1) New York, We Have a Problem!

We rarely quote from New York Times editorials, but this seething critique on the sad state of affairs of America's largest metropolis - in the wake of the Tuesday's Democratic primary victory for socialist Zohran Mamdani - is a must read:

Mr. Mamdani is running on an agenda uniquely unsuited to the city’s challenges....He favors rent freezes that could restrict housing supply and make it harder for younger New Yorkers and new arrivals to afford housing. He wants the government to operate grocery stores, as if customer service and retail sales were strengths of the public sector. He minimizes the importance of policing.

Most worrisome, he shows little concern about the disorder of the past decade, even though its costs have fallen hardest on the city’s working-class and poor residents….

Many longtime New Yorkers have had a sinking feeling at some point in the past decade. They have worried that their city was heading back to the bad old days of the 1970s and ’80s.

Subway trips can have a chaotic or even menacing quality. Nearly half of bus riders board without paying their fares. The number of felony assaults has jumped more than 40 percent over the past decade. The city’s fourth graders, after significantly outperforming their peers in other large cities during the early 2000s, have fallen back in math and reading. Housing has become even less affordable, and homelessness has risen. In the most basic measure of the city’s appeal, the population remains well below its pre-Covid peak.

No. We don’t think you’re a criminal.

But the folks at Kite & Key Media have produced a splendid video on the Kudzu like growth of federal laws - most of which Americans don’t even know exist.

Every two-year session of Congress puts between 4 and 6 million words of new laws on the books and the number of federal laws now exceeds 200,000, up from 100,000 in the 1980s.

Attorney Harvey Silverglate published a book a few years ago called “Three Felonies A Day.” It estimated that the average American commits several federal crimes a day.  Many of them come out of federal “guidance documents” from agencies -  at least 13,000 of these have been issued just since 2008. They help explain why people who clog a toilet can be accused of a federal crime or why the Hemingway Museum in Key West, Florida had to spend $250,000 to convince the Feds it wasn’t mistreating the famous five-toed cats on its property.

When the federal government tried to track how many rules each agency had issued, it had to give up the task as hopeless. The agencies keep no records..

The Trump Administration should not just pare back federal laws and regulations, it should let states opt out of federal directives. We concede some blue states will misuse that power. But Americans will be free to vote with their feet to escape blue-state tyranny. Millions of Americans are doing that every year.

Watch the video by clicking below!

4) The Great Farm State Give-Away

Our friend Bryan Riley at the National Taxpayers Union, has exposed a multi-billion-dollar give-away to the farm states, and it makes the Republicans look like fiscal frauds.  Some of the programs will double over the next decade. Georgia peanut farmers will see almost triple their normal federal handouts.

Republicans used to tout “freedom to farm.” Now we have “Freedom to Farm Taxpayers.”

This is no emergency bailout. Farm income has been surging.

5) Senate Parliamentarian Rejects Federal Land Sales

The senate parliamentarian decides what can go in the One Big Beautiful Bill and what can’t.  She’s vetoing hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer savings, including nearly $1 trillion in deregulation savings, and now $100 billion in land sales.

The federal government owns 47% of all the land area of 10 states (Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Montana). Cities such as Las Vegas have seen home prices triple since 2012 in part because of all the nearby federal land that surrounds it.

President Trump supports the idea and Utah Senator Mike Lee inserted a provision authorizing it in the Big Beautiful Bill. He points that sale of a minuscule 03. Percent (some 800 square miles) of Bureau of Land Management land would be enough to build 3 million to 4 million single-family detached and townhomes. Income from sales would also reduce the national debt.

This map shows the federal land controlled by Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service that could be sold.  Click on the map below to zoom in.  

But on Monday, the Senate parliamentarian ruled the provision was an “extraneous” measure and couldn’t be included as part of the reconciliation process.

Senator Lee isn’t giving up. He will revise his plan so parts of it will be able to win approval with a simple Senate majority. The amount of land available for sale would also be scaled back.

But the idea of federal land sales faces a big obstacle from some Republicans who believe the Feds have a divine right to hold vacant land that has no scenic value.  Rep. Ryan Zinke and Senator Steve Daines, both from Montana, are opposed to federal land sales.

Such parochial behavior is flat out wrong. Selling off federal land is a no brainer. The greatest beneficiaries would be homebuyers. Building more housing is the only way to ensure homeownership remains affordable for the next generation of Americans.

6) As the Wheel Turns

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