Just-released data from Biden’s own Treasury Department find that for Fiscal year 2022 federal tax revenues reached an all-time high of $4.89 trillion. As a share of GDP, these revenues were at or near an all-time peak as well. It turns out that the Trump tax cuts virtually paid for themselves with a more efficient tax code – lower rates and a broader base.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that even with this surge in tax collections the federal government STILL managed to run a $1.2 trillion deficit – one of the largest In history. (Biden actually is boasting that he LOWERED the deficit – which is true only because his first year in office created a tidal wave of red ink exceeding $2 trillion.).
Thanks to Biden’s spending spree the total outlays for 2022 were a world record $6.72 trillion.
All we have to do to balance the budget is cut government spending to $5 trillion – which would still be more spending than any other government has spent in history. Is this really so hard?
2) Democrats Are Now Revising History: “We Were AGAINST Lockdowns”
Democrats must think Americans have very short memories. In one of the great rewrites of history, Democrats running for state offices, including incumbent governors are pretending that they opposed shutting down schools, businesses, restaurants, churches, and even stay-at-home orders. In reality, it was governors like Andrew Cuomo, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, and other Democrats who imposed these lockdowns on us for nearly two years while almost all Republican governors opened up their state economies.
The latest example of this flip-flop is the Florida contest between Democrat Charlie Crist and incumbent governor Ron DeSantis. Crist is almost comically accusing DeSantis of the lockdowns When, as you can see below, he was the severest critic of reopening the economy and schools.
3) Big Problem For The Greens: No One Wants Wind And Solar In Their Backyard
We noted a few weeks ago the rich irony that the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) tactics that green groups have used for years to block infrastructure projects – from transmission lines to roads, to pipelines – are now being employed in towns across America to stop Big Wind and Big Solar projects.
The story below about midwestern towns across the plains fighting the wind and solar – often successfully – cites a growing grassroots rebellion against green energy:
Energy expert Robert Bryce notes that 94 counties have seen citizen activism against Big Wind and Big Solar. “I’m Ohio alone, 41 townships have rejected or restricted the expansion of wind and/or solar projects in the last year.” At least eight Ohio counties have restricted wind and solar over the past two years. In deep blue Massachusetts, there has been fierce resistance to offshore wind. In rural Linn County, Iowa the county board voted unanimously to implement a moratorium on new solar projects.
Why the backlash? Because everyone but the politicians have figured out that wind and solar are hazardous. They industrialize the landscape, they are ugly, they use massive amounts of land, and they kill birds, turtles, and other forms of wildlife. Worst of all they are by an order of magnitude far more land intensive than a coal plant, a nuclear power plant, or a natural gas facility. How is any of this green?
4) House Republicans Promise To Rescind IRS Expansion Funding
We’ve recommended since the Inflation Acceleration Act passed that a top priority of a new GOP Congress must be to rescind the outrageous $80 billion of extra IRS funding. Republicans have picked up the message and run with it.
From Adrian Smith and Michelle Steel:
An accountable government isn’t a bloated one empowered to target taxpayers, which is why we are working together to defund the Biden administration’s plan to hire 87,000 new employees to audit American taxpayers. Our bill, the Family and Small Business Taxpayer Protection Act, would rescind the IRS funding for enforcement and leave in place the funding for improvements to customer service and technology.
Republican Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy promises one of the first orders of business in the new Congress will be to defund these new IRS agents. This is the first of many important steps House Republicans will take to help right the wrongs of a Democrat-controlled Washington.
5) Democrats All Knew Biden's Stimulus Bill Was An Inflation Bomb
Rep. James Clyburn, the number three House Democrat and the man whose endorsement helped make Joe Biden president, was asked what he would say to people suffering from rising prices and gave a remarkable frank answer:
"All of us are concerned about rising costs, and all of us knew this would be the case when we put in place this recovery program. Any time you put more money into the economy, prices tend to rise."
