1) Will Republican Budget Hawks Torpedo the Trump Tax Cuts?
Our old friend and newsman Bob Novak used to say that "the only reason God put Republicans on this earth was to cut taxes."
Amen.
We're worried that some House Republican budget hawks - many of whom are our friends - want to hold the tax cut hostage to force Congress's hand on spending cuts.
We don't take a back seat to ANYONE in our desire to cut trillions of dollars of wasteful, fraudulent and counterproductive spending. We're all for that.
But the strategy of threatening to blow up the Trump tax cuts is a dangerous game of fiscal chicken. The scheme plays right into the hands of Chucky Schumer and the liberals in Congress who would love to sit back and watch conservatives splinter.
Failure to extend the Trump tax cuts would trigger one of the biggest tax hikes in American history. That doesn't sound very "fiscally responsible" to us.
It would also deliver a bone-crushing blow to the economy. Let's repeat the forecast of what happens to the economy if the taxes go up next year:
Question: how is reducing GDP by $1 trillion and destroying 6 million jobs going to lower the budget deficit?
Say goodbye to the nation's 60 year failed experiment in racial quotas and preferences. Trump's latest executive order dismantles racial preferences throughout the federal government dating back to the Lyndon Johnson administration.
This is a sea change not just for the federal government but also for every recipient of federal dollars, most significantly colleges and universities:
Who better to represent American interests in Brussels than our great friend Andy Puzder? We've often featured his brilliant commentaries and charts here in the HOTLINE. Home run pick, Mr. President.
4) How Dare Millionaires Make Donations to Politicians! Unless They're to Liberals
We detest cozy relationships between big business and big government, and one of our UP priorities is to end ALL corporate welfare and corrupt crony handouts. The less time corporate America spends in Washington the better.
That said, we were struck by a January 17 letter sent by Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bennet to Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. The letter demands answers to detailed questions about a $1 million personal contribution he'd made to the Trump Inaugural Fund. They complained that Altman's donations "raise questions about corruption" and that he was using his money to "cozy up" to Trump to "avoid scrutiny, limit regulation, and buy favor."
To his credit, Altman zinged them back on X masterfully exposing their towering hypocrisy:
The move mirrors moves in the private sector, where 75% of workers with jobs that could be done remotely are required by their employers to show up in person.
Even Biden administration officials have privately railed against federal workers who are "phoning it in" from home. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen even broke cover and testified last June that the IRS labor union's "work from home" practice was the reason the tax agency couldn't hit a 50% in-office target.
When she appeared before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Senator Susan Collins of Maine asked why so many of her constituents weren't getting timely or adequate service from IRS workers. She noted that even though IRS policy was to have workers behind their desks half the time, "the Inspector General found that IRS employees telework 22% of the time, worked in person 38% of the time, and engaged in some sort of hybrid work 40% of the time on average."
Yellen responded: "You know, some of the employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements, they're members of the union, and to enforce those rules requires an agreement with the union."
Senator Collins replied: "Let me suggest that I think those contracts need to be renegotiated with the taxpayers' interests in mind." To which Yellen said: "Agreed."
We predict that President Trump's work order will force some federal unions back to the negotiating table.
