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3) New Congressional Tax Deal: What We Like and Don’t Like
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Our friend Jason Smith, the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman has crafted a bipartisan tax cut deal with Senate Democrats, and we like most of it. The bill would make the expensing of capital purchases a permanent feature of the tax code and make other Trump tax cuts permanent as well.
We don’t like the increase in the refundable child tax credit (which is a welfare payment). To his credit, Smith has insisted that the tax credit only goes to parents who are working. But the evidence is crystal clear that giving people free money reduces work.
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4) Biden Declares War On Highway Humor
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Is there ANYTHING at all Biden doesn’t want to regulate? Last October, we at CTUP issued a highly influential report that found President Biden’s first two years of new regulations created more than $1 trillion in regulatory costs, or about $10,000 per household.
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But even we never imagined that Biden would launch a war on humor. The Federal Highway Administration has just issued a 1,100-page manual requiring states to ban references to pop culture or attempts at snarky humor on overhead electronic signs.
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Biden killjoys insist that states remove messages such as “Hands on the wheel, not your meal” (Arizona) “Visiting In-Laws? Slow down, get there late” (Ohio) "Don't cruise when boozed" (Missouri), and “Don’t drive Star Spangled Hammered” (Pennsylvania). One of our favorites: “Don’t Drink and Drive - It Tastes Terrible.” And this one could be banned too:
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These are clever public service announcements that are humorous but get the message across. But the federal bureaucrats claim such messages distract drivers, more so than boring messages.
Isn’t the point of a public service ad to get people’s attention and encourage better behavior? We’re told that humorous and clever billboards are surely next to be banned for distracting drivers from the monotony of long-trips down the highway and we would argue this keeps drivers awake.
We’d like to see a state post a message for Washington that reads: “Go Pry Our Signs From Our Cold, Dead Hands!”
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5) Maybe It’s Biden, Not Trump, Who Will Get Tripped Up in New Hampshire
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We’ve been busy this past weekend so we wanted to also call attention to our CTUP senior fellow John Fund’s piece in the Wall Street Journal. Here is a brief excerpt:
"Joe Biden is running as if he were unopposed for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he may face a comeuppance in New Hampshire.
New Hampshire could prove an early measure of the incumbent’s weakness. Mr. Biden decided not to put his name on the ballot, forcing allies to run a write-in campaign against Rep. Dean Phillips and self-help author Marianne Williamson.
It’s reminiscent of 1968, when Sen. Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota was polling at between 10% and 20% but then had a late surge, and President Lyndon B. Johnson—also a write-in—wound up winning by only 49% to 42%. Two weeks later, after New York’s Sen. Robert F. Kennedy decided to run for president, Johnson surprised everyone by withdrawing from the race.
New Hampshire also ended President Harry S. Truman’s career. Plagued by low poll numbers, Truman nonetheless agreed to have his name appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot in 1952. He received only 44% against Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver and then dropped out."
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6) Speaking of Billboards, Here Are Some of Our Favorites that Soon Will No Doubt Be Banned
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We’re told that humorous and clever billboards are surely next to be banned for distracting drivers from the monotony of long-trips down the highway and we would argue this keeps drivers awake.
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