Are There Three or Four Branches of Government?

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Unleash Prosperity Hotline
Issue #937
01/18/2024
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1) Are There Three or Four Branches of Government?
Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a pair of cases brought by herring fishermen who have been forced by federal regulators to hire monitors at a daily cost of over $700 – more than 20% of their profits – even though the relevant federal law authorizes no such thing.

This case is about a lot more than fishermen and a $700 daily cost. At least six justices appear poised to strike down this foolish regulation, but more importantly, they may and SHOULD strike down entirely the dubious 1984 Chevron decision, which instructs courts (and Congress to defer to unelected regulators) who are effectively making laws out of thin air. It’s simple: Congress doesn’t make the laws anymore, the regulators do – and like kings and queens, they are responsive to NO ONE.

We have an unconstitutional and arrogant fourth branch of government that needs to be reined in.

Herein we have the greatest “threat to democracy” – and our Constitution- that ever existed and the left is fine with this because it expands government power. Regulators are supposed to enforce the laws – not make them. This modern convention of punting lawmaking to the unelected fiefdoms of ABC agencies enables Congress to pass vague and aspirational laws and then take no responsibility for their real-world harm to the citizens. The whole system is rotten to its core.

The costs to all of us are not in the hundreds of dollars – but the hundreds of billions of dollars. Almost none of these costs/taxes were directly approved by Congress:

Mark our words: the left will go bonkers when Chevron is (hopefully) overturned. They will say that this conservative court is overturning essential regulations that protect the environment, the workplace, the financial system, and children and kittens.

But if these regs are really so vital to our well-being, Congress should enact them, not the Lina Khans and the Anthony Faucis of the world.

Justice Kavanaugh nailed it when he mentioned the amicus brief by our friends at American Commitment Foundation, which noted ([link removed]) that state judges have overruled state Chevron-equivalent regs with none of the negative repercussions predicted by Chevron's defenders.

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2) Jet Blues
The absurd ruling this week by a federal judge blocking a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit Airlines is a classic example of how dangerously antiquated and anti-consumer our antitrust laws have become.

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This is an ironic headline. Yes, the proposed merger truly is a “competition threat.” But a threat to the major airlines, not to air travelers. The marriage would help create a fifth major airline, reduce costs, and expand Jet Blue’s fleets and routes to compete head-to-head against the “big four”: United, Delta, Southwest, and American. Ironically, the dominant airlines are breathing a sigh of relief.

The claim by the Biden trust busters and the federal judge that the merger would restrain trade, is solidly refuted by the chart below.

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The big four control two-thirds of the airline market but a merger of JetBlue and Spirit might allow these two combined airlines to grab 10%. How can a firm with one-tenth of the market be a monopoly? The claim is doubly absurd because JetBlue is a cut-rate airline that lowers airfares when it expands or moves into a market.

Regulators fear that some secondary markets like Fort Lauderdale where JetBlue and Spirit compete head-on, would see higher prices. Except without the merger, Spirit is likely to go bankrupt. Spirit’s stock price sagged on the news that the acquisition was in trouble and it is now in serious jeopardy of bankruptcy. This means that Spirit shareholders got crushed, and there will be fewer flights to bid down prices.

It’s hard to imagine a dumber antitrust case.

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3) Hands off That Toothpaste and Aspirin
Progressives continue to insist that the so-called “shoplifting epidemic” is vastly exaggerated.

The Council on Criminal Justice insists that shoplifting has decreased in 17 out of 24 major cities it surveyed and “is now fairly rare” outside of the anomaly of New York City.

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But why then are Walmart and Target locking up underwear and socks – the latest items it says have to be guarded from thieves – in markets all over the country?

'It comes to the point of how ghetto does it look that they have to lock up the socks or whatever it is that they have under the key,' shopper Olga Leon told NBC in San Francisco.

The shorts and socks lockup means that at understaffed stores, busy commuters have to wait between ten and thirty minutes for a staff member to retrieve their purchase.

Seven in ten retailers think organized shoplifting has been more common in recent years, says the National Retail Federation.

Even California Governor Gavin Newsom has finally given in and introduced legislation to toughen penalties on retail theft.

Even though store lockups are spreading nationwide, the people hurt most by them are in poor neighborhoods. Target recently closed nine stores in lower-income areas due to rampant theft, forcing shoppers to travel further to get basic items like toiletries or prescriptions.

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4) COVID Hospitalization Peak Was January 3, Lowest Ever Winter Peak
As we predicted, the Covid fear-hype was another total dud. The wave peak (red line) now looks pretty firmly in:

The national COVID (including people who are in the hospital for some other reason but incidentally test positive, which is more than half the total) inpatient census print for January 13 is already down 17.7% from the January 3 peak, which was itself down 28% from last year's January 4, 2023 peak.

Can we now stop with the alarmist headlines every winter? Cold and flu season is cold, flu, and COVID season now, and it happens every year.

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5) Now The Media Wants to Cancel Trump

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Those who saw Trump’s outstanding Iowa victory speech on Monday night – he was actually magnanimous and humble – weren’t watching MSNBC or CNN because they never or only partially aired it.

Marco Rubio appeared on Maddow and rightly excoriated this decision:

"What's really changed is not just the partisan tone of the coverage. But now this effort to say we're not going to carry his speech, we're not going to let you hear what he has to say. We will interpret it and we will put out the snippets that we want you to hear but we've made the decision to no longer carry it. This is exactly how state-run media is used by authoritarian governments. To delegitimize, to discredit, to basically make people believe there is no alternative but to regime and to their rule. And that's destroying the media in this country. It's why at this point no one believes anything they see or hear anymore."

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6) Biden’s Hypocrite Czar

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