Dueling headlines this week. First, we saw this frightening CNN headline on Sunday:
(CNN) ”After heavy rain and flash floods in parts of the Southwest this weekend, more than 14 million people across the southern Plains were under flood watches and warnings Sunday, including the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Shreveport, Louisiana.”
Then we wake up on Monday and see this scary headline in the WSJ:
“Severe droughts across the Northern Hemisphere—stretching from the farms of California to waterways in Europe and China—are further snarling supply chains and driving up the prices of food and energy…”
Both of these severe weather events are said to be signs of a warming planet that is caused by greenhouse gas emissions? But we are confused. Does CO2 cause rain or drought? Can greenhouse gases cause both simultaneously? What is the science behind that conclusion?
Apparently, if we shift immediately to windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles it will cause the rains and flooding to cease in the drenched Midwest and the south, while at the same time inciting downpours in drought-stricken California.
But what if as a consequence of the “great transition” to green energy, Mother Earth – whom Nancy Pelosi says is angry at us – responds in the opposite way that we hope for? What if green energy causes it to rain MORE in the flooded areas while extending droughts in places like California?
Probably best if the politicians just stopped pretending they can change the weather and let us get on with our lives.
Congratulations to Joe Biden. He has managed to preside over a tripling of the price of natural gas - which we use for electric power and for home heating. If you think gasoline prices are high wait until you see your home heating bills this fall and winter.
When will this insane war against American energy end?
3) The Committee For An IRRESPONSIBLE Federal Budget
From latest in the WSJ:
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget enthusiastically endorsed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which will raise spending by half a trillion dollars and passed both chambers of Congress by party-line votes. Nearly every fiscal conservative and pro-taxpayer group strongly opposed the bill.
There’s a debate to be had about the advisability of green subsidies, drug price controls and hiring tens of thousands more IRS agents. But what is indisputable is that in the 2½ years since Covid hit America, the federal government has spent and borrowed roughly $5 trillion. The fiscally prudent path would be to begin unwinding this new spending with a program of deep and immediate cuts in the trillions of dollars.
The CRFB has become a cheerleader for bigger government. It is neither authoritative nor fiscally responsible, and its bipartisan leadership is only for show.
4) Surprise, Surprise! Manchin Gets Double Crossed By House Liberals
We warned Joe Manchin that he wouldn’t get any oil and gas leases as part of his grand bargain with Chucky Schumer. So we weren’t the least surprised to read this headline from the Washington Times:
The Washington Times reports: “Progressive Democrats in the House say they owe (Manchin) nothing because they were shut out of the deal-making process, and streamlining energy projects would undercut their newly enacted climate spending law.”
“We sure as hell don’t owe Joe Manchin anything now,” says Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a member of the AOC Squad.
Manchin staffers respond that Chuck Schumer committed to their boss that permitting reform would be finished by September 30 and pass both houses of Congress.
When Manchin is asked what he would do if the September 30 deadline isn’t meant, he tells reporters “there will be consequences.”
Manchin betrayed his West Virginia constituents by selling out his state’s fossil fuel industry, and now it increasingly appears that he may not even get a lousy T-shirt in return.
Britain’s Office for National Statistics reports that some 1,000 more people than normal are dying each week from conditions other than COVID. Signs point to the extra deaths (14.4 percent higher than average) are linked to delays to and deferment of treatment for life-threatening conditions like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports that government lockdowns “that kept people indoors, scared them away from hospitals and deprived them of treatment and primary care are finally taking their toll.”
CTUP senior fellows Casey Mulligan and Rob Arnott published similar findings for the United States a couple of months ago, and they noted that lockdown deaths were continuing even as COVID deaths declined:
