Unleash Prosperity Hotline #908

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Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition
Issue #908
12/01/2023, 12/02/2023, 12/03/2023
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1) Truth Squading the Debate

We will let readers decide for themselves who they think won the Newsom-DeSantis debate last night. But we were impressed that Newsom seems to have that Bill Clinton quality of lying with such conviction that he would pass a polygraph test.

As a public service we will point out four clear distortions of fact that leaped out at us last night.

First, he said at least twice that more people are now coming to California from Florida than vice versa. Wrong: here is the up-to-date data:

2021 and 2022 combined, there was a two-way NET +34,917 to FLORIDA
Moved from California to Florida: 88,165
Moved from Florida to California: 53,249

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/geographic-mobility/state-to-state-migration.html

The overall trend of in-migration versus out-migration for the two states:

Second, he said there were more deaths in Florida from COVID than in California. Wrong: since Covid was always a virus that almost exclusively killed elderly Americans, you have to age-adjust the data for an apples-to-apples comparison. When doing so, California’s mortality rate was HIGHER than Florida’s despite the fact that Florida opened up while Newsom kept California schools and businesses closed.

Third, on school closures, Newsom claims he kept schools open. Wrong: here is the data on 2020-21 school year weeks of school missed. No weeks missed in Florida and all but three weeks of school part-time or fully closed in California.

Fourth, he said that California taxes the rich, not the middle class. But this chart from our friend Tom Del Beccaro shows that the income tax rates in California even on people making as little as $75,000 (which is not RICH) reach 9.3%. No other state has such high-income tax rates on the middle class.

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2) In Wisconsin Unions Sue To Kill Labor Reforms That Saved Taxpayers $16.8 Billion

As expected, the unions have filed yet another lawsuit challenging Scott Walker's epic 2010 collective Bargaining reforms, Act 10. This was the law that curtailed collective bargaining by public sector unions. Unions are now arguing that because police and fire unions retained collective bargaining it violated state equal protection.

The MacIver Institute has tallied the savings to taxpayers since Act 10 was passed:

https://apnews.com/article/wisconsin-union-collective-bargaining-lawsuit-3da3abe91b4673f6a2565a23637b1a77

We have to give the union bosses credit: they don't give up. The law has been upheld many times in state and federal courts before, but the Democrats now have a 4-3 partisan majority on the state Supreme Court thanks to the election earlier this year of Janet Protasiewicz.

Protasiewicz said on the campaign trail that Act 10 is unconstitutional, and even though she participated in the left-wing riots opposing the law and signed the Walker recall petition, she would not commit to recusal, saying only that she would "consider it."

Republicans control the legislature and have suggested they might consider a judge refusing to recuse after openly prejudging a case to be an impeachable offense.

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3) Only HALF of Federal Workers Would Go Back to Office Under Biden Reforms

This headline caught our attention, and we thought it might mean our taxpayer-funded federal worker would finally, years after COVID, be headed back to work full-time.

But the story says:

White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, facing huge numbers of federal workers who aren't coming to the office, is privately pushing Cabinet secretaries to break their staffs' stubborn work-from-home habits...

He's holding up the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the first two to hit the benchmarks of workers spending five of every ten work days in the office, as examples that federal workers can be convinced to return.

Only two agencies have met the goal, and the "aggressive" goal is literally HALF-TIME attendance.

If we need so few federal workers showing up, then as we've said many times, let's get rid of half the federal workers.

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4) This Is One "Cop" That Should Be Fired

The Conference of the Parties (COP) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has been raising the hot air quotient in every city that has hosted it since the 1980s. There have been more than 30 of these high falutin' gatherings of the tribe in 40 years, and can someone please point out even ONE single accomplishment?

As we've pointed out, Greenhouse gas emissions are at record high levels (except in the U.S.) and fossil fuel use is higher today than ever before.

Meanwhile, it appears that the distinguishing feature of this year's COP28 meeting that begins this week in Dubai will be to create the biggest carbon footprint in the history of the summit.

Over 400,000 people are scheduled to travel to Dubai for the two-week-long event with over 97,000 delegates in attendance. That's a medium-sized city. This is getting bigger than the Olympics.

Even environmental groups are speaking out. Chris Stark, CEO of the Climate Change Committee, says the meeting is basically now a trade fair. The BBC has quoted leaked briefing papers that show the United Arab Emirates plans to use its role as host to make oil and gas deals for its fossil fuel industry. UAE officials have issued no denial and simply note that “everyone is welcome at Cop28 because everyone is needed to deliver climate action.”

Yes, and just about everyone will be there except President Xi of China - by far the world's biggest polluter.

What a sham!

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5) Consumer Reports Blasts Electric Vehicles

Not exactly a hotbed of conservatism, the venerable consumer magazine has given low ratings to almost all the EV models:

Electric vehicle owners continue to report far more problems with their vehicles than owners of conventional cars or hybrids, according to Consumer Reports’ newly released annual car reliability survey. The survey reveals that, on average, EVs from the past three model years had 79 percent more problems than conventional cars. Based on owner responses on more than 330,000 vehicles, the survey covers 20 potential problem areas, including engine, transmission, electric motors, leaks, and infotainment systems.

No wonder EVs are piling up on dealer lots.

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6) We Want One of These Hats for Christmas

Make Argentina Great Again.

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