Donald Trump continuously and rightly complained that the NATO members in Europe don’t spend enough on their own defense. The Western European countries have been freeloading off the back of American taxpayers for their own security for decades.
Trump was right. The problem’s getting worse. No better evidence than the relative amount the US has spent on military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine versus what the Europeans have spent. The US has already spent more than $50 billion through the end of 2022 – far more than all of Europe combined – even though the Russians are in their own backyard.
When we include the $45 billion more for Ukraine approved in the Omnibusted bill, the US is now at $100 billion. We are all for helping the Ukrainians against the evil Russian war machine, but 75 years after the end of World War II, Europe has to learn to defend itself.
2) Why It Is So Hard To Believe “The Science” On Anything Anymore
Scientific American is supposed to be about…well, science. But one of our readers sent this bizarre recommendation from the magazine arguing in favor of universal basic income payments from the government. Admittedly, this was an opinion piece (why does a science magazine publish opinions?) but the topic isn’t based on “science” and it isn’t backed up by the evidence. The premise of the non-science article is that giving people money won’t reduce their work incentive – when the whole story of the U.S. economy over the past three years has been the disappearance of workers due to high government benefits.
Here are a few other recent gems from Scientific American:
3) Biden Pushes Another College Loan Forgiveness Plan
President Biden isn't even waiting for the Supreme Court to decide on his last $400 billion student loan bailout before rolling out another, even more, costly plan. (Oral arguments are supposed to be heard on February 28.)
Biden’s new scheme works like this: a debtor pays back what he or she can based on their income and eventually the rest gets forgiven. It would require borrowers to pay at most just 5% of the difference between their income and 150% of the poverty level. This means that many borrowers wouldn’t have to pay much of anything at all.
Then, in many cases, if you make those small (or in some cases nonexistent) payments for as little as 10 years, taxpayers pick up the tab for the rest of your loan. Estimates are the bailout would cost the average family paying taxes over $4,000 over time.
The liberal Brookings Institution reports a typical borrower will only have to pay back only 50 cents for every dollar he owes. No wonder Education Department officials call the plan a “student loan safety net.”
Over time, if the Biden plan gets through the courts the costs will be magnify. Soon, college will be”free.”
The mania for mandating the use of electric cars is slowing down.
Last year, California banned the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles beginning in 2035. It may be joined by other states. But some of those bans may never be implemented as problems with EVs pile up.
EV car makers in Europe are slowing down production because the battery cars have proven too expensive for the middle class and the supply of lithium for their batteries is too uncertain. Production in Europe this year will be 12 million cars, a million less than previous estimates.
They are also not realizing the fuel savings that enviros promised. Britain’s Daily Mail reports: “Electric vehicles can be more expensive to fill up on the open road than their petrol and diesel equivalents as the cost of utilities continue to spiral.”
Then there is this assessment based on a KPMH survey of auto executives:
Of more than 900 execs surveyed internationally, 76% believe that inflation and high-interest rates will slow sales next year — and that adoption will take longer. In the U.S., the median expectation for EV sales by 2030 dropped to 35%, from 65% a year earlier. Longer-term impediments cited by the executives include the availability of raw materials for batteries, as well as stricter rules around federal incentives for buying EVs.
