Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #771
05/12/2023, 05/13/2023, 05/14/2023
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1) Our New CTUP Ad Pleads With Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs Not to Repeal Empowerment Scholarship Account Program
Katie Hobbs, the new Democratic governor of Arizona, has promised the teachers union that she will repeal Arizona’s model school choice law that serves more than 50,000 kids.
Minorities have been the major beneficiaries of the popular program that gives parents the money to send their kids to charter schools, catholic schools, math schools, special-needs schools, or whatever works best.
We now count at least seven states – and possibly 10 by the end of the year – that have emulated some version of the Arizona school choice law in their states. We’re working closely with a coalition of groups around the country to get that number up to 20 in the next year or two.
It is a public policy imperative that we NOT allow the teachers unions to reverse these educational gains ANYWHERE.
That is why we are running this ad, which features the story of a Hispanic family in Arizona that has greatly benefited from the program. It features a young girl who pleads with the governor: “Don’t take away our school.”
The new ad is the first of a series designed to alert Arizonans that Governor Hobbs wants to turn back the clock on school reform and turn her back on children who greatly benefit from this innovative program that puts kids first.
Let us know what you think and whether you want to donate to keep it (and ads like it) on the air.
2) Inflation Will Continue To Fall – But Where’s the Growth?
We are not monetarists who think that the money supply is the only thing that determines inflation and the pace of economic growth. Pro-growth economic policies increase the SUPPLY of goods and services and thus reduce inflation. Reagan proved this in conquering the 1970s reign of double-digit inflation.
But the money supply – M2 – in the graph below – does have a big impact on where inflation is headed. We predicted on these pages that inflation would come down and it has fallen from 9.1% to 4.9%. That’s still way too high and way above the 2% target. We are much more concerned now about a secular stagnation of growth that has averaged an anemic 1.0 to 1.5% for the past six quarters.
Can anyone point to us one single Biden policy that is pro-growth? Even one? This administration is all about redistributing wealth – not creating it.
3) 12-Month Trailing Deficit Hit $1.9 Trillion in April
On a 12-month rolling average, federal deficit spending is just shy of $2 trillion. How can Biden claim with a straight face that he has reduced the deficit? Just stop, Joe. The McCarthy plan would take spending back to the FY 2022 spending levels for FY 2024 and the White House is claiming economic Armageddon. We are with Senator Rand Paul: let’s balance the budget immediately by going back to the pre-Covid 2019 spending baseline.
This week, the infamous infomercial huckster Matthew Lesko turns 80 years old.
In the 1970s, Lesko first noticed billions of dollars of government giveaway money was there for the taking. He began cut-and-pasting government grant documents and publishing them as dozens of “self-help books” for free riders. His trademark was colorful green suits festooned with question marks and he went on TV to pitch his products.
His books became best sellers and within a couple of years, he had 30 people working for him to unearth the endless array of stipends, loans, loan guarantees, services, and subsidies that Washington creates.
Lesko came to symbolize the “free money” attitude that has permeated the thinking of many Americans. Remember Obama bucks and the free cell phones? His job has only become easier. When he started the federal budget was only $750 billion. Now it’s $6 trillion.
Lesko got rich off of government “free money,” but in his defense, Lesko was right that wealthy corporations and Washington insiders have the connections to locate the spending trough in Washington and push their snouts into it. He has simply democratized the idea of “free money” to lower-income groups.
Why should only “woke” activists know there are federal grants for teaching disadvantaged transgender youth to dance?
While he never suggests anyone commits fraud, Lesko never mentions just how much the programs he touts can be ripped off. Our friends at Issues & Insights have the drum roll: The Paycheck Protection Program saw $80 billion in fraud... More than one in five unemployment benefit payments were made improperly to the tune of $191 billion. The Small Business Administration fears it was bilked out of $400 billion in fraudulent emergency loans. Even Chicago gang members used PPP funds to buy guns.
By the way, the latest program giving away money may reduce spending. There is a new program to pay people to serve as COVID fraud bounty hunters.
5) DC Is the Nation’s Crime Capital – What A Disgrace
The nation’s capital is not safe. People are being murdered, robbed, and raped within a mile of where Congress gathers. Most of the victims are black.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has overcome the objections of AG Merrick Garland and secured the appearance of US Attorney for DC Matthew Graves at a hearing next week. He'll be seated next to Mayor Muriel Bowser and DC Chief of Police Robert Contee.
Here’s the essence of the crime epidemic in D.C.:
It's great that Congress shamed Biden into signing the DC crime bill, but until his US Attorney puts criminals behind bars, the city's crime wave is going to continue.
