Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #848
09/01/2023, 09/02/2023, 09/04/2023, 09/05/2023
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1) 94% of American Private Sector Workers Are NOT in A Union
Joe Biden is counting on tens of millions of dollars of labor union “contributions” as he campaigns for a second term in office. He has even declared himself to be “the most pro-union president in American history." Yet even under Biden’s pro-labor union policies and high-profile organizing efforts at stores like Starbucks, a smaller percentage of Americans are members of private sector unions (only 6%) than at any time in the past eighty years.
Virtually the only unions that are growing are PUBLIC sector unions – such as the teacher unions. One in three government workers is in a union. Nearly ninety percent of public sector union members are Democrats. No wonder the Dems want the government to grow and grow and grow.
2) Remember When Biden Claimed to Have Cut the Deficit by $1.7 Trillion? Never Mind!
Fiscal policy expert Paul Winfree has been tracking the monthly budget numbers this year and they are truly dismal. As we near the end of fiscal year 2023 the budget deficit is likely to be $2 trillion – one of the highest ever. As the chart below shows, the red ink is likely to be roughly $1 trillion HIGHER than last year. These results are a financial disgrace and more evidence that Biden is vying to be the most fiscally reckless president in U.S. history.
3) Video of the Week: Vivek Schools Andrea Mitchell on Climate Change
We don’t pick favorites in the presidential race — or any election — but it’s worth watching Vivek Ramaswamy’s masterful takedown of MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on the issue of fossil fuels and climate change. Vivek was factually correct on these three critical points:
Weather-related deaths — per capita — are down by more than 90% over the last century. And he is also right that access to cheap and abundant fossil fuels saves millions more lives – than they cost.
Far more people die from cold temperatures than warmer temperatures
Access to cheap and abundant fossil fuels for energy saves millions more lives than it costs.
It’s fairly clear that neither Andrea nor nearly anyone else in the media knows these fundamental facts. Or they choose to ignore them.
GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy clashed with MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell over climate change.(Screenshot/MSNBC)
4) California Democrats Trying To Bring Back Racial Quotas
In 2020, progressives tried to repeal California’s prohibition against preferential treatment based on race. Proposition 16 lost by a clear margin of 57 percent to 43 percent, at the same time that Joe Biden won the state by 30 points.
Even the Los Angeles Times concluded that these results “provide the clearest evidence so far of the disconnect between (progressive) political leaders and many of their ostensible followers.” Immigrants were more opposed to racial quotas than native-born Americans were.
On top of that, the Supreme Court, of course, has just struck down racial preferences for admission at universities.
None of this is stopping progressives in California’s legislature who are pushing a new ballot measure that would make an “exception” in the Constitution’s ban against race discrimination. It would allow California’s governor to authorize racial discrimination if there is “research” showing that preferences and quotas based on race will “increase the life expectancy of, improve educational outcomes for, or lift out of poverty specific groups based on race … sex, etc.”
This is a progressive gobbledygook that collides squarely with the idea of Americans being judged on their qualifications, not their skin color. By the way, the people who are the principal victims of these presences are Asians - not whites.
We suspect that even in leftwing California the race baiters will lose again.
In June a Pew Research survey reported that nearly 70 percent of Americans reject the notion of curing discrimination by allowing it to be practiced in favor of some groups.
The media is trying to stir up another Covid panic. Here’s our reality check. The latest hospital utilization data in our preferred format is shown here:
Here is a look at COVID-positive hospital census in a year-on-year format:
HHS still does not differentiate between people who are in the hospital for COVID treatment and people who are in the hospital for some other reason but happen to test positive. In Massachusetts, which does break its data out, only 33 percent of hospitalizations in the COVID count for the most recent, were for a primary COVID diagnosis.
The real pandemic hospital story has been persistent underutilization and reduced capacity, and the latest attempt to stoke panic is the most unfounded yet.
