1) Latest Census Domestic Migration Data Confirms More Blue State Blues
The Census released its 2023 state-to-state migration estimates this week. With the election dominating the news, no one noticed and even The Census website says: "No news release associated with this product." The Biden people are probably embarrassed by the results.
The big takeaway: in 2023 more than twice as many Americans moved from California and New York to Florida and Texas than moved in the opposite direction.
Almost 100,000 Californians moved to Texas last year and we doubt that’s due to the weather.
Did we mention that New York and California have the highest income taxes in the country?
In the fiscal year just ended, the national debt surged by another $2.3 trillion. The ONLY plan the Dems have to fix this is to make the rich “pay their fair share.”
We asked Preston Brashers, the Heritage Foundation’s brilliant fiscal policy analyst, whether taxing every millionaire and billionaire at a rate of 100% would eliminate the budget deficit and stabilize the national debt.
Here was his answer based on the official data:
You can safely say that even if you taxed every penny of income earned by millionaires, it wouldn’t be enough to close the deficit. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, millionaires had an estimated $3.312 trillion in income in 2024 and were expected to pay a combined $1.006 trillion in federal taxes. On the surface that leaves $2.3 trillion more that could be taken from them, which also happens to be the amount that the national debt increased during FY 2024.
However, that doesn’t account for the state and local taxes the rich pay (which would be substantial) or the Laffer Curve effect [that no one would work if the tax rate were 100%].
In other words, a tax rate of 100% won’t eliminate the budget deficit, but you can bet it will eliminate all the millionaires.
3) If That’s Moving Up, Then I’m Moving Out – of New York
Well, New York is at least number one in something – people are leaving.
Until the 1960s, New York was the growth engine of the U.S. economy. But in recent years, its “Empire State” nickname is in danger of becoming the “Exile State.”
New York State leads the nation in population decline with more than 630,000 people leaving between 2020 and 2023. New York City alone has lost 546,000 or six percent of its population.
There’s only one city that is growing – which is Albany. But Albany – the state capital - simply produces rules, regulations, politicians, and lobbyists. NY needs to drain that swamp.
New York now spends $30 billion a year on public schools. Ten years ago, the school budget was only $21 billion at the same time the system served 231,000 fewer children than it does now.
4) The SEC Wants to Track Every Stock Transaction By Every American
This is scary stuff: the Securities and Exchange Commission is secretly compiling a database with every one of the billions of stocks traded by every American citizen.
Big Brother is looking over your shoulder to see what stocks you are buying and selling. Kudos to the National Review and the New York Post for exposing this abuse of power by our government.
Why is the government spying on our stock transactions? So they can go on fishing expeditions and accuse Americans of illegally buying and selling stocks. But as former Attorney General Bill Barr notes: this is a violation of our Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches and seizures.
Fortunately, a consumer law foundation is suing the feds to bring this snooping into Americans' private financial transactions to a halt. We will keep you posted.
5) Green New Deal Money Being Used to Buy Votes in Swing States
While we are on the subject of abuses of power by the Biden minions, here’s another one:
Ever since the Biden administration rammed its $370 billion Green New Deal under the guise of "Inflation Reduction" through Congress in 2022, we’ve pointed out how it’s become a focal point for corruption and political favors.
Here are the hard numbers we’ve been able to collect:
The seven battleground states — Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania — have less than 17% of the nation’s population. But they are on track to collect 44% of the law’s giveaways.
Business group E2 goes further and says these Big Seven states will be recipients of more than half of the $119.2 billion that private companies are investing in post-IRA clean manufacturing projects.
Being an election battleground state this year has meant a bonanza of ad dollars for TV stations and the hiring of political operatives on the ground. But it’s also clear that they have become a new Green Belt of federal largesse.
In the good old days, we used to call this what it is: GRAFT. In the good old days, this was illegal.
