Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition
Issue #1237
04/04/2025 – 04/06/2025
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1) "Read My Lips" Redux

If you go to the Holy Bible of the Republican Party, one of the first commandments is: thou shalt not raise tax rates. It seems pretty straightforward, but Republicans have a habit of being seduced into taking a bite out of that forbidden apple.

The most famous case was George HW Bush who had pledged not to raise tax rates in 1988 ("read my lips: no new taxes"), but was seduced two years later by Democrats, and he became a "one termer" as a result.

For the next three decades, very few Republicans ever voted for a tax increase, let alone committing the mortal sin of raising tax rates.

Now, we hear some GOP senators flirting with raising the corporate tax rate to 25% from 21% today.

As we reported yesterday, Republican leaders in the House are considering adding a "millionaire surtax" that would raise the top tax rate back up to 40%, from 37% today.

WHY? This won't raise revenues, but it will reduce business creation, jobs and federal revenues.

The left's riff that the rich don't pay their fair share is preposterous. The top 1% pay 40% of the income tax.

If raising tax rates were a smart thing to do, everybody would be moving to New York and California instead of fleeing.

Increasing the business or personal tax rates ensures a civil war on the Right. Conservatives will then be routed in the midterm elections - and they would deserve it.

So don't go there. You're playing right into the hands of Chuck Schumer and AOC.

2) Fed Up With the Fed

Thanks to DOGE for systematically investigating every agency of the government and ferreting out the fraud and waste. But why isn't the secret temple of the Fed under the microscope?

A new report from the Mercatus Center finds that the Fed is outrageously spending $2.5 billion on a D.C. headquarters upgrade with a glass-enclosed central atrium, bronze and marble structures, rooftop gardens with spotlights, and other luxuries. Will they print the money to pay for it? Is the wallpaper plastered with hundred dollar bills?

The $2.5 billion cost is an astounding $470 million more than it cost to build the NFL's Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, the Fed's mismanagement of its securities portfolio has led to $220 billion in operating losses since 2022, with taxpayers set to bear a $1.5 trillion burden in the coming years.  Also, the Fed Board staff salaries continue to soar. There are an estimated 3,000 Fed employees and hundreds of PhD economists, most of whom we can live without.

We at UP and Senator Rand Paul have been arguing for sunlight at the secretive Fed and a requirement that all their meetings be open to the public and broadcast on C-Span.

What does Jerome Powell have to hide?

3) The Bullish Case On Trumponomics

There's a lot of doom and gloom among free marketeers this week, and we took some deserved shots at the misleading tariff methodology in yesterday's HOTLINE ourselves.

We hold out hope that Trump's tariff escalation may be a negotiating tactic that eventually leads to a freer trade outcome. But even if it doesn't, the overall Trump agenda -including tax cuts, deregulation, and abundant energy for the whole US economy - is likely to dwarf the decline in trade. Here's why we're still bullish:

• Deregulation

• Tax cuts

• Downsizing government

• Foreign direct investment

• 'Drill, Baby, Drill'  

The Trump agenda is overwhelmingly pro-growth, even with the tariffs on.