What was truly pathetic is that White House chief of staff Ron Klain boasted that seniors would get a 9% increase in Social Security benefits this year. Is he delirious? That 9% increase simply keeps up with the higher prices that retirees have to pay for gas, food, and rent. Meanwhile, the Biden inflation is vaporizing seniors’ lifetime savings. Maybe Ron Klain thinks we should have 20% inflation so the monthly benefits can go up even more. Meanwhile, the higher benefits are only accelerating the date at which the Titanic of the Social Security trust fund goes bankrupt and runs out of money. Hooray. Great going, Ron.
And while we are on the subject of Biden administration SNAFUs, Joe announced Wednesday that he is “reevaluating the U.S. – Saudi Arabia relationship” in the wake of the OPEC+ announcement of plans to cut up to two million barrels a day of oil production. We almost fell off our bean bag chairs when we read this explanation from White House spokesman John Kirby fumed:
“This move [of cutting oil and gas supplies] benefited Russia at a time when nobody in any capacity should be trying to benefit Vladimir Putin.”
Oh Really! Our CTUP study finds that if Biden had kept Trump policies in place, we would be producing two to three million more barrels a day.
Well this wasn’t the way things were supposed to go in the great “green energy transition.” CNBC reports:
GE’s renewable energy business has been hit with rising input costs, supply chain issues, and foreign competition. CNBC quotes energy analysts who say: “It’s been difficult to make wind energy a cost-effective option.”
Now they tell us. That’s an amazing admission given the hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies and tax credits flowing their way under Biden.
4) Mass Transit Is Collapsing Despite Record Funding
Our new CTUP senior fellow, Wendell Cox, is one of the top demographers in the country. He has analyzed the latest Census Bureau report called American Community Survey, which reveals a tripling of working from home in 2021, while transit use dropped by more than half from the 2019 pre-pandemic rate.
Auto use dropped to the lowest point since before 1970, though remained the principal means of commuting. Among metropolitan areas above 1,000,000 population, San Jose, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Raleigh, and Seattle all had work-from-home shares above 30%. All 56 metros more than doubled their work-from-home shares.
Transit commuting dropped to its lowest level in six decades of Census Bureau reporting (2.5%). Only the New York metropolitan area has a more than six percent transit share (19.0%). Today in America 10 times more Americans walk to work or work from home than use mass transit – which is now the transportation equivalent of the typewriter. San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Tulsa had the largest transit losses, at more than 70%.
Yet Biden has dumped tens of billions of dollars into transit systems that no one is riding. We need more roads, bridges, and highways and fewer empty buses and rail cars.
5) Germany’s New Energy Strategy: Stop Whining, Put On A Cardigan Sweater And Keep Candles Nearby
Germany’s insane overreliance on wind and solar power and restrictions on nuclear power has put it at the mercy of Vladimir Putin’s gas supply chain. The government has announced harsh new energy restrictions as winter approaches.
Public buildings are being heated to a maximum of 66 degrees, with heating often turned off in entrances and corridors. Some apartment buildings are also seeing their temperatures lowered by landlords.
Private and public swimming pool heating is banned. Train passengers may have to wait as coal and iron cargo trains are given priority.
Voters have now been instructed by the politicians to keep their mouths shut. Wolfgang Schauble, who served as president of the German parliament until last fall, says Germans should simply adapt by wearing two sweaters and having candles, matches, and a flashlight ready for blackouts.
These are the very leaders whose green energy policies created the energy crisis to then turn around and tell ratepayers and taxpayers they have no right to complain about their shortsightedness. Time to burn Angela Merkel dolls in effigy.
All of this reminds us of the infamous anti-inflation “crisis of confidence” speech by Jimmy Carter when he recommended that Americans to turn down the thermostat in the winter and put on a cardigan sweater.
