1) Bernie Sanders AND the National Conservatives Are Both Wrong – American Families Much Richer Today than 40 Years Ago
A weird thing is happening politically in Washington. A new wing of the GOP – national conservatives or ”Nat Cons” – are adopting the declinist rhetoric of Bernie Sanders. They argue that middle-class America has fallen behind over the last 40 years, and that all of the economic gains have gone to the richest Americans and big corporations.
There are several prominent Senate Republicans – including Marco Rubio of Florida, J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Josh Hawley of Missouri to name a few – who have dabbled in this movement. They want activist government to raise the fortunes of the middle class.
Except the argument is flat-out false. Actually, the last 40 years – up until Biden came into office – have been a golden age of prosperity for virtually every income group – including the middle class. Median family income reached $78,000 in 2020, which is $20,000 a year HIGHER than it was in 1983. That’s about a 35% increase over the period.
Those income measures don’t include the much wider availability of more non-cash benefits – such as health care coverage, more vacation, and 401k and other retirement benefits – that make middle class families almost 50% better off than in the late 1970s.
The era of prosperity started under Reagan – fueled by lower tax rates, disinflation, a stable dollar, freer trade, and an American-led tech boom – that accelerated through the Clinton years of the 1990s. Yes, there was a retreat after the 2008 housing crash, and the Obama years saw little progress, but the Census data show a giant leap forward in middle-income gains under Trump, with the average family gaining more than $6,000 in real income.
The Nat Cons tend to support trade protectionism, less immigration, more government benefits to the middle class, more restraints on business, and in some cases higher taxes on the rich. These are all lousy ideas – but everyone is entitled to their opinions.
But the Nat Cons could at least get their facts straight.
Joe Biden seems to be intent on doing all he can to strangle in the crib the coming artificial intelligence revolution that has the capacity to improve our lives in profoundly positive ways – from curing cancer to giving sight to the blind, to discovering the mysteries of the universe, to eliminating most menial and tedious jobs.
His first act was to name Kamala Harris the AI czarina – which, we noted last week, makes as much sense as putting Pee Wee Herman in charge of the military or putting Pete Buttigieg in charge of fixing the supply chain problem. (Oh yeah, he actually did that.)
Biden’s executive order on AI policy is not about making sure America is the next-generation tech leader. Instead, it reads like it was written by a 23-year-old woke White House intern just graduating from Columbia:
Artificial Intelligence policies must be consistent with my Administration’s dedication to advancing equity and civil rights. My Administration cannot — and will not — tolerate the use of AI to disadvantage those who are already too often denied equal opportunity and justice. From hiring to housing to healthcare, we have seen what happens when AI use deepens discrimination and bias, rather than improving quality of life. Artificial Intelligence systems deployed irresponsibly have reproduced and intensified existing inequities, caused new types of harmful discrimination, and exacerbated online and physical harms.
We can’t help but despair: China is going to eat our lunch.
The fastest component of the rapid GDP growth in the third quarter of 2023 was consumer spending.
Our buddy Charles Payne of Fox Business News and host of “Making Money” showed us this chart last week of the turnaround in consumer savings.
During the pandemic, you can see a big surge in savings as everything — from airlines to movie theaters to restaurants — closed down for nearly a year and folks stayed locked up at home. Then when the pandemic ended, Americans went on one of the biggest and longest spending sprees (much of it with free money from Washington) in history.
How long can the shop-till-you-drop behavior continue? If you look at the area of excess savings in 2020 that has been more than spent down by the consumer blowout in the last 30 months.
4) Parents Want School Choice – Especially Minorities
We keep saying it – school choice is the most vital civil rights issue of our time – and a new Zogby poll of voters in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Missouri, South Carolina, Utah, Alabama, California, and Pennsylvania confirms this. The poll found overwhelming support for ESAs (Educational Savings Accounts or Empowerment Scholarship Accounts) and even in blue states with support highest among minorities:
This support is expressed across all demographics with 73% Hispanic, 69% Black, 58% White, and 61% Asian in support. Additionally, the majority of parent respondents in both rural and urban geographies support ESAs, and 70% of parents whose child(ren) are on free and reduced lunch are in support.
In California, a majority of parents (71%) are in favor of establishing an ESA program and two in three (66%) said they would apply for an ESA. There is strong support for ESAs among Hispanic parents (71%), White parents (70%), and parents of children eligible for reduced payment for lunch (74%).
In Pennsylvania, almost three in four (74%) parents were in favor of an ESA program established in their state. Three in five (60%) would apply if they could, including 70% whose children are eligible for federal school lunches. It was strongest among parents who live in big cities (90%) and small cities (81%), but impressive majorities favored the program in suburbs (70%) and rural areas (65%).
