital gains taxes. Say it ain’t so, Joe!
2) New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago Are Becoming Unlivable
Our senior fellow in migration studies, and one of the nation's top demographers, Wendell Cox, has been analyzing the new Census Bureau data on county population.
Here are some of the disturbing trends he has uncovered:
During the late 2010s and before the pandemic, population growth and domestic migration transitioned toward smaller metropolitan areas from larger ones. A similar trend has become evident in the largest counties.
The ten largest counties had net domestic outmigration of 270,000 residents in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. In the peak pandemic year of 2021, the net domestic migration from these metropolitan areas increased substantially to 505,000. In 2022, they had another net domestic outmigration of 393,000.
The counties that include America's three largest cities — NYC, LA, and Chicago — all contracted significantly. This continues an outward migration trend.
3) The World Needs To Know Sweden’s COVID Success Story
In 2020, Sweden was disparaged for discarding lockdown mania and was called a nation of “science deniers” and “merchants of death.” Sweden kept open schools, workplaces, and cafés, encouraging Swedes to make their own decisions about staying home and wearing masks.
Anders Tegnell, Sweden’s chief epidemiologist, declared that lockdowns would fail in keeping the virus out indefinitely.
The chart below shows the amazing results.
Sweden has admitted it didn’t do enough to protect its elderly nursing home residents, but even in 2020, there was no excess mortality in Sweden among those below the age of 75. During the first three years of the pandemic, Sweden ranked lowest in all of Europe, including Scandinavia, in excess mortality.
“Sweden’s approach had benefits not immediately visible,” says Tegnell, “from lower levels of domestic violence, continued medical care for cancer patients and others and none of the child development issues seen in countries that chose lockdowns.”
In the hundreds of anniversary articles marking COVID’s arrival this month, there has been almost total silence about the data showing that Sweden’s open society policy was what the rest of the world should have done.
When the next pandemic hits — as it inevitably will — we must remember just how wrong experts were about Sweden and not allow ourselves to succumb to propaganda.
The Federal Aviation Administration has told airlines to reduce their schedules by as much as 10 percent at the nation’s busiest airports. The government-run air traffic control system has a shortage of controllers. Without cuts across the airline industry, the FAA says congestion will be 45 percent worse than last summer - with New York airports especially hard hit.
This will cause more expensive airfares and more crowded flights.
Get ready for the middle-seat squeeze.
JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes admits: "If we don't cut (flights), the system is not going to be workable this summer."
The solution is patently obvious: get the government out of the air traffic control business. All over the world, dozens of countries have privatized or partially privatized their own systems. A Government Accountability Office study has found that in privatized countries, there are fewer delays and lower costs.
So why doesn't America privatize? The Trump administration tried to broker a deal to get that done. The unions and Congress refuse to give up control, probably because they're doing such a wonderful job.
