Well, we were wrong. We thought inflation might come down a little. Instead more than half of all Americans weren’t even alive the last time prices rose at this pace of 9.1%.
Yet Democrats say dam the torpedoes and full speed ahead with another $1 trillion tax and spend bill.
This is a scary bunch ruling Washington these days. November can’t get here soon enough.
2) Small Businesses Are Suffering – So Tax Them More
While we are on the topic of sheer idiocy, Chucky Schumer is trying to cut a deal with Joe Manchin to raise taxes by $400 billion on S Corps and on other small biz pass-through income. But a new NFIB small business confidence survey finds owners are as pessimistic as ever.
Good time to raise their taxes.
An unprecedented letter from almost every small business group around the country came out swinging against the bill:
We, the undersigned organizations representing millions of Main Street businesses and employing tens of millions of American workers, urge you not to raise taxes on small, individually, and family-owned businesses as part of any effort to enact a reconciliation bill this year. In the face of a possible recession, 40-year high inflation, unprecedented supply-chain challenges, and chronic labor shortages, raising taxes on small, individually, and family-owned businesses is the wrong approach and should be rejected.
Two tax increases under consideration would fall entirely on small, individually, and family-owned, closely-held businesses: 1) expanding the 3.8 percent Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT) to individuals and families who actively participate in their business, and 2) limiting the ability of small, individually, and family-owned businesses to fully deduct their losses during an economic downturn by expanding and extending the so-called “excess business loss limitation” for “noncorporate taxpayers.” Combined, these would increase revenues by more than $400 billion over ten years, shouldered entirely on the backs of small, individually, and family-owned businesses.
The signatory list is impressive:
Is every Senate Democrat prepared to whack this many employers back home? Alas. Probably.
3) Will Someone Please Tell Schumer It’s The Spending, Stupid.
Keen insight from our friend Dan Clifton of Strategas:
Dan also had a great interview with Larry Kudlow breaking down the reconciliation bill that’s worth a watch:
4) Open Sweden Had Same Excess Deaths As Lockdown Denmark
Will we ever learn?
Two years, ago the worldwide media was aghast that Sweden didn’t lockdown businesses over COVID, didn’t close schools, and imposed mild social distancing. It mostly relied on the common sense of its people to tackle COVID.
We were told the Swedes were science deniers, merchants of death who would live to regret their folly.
Now comes the news that Sweden suffered a mortality rate lower than the vast majority of lockdown nations. Even neighboring Denmark – the favorite comparator for lockdown defenders – has now fared worse.
That conclusion comes from two Danish professors who report that excess mortality in 2020 and 2021 was in fact the same in both countries. This is despite the fact, that Denmark adopted all of the key lockdown elements, including mask mandates and closed schools. Swedish children didn’t suffer any of the educational damage that students in other lockdown countries – especially the U.S. – did.
Sweden did suffer a spike in initial COVID deaths among the elderly, but even in 2020, there was no excess mortality in Sweden among those below the age of 75.
Excess mortality in Sweden (red) and Denmark (blue)
To avoid a repeat of the kind of overreaction we saw with COVID, the Danish authors say “it is crucial to have the courage to debate and analyze” the actual data.
5) HHS Still Doesn't Publish Honest COVID Hospital Data
We are told of a new dangerous Covid contagion.
Are we getting the facts?
In Massachusetts, just 142 of the 503 (28.2%) people in the headline hospitalized with COVID count have a primary diagnosis of COVID. The rest are in the hospital for some other reason.
That's even lower than in the United Kingdom, where the government reports:
"In March 2022, one-third of patients (33%) admitted to critical care with COVID-19 were admitted primarily due to COVID-19 and two-thirds (67%) were admitted with COVID-19 as a secondary reason."
Here are the latest United States HHS national data.
Can somebody ask Secretary Becerra why they still don't report a primary diagnosis of COVID? Might it be that honest data would make it difficult to justify the Biden administration's never-ending emergency?
6) American History Test
We discovered this rare photo of one of our greatest presidents, one of our greatest Treasury secretaries, and one of our worst presidents. Does anyone know who they are?
