April 5, 2024
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Battleground States Refuse to Believe Biden on the Economy – Say It is Getting Harder for Average Americans to get Ahead
By Manzanita Miller
The latest Wall Street Journal poll drives home the point that Americans strongly dispute the White House’s rosy picture of the economy, and that disconnect could cost President Joe Biden heavily in November.
Former President Donald Trump leads Biden in six of seven battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – while Biden holds a narrow lead in Wisconsin according to the Journal.
Despite crippling inflation surpassing wages, a barrage of cheap labor through the southern border, and a $1 trillion dollar trade deficit on Biden’s watch, Joe Biden is attempting to convince Americans he should remain in charge. That could prove difficult.
According to the WSJ poll, only about a quarter of voters in seven battleground states say the economy has improved since 2022. What is more, only about a quarter of voters say they feel the ability for the average person to get ahead is on the right track. Far more believe it is becoming harder for middle-class Americans to advance in the modern economy.
These numbers have remained largely unchanged since November and highlight a persistent issue in Biden’s ability to court voters running on his economic record.
According to latest New Tork Times polling, Americans say by a twenty-four-point margin – 44 percent to 20 percent – that Biden’s policies have personally hurt them. The poll found nearly the opposite when voters were asked if Trump’s policies helped or hurt them, with voters saying by a fifteen-point-margin – 42 percent to 27 percent – that Trump’s policies personally helped them.
The most glaring area of concern for Biden in recent polls is his persistently low ratings among swing voters who largely favored him in 2020.
According to the Times polling, an abysmal thirteen percent of independents say Biden’s policies have personally helped them, compared to 44 percent who say the President’s policies have hurt them. This puts Biden 31 points in the negative with independents, a group he won by thirteen points in 2020.
On the flip side, independents say by an eleven-point margin – 37 percent to 26 percent – that Trump’s policies have personally helped them.
Hispanics, who make up sizeable portions of the electorate in several battleground states, also say Joe’s policies have hurt them more than helped. Hispanics say by an eighteen-point-margin – 35 percent to 17 percent – that Biden’s policies have personally hurt them but say by double digits that Trump’s policies have personally helped them. Hispanics say by twelve points – 37 percent to 25 percent – that Trump’s policies have personally helped them.
Lastly, only eleven percent of voters under 30 say Biden’s policies have helped them, while thirty-seven percent say his policies have personally hurt them, a twenty-six-point difference.
Despite the Biden Administration’s best attempt to portray the economy as improving, Americans are living in the repercussions of Biden’s betrayal of the middle class. Most Americans, including wide majorities of young people, Hispanics, and independents, believe they have been victimized by the Biden economy, and there may be payback at the ballot box this November.
Manzanita Miller is an associate analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
Will N-Number On Planes Fight In FAA Reauthorization Be A Win For The Little Guy?
By Rick Manning
The U.S. Senate will be voting on legislation which would wipe out legal small businesses due to bureaucratic malice, but this doesn’t have to happen.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is the key negotiator on the bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration. One of the foremost champions standing up to big government in Washington, D.C., Cruz is the right person in the right spot to stop language inserted into the bill, which would end the practice of buying desirable, short(er) airplane identification numbers (known as N-numbers) and reselling them to willing purchasers.
Ironically, the practice has generated millions in new revenues for the federal government, as it benefits both from the purchase of additional numbers at $10 each from the FAA, but the tax revenue from profits generated through re-selling.
The beauty of the system is that there are more than 400,000 identification numbers available at any time through the FAA for the $10 each price tag, so no one is compelled to purchase a vanity number.
In spite of the fact that no one is harmed through the innovative online pricing system developed by these entrepreneurs, the version of the FAA reauthorization bill which passed the House of Representatives would make the practice of reselling N-numbers illegal.
This should frighten every small business which makes the mistake of getting noticed by the federal government for building a better mousetrap. All it takes is a carefully placed paragraph in a 500 page bill, and poof, your business could become illegal or at least be adversely impacted.
The alarms were first set off about this assault on commonsense in the House by Representative Scott Perry (R-PA), who upon noticing the obscure language buried deep in the bill, offered a last minute amendment on the House floor which attracted 64 votes against the provision.
Now, there is an attempt to hammer out final legislative language which the House and Senate can agree upon. This negotiation between the Democrat Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee Maria Cantwell, House Transportation Committee Chair Sam Graves, House Transportation Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen and the formidable Senator Cruz who is the Senate Committee Ranking Member will determine the fate of these innovators who turned a moribund system into gold for everyone including taxpayers.
Many may wonder why they should care if a few entrepreneurs get wiped off the map, it is indeed troubling that a paragraph tucked away in relatively obscure piece of legislation threatens to destroy legal businesses which generate additional dollars to the federal treasury and harm no one.
And while this issue might seem like a small one, it stands as a proxy for every time those with power seek to destroy those who just want to be left alone.
Thank goodness America has Senators like Ted Cruz and Representatives like Scott Perry who fight every day to stop those who seek to gain unchecked federal power. It is because of them that every once in a while, the little guy wins one against an ever encroaching federal government. Let’s hope that this N-number issue becomes one more example that you can fight Washington, D.C. and win.
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.