Are You Better Off than You Were Two or Three Years Ago?

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Unleash Prosperity Hotline
Issue #770
05/11/2023
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1) Are You Better off Than You Were Three Years Ago?
We at the Hotline are scrupulously NOT taking sides in the presidential race – we will vet and advise any and all the candidates from both parties who want our help on how to create prosperity. But for those who say: “Trump can’t win,” think again.

His argument for taking back the White House isn’t complicated. He can borrow the brilliant line from Ronald Reagan, circa 1980. Reagan looked straight into the camera and asked the American people: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” During the Jimmy Carter presidency, the answer was clearly a resounding no as inflation and high taxes made people poorer.

We’re seeing that cycle repeated under Biden. The chart below prepared by our senior fellow in economics, E.J. Antoni, shows the hammering that workers have taken thanks to the surge of inflation. For 25 straight months, real take-home pay has trailed behind inflation.

But what is really fascinating about this chart I look at the skyrocketing real wage GAINS under Trump.

Trump was the pro-blue-collar worker president. Biden is the anti-blue-collar president. A lot can change in 18 months, but every day that Biden is president the Trump years look so much better.

Real Average Weekly Earnings 2007-2023
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2) The White House Is Sounding More Delirious With Every Passing Day
We joked last week that it wouldn’t be long before Biden warned Americans that kittens would die if the House Republican debt containment plan were to become law.

Well, the Democrats haven’t accused the Republicans of that – yet – but a recent bulletin from the White House is full of hysteria and bogus doom-and-gloom scenarios.

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Here are a few of the more shameful scare tactics that much of the media have widely amplified:
* 30 million fewer veteran outpatient visits
* 200,000 students lose head start
* 1.7 million women lose nutrition support
* 30,000 fewer miles of rail lines inspected for safety
* A delay in cancer and Alzheimer’s research
* Work requirements would mean millions of people lose Medicaid coverage
* 108,000 fewer teachers for low-income students
* Take away nutrition services like Meals on Wheels for more than one million seniors

We decided to read through the House Republican Debt Plan document that passed the House. We searched up and down and sideways and far and wide and we never saw a single reference to Meals on Wheels, veteran benefit cuts, cancer research, cuts in rail safety programs, or veterans benefits. The White House LITERALLY made this all up.

The plan simply requires that overall appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024 shall be no higher than the Fiscal Year 2022. The Biden Administration says this is a 22% cut, but that is only because the Dems were planning on INCREASING spending by 22%.

It’s a perfect reminder of the budget shell game that is played in Washington. A “cut” is not a decrease in spending, but a reduction in spending from what Congress WANTED to spend. In other words, a “cut” is a decrease in the increase.

No wonder we have a $31 trillion debt.

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3) How Does Randi Weingarten Still Have a Job?
We don’t like having to always attack teachers union president Randi Weingarten – o.k., well we sort of do – and in her defense, there is no single person in America who has done more for the burgeoning school choice movement than good old Randi.

We pointed out in a recent edition of the Hotline her duplicity in absurdly claiming that the unions were never in favor of keeping schools shut down. One of our readers sent us this montage of Randi’s greatest hits throughout 2020 and 2021 making the case for keeping schools shuttered for as long as possible. If you have the time to watch the video ([link removed]) , you will come away wondering how this crazy woman is still the chief spokeswoman for America’s teachers.

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4) Twin Cities Experiment Again Prove Higher Minimum Wage Means Higher Unemployment
Cities all over the country are mandating that businesses raise their minimum wages. The claim is that minimum wages of $15, $20, or even $25 an hour are necessary for families to make ends meet.

But studies have shown that minimum wage hikes can often destroy jobs and hurt the employment opportunities of the lowest-skilled workers.

The latest comes from senior economist Anusha Nath of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, who told a Fed conference that minimum wage increases cost jobs in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

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Nath found that Minneapolis's once-thriving retail sector has seen 28% fewer retail jobs than researchers would’ve expected from a similar city during the same five-year period.

In neighboring St. Paul, the city’s 2018 minimum wage hike was responsible for drying up nearly one-third of available jobs, the study found. In fast-food restaurants, both hours and earnings fell by more than half after the increase took effect.

David Neumark, an economist at the University of California, Irvine, said his survey of all the literature finds that most economists have concluded that raising the minimum wage has a negative effect on employment.

“I really think the debate about whether minimum wages cost jobs should be over,” said Neumark.

It is curious that the same media that insists we follow what they call “the science” in everything from COVID lockdowns to gender identity completely ignore economic study after study that minimum wage increases hurt lower-income workers.

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5) The Great Escape – From California
So many of California's best and brightest (and wealthiest) have moved away that the state lost a congressional seat in the latest decennial reapportionment – and could lose as many as five in 2030.

Now, coming to a theater near you is a full-length documentary that explains why it’s happening.

Leaving California: The Untold Story, produced and hosted by filmmaker Siyamak Khorrami undertakes a deep dive into the state’s unprecedented mass exodus and the root causes behind it.

Why does it matter?

As Will Swaim, president of the California Policy Center puts it, “California’s bad ideas go national really fast. And if California fails, the United States fails.”

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6) A Great Theme For Fixing Our Schools
We traveled to California last weekend for a conservative summit – yes, there are some right-minded people still living on the left coast, and we were cheered by this tee shirt. Who could be against this? Power to the People!

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