1) DOW 50,000 - A Supply Side Miracle

How could Unleash Prosperity NOT celebrate Dow 50k?

American publicly-traded companies are now worth more than $70 trillion. To put that in perspective. The market cap of all Chinese companies is estimated at roughly $11 trillion. The market cap of all European (EU) countries is roughly $16 trillion. Japan's companies are worth $7 trillion.

This didn't happen by accident. It's the triumph of good economic policy - including the steep decline in tax rates and the taming of inflation.  

At the start of this bull market of all bull markets in 1981 - when Ronald Reagan came into office- the Dow was just under 1,000, inflation was running at about 12%, the top income tax rate was 70%, the corporate rate was 46%, the estate tax was 70%, and the capital gains rate was 28%. The economy was in a state of collapse.

The chart below shows the tax rates then and now. Steve Forbes, Arthur Laffer and Larry Kudlow should take a bow.

2) Texas School Choice Starts with a Bang

The opponents of school choice in Texas (i.e., the unions) told us that parents and kids didn't want alternative schools. Really?

The largest school choice program in the nation opened for business in Texas last Thursday and parents are stampeding to sign up.  In the first 48 hours, 48,000 parents applied - the biggest launch of a choice program ever.

The Texas program, which was approved by the legislature last year, is open to all Texas students, provides about $10,000 per child and much more for students with disabilities for parents to choose the educational environment that best meets their children's needs.

Even if Texas parents are on a waiting list they are eligible to benefit from the new federal tax credit program that starts next year. It allows donors to receive up to $1,700 in dollar-for-dollar tax credits for contributing to choice scholarships, which can then be stacked on top of Texas' state-level ones.

3) Trump Pollster: How to Win on Health Care

Our friend John McLaughlin explains the implications of the recent polling he conducted for Unleash Prosperity Now:

In a January survey of 1,000 likely voters in battleground congressional districts, 66% ranked the rising cost of health insurance as their single biggest health care concern...

Mr. Trump has consistently argued that health care should work for patients, not entrenched corporate interests, and the polling shows that voters agree. They want accountability, competition and transparency from large integrated insurers, which now derive up to 80% of their revenue from government and taxpayers, compared with roughly 20% before Obamacare and the Biden expansion in 2020...

From a polling perspective, the warning signs are clear. Candidates who ignore the role big insurers play in driving up costs do so at their own risk. Voters expect action that reflects their priorities, not a political protection system they believe has failed them. Republicans would be wise to join Mr. Trump and go on the offensive.

Here's our latest ad along these lines.  Let us know what you think!

4) San Francisco Closes Its Taxpayer-Funded Bar for Alcoholics

San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie has eliminated 1,400 city jobs, cut $185 million in grants to outside non-profit groups that weren't performing well, and steered spending to core services like police and clean streets. The city has cleaned up enough to impress visitors in town for Sunday's nearby Super Bowl.

Lurie has also been on the hunt to end what he calls "insane" programs. Last month, he shut down the city's $5 million a year "homeless bar" in the Tenderloin. Nurses would dispense vodka and beer to alcoholics when bars and stores were closed - all justified as "harm reduction" because it reduced their withdrawal symptoms.

Adam Nathan, the founder of a small tech company, stumbled on the bizarre watering hole on a walk and raised a stink. "This is not helping people get better, it's about keeping people sick," he warned. "We are living in the upside-down."

The Salvation Army, which runs alcohol abstinence programs, agreed and Lurie has pulled the funding - another small step in San Francisco's own recovery from its addiction to "woke" programs.

5) States' Welfare Policy: See No Fraud, Hear No Fraud

Speaking of welfare programs gone awry, EPIC has released another jaw-dropping report on the epidemic of fraud in the food stamp program. Because the feds pay most of the cost, the states and cities regard this as free money that "stimulates the local economy." In other words, they welcome the fraudsters. The chart below shows that the number of food stamp recipients who are exempt from federal income or asset limits has tripled since 2010.  

The latest data only goes through 2022, so it’s a good bet the numbers are a lot worse now.

44 states (including Washington, DC) do not follow the federal rules for Food Stamp eligibility. Many of these states allow benefits for households with a gross income of 200 percent of the federal poverty line (versus the 130 percent limit in the underlying law) and completely waive the asset limits.

Only seven states currently follow the federal eligibility standards for Food Stamps.

By the way, waiving the asset test means you can drive a Porsche and still get food stamps. We commend the seven states that enforce income and asset tests: Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.

6) Is This How Uncle Sam Is Going to Pay off the National Debt?

One of our readers sent in this oldie but goody.

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