This headline from the New York Times seems almost surreal to us. She’s urging the House Speaker to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a federal default?
Madam Secretary, just to recap: the House already DID vote to raise the debt ceiling late last week. Were you abroad at a climate change conference? The chamber that hasn’t raised the debt ceiling is the United States SENATE. Last time we checked, that body is ruled by Democrat Chucky Schumer.
Biden’s media team warns that failing to raise the debt ceiling will cause a deterioration of America’s credit rating and raise the cost of federal borrowing. Possibly. But does the Biden Administration really want to run with this argument? When Biden came into office, the federal fund's interest rate was close to zero and the cost of federal borrowing was seldom in modern times lower.
Today, the federal funds rate is 5% and soon to be 5.25%. (Remember: The Fed raised these rates to fend off the inflation that was incited by Biden’s $6 trillion spending and borrowing spree.)
Interest payments are now expected to be more than $2 trillion higher over the next decade since Biden came into office and opened the spending trough.
Raising the debt ceiling won’t prevent the deterioration of our government bonds. Only cutting U.S. government spending and growing the economy will accomplish that.
2) Two Years Too Late, Biden Finally Ends Vaccine Mandates
Even when he finally does the right thing, Biden can't resist 10 more days of stupidity. The mandates end on “May 11, the same day that the COVID-19 public health emergency ends.”
It was clear by late 2021 that the vaccines had no meaningful effect on transmission, and that prior infection was at least as protective as vaccination. These mandates have been pure drama ever since, and the United States is among the last countries in the world to still impose them. They backfired in many ways-making many millions of Americans suspicious of Big Brother orders requiring the shots.
Here’s the headline from the land of fruits and nuts as reported by Cal Matters:
“In a move that will transform California’s economy and end diesel’s decades-long dominance in goods movement, the Air Resources Board today unanimously approved an ambitious, contentious mandate to shift big rigs and other trucks to zero-emissions... The mandate is the first in the world to ban diesel trucks..."
So California is going to require nearly 1.8 million trucks that deliver everything from fuel to food to packages to heavy-duty equipment to go electric. Does this mean that every trucking company in America will have to have a separate fleet of trucks for California roads versus the diesel trucks that will transport products across the rest of the country?
The California Air Resources Board is a notorious unelected regulatory fiefdom filled with leftist environmentalists who know nothing about the real world of transportation or commerce, but are making California an impossible state to do business in. (Don’t be surprised if Biden doesn’t propose this for the whole nation before his term is up.)
These dimwits don’t even realize that the technology doesn’t exist to economically run a two-ton truck loaded with cargo on an electric battery. Imagine the nightmare of driving a long-haul truck coast to coast that needs its battery recharged every few hours.
4) Oklahoma Governor Doubles Down on School Choice
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt says he will veto almost every bill the state’s legislature puts on his desk until both houses agree on a single school choice bill. This week, he has already vetoed 20 bills the Senate sent him, with the same blunt message.
Both the House and Senate have passed tax credit bills. The Senate bill is better because it provides more families access to the $6,500 payments for private schools. Stitt wants virtually no caps at all.
You go Governor. As we’ve said umpteen times: THIS IS THE SCHOOL CHOICE MOMENT. Fixing our broken schools is the single greatest economic, national security, and civil rights priority of our time. It can’t wait a single day.
5) Are EVs Exaggerating Their On-Road Performance?
Car and Driver magazine’s testing director Dave VanderWerp has compared the EPA’s fuel economy and range estimates to the results of his own real-world highway tests.
He found that electric vehicles underperform in efficiency and range relative to the EPA figures by a much greater margin than gas-powered vehicles. Gas vehicles averaged 4 percent better than their stickers indicated. The average range for an EV was 12.5 percent worse than the window sticker numbers.
VanderWerp says that while the EPA tests separate city and highway range figures, only a combined number is presented to consumers. The combined rating is weighted 55 percent in favor of the city figure, where EVs typically perform better. This inflates the EV range estimates.
We are not opposed to electric vehicles, but when car companies exaggerate their mileage performance, this is a scandal and they face steep fines. Will EVs face the same scrutiny? Or is the government a co-conspirator in green fraud?
