1) Welcome To America’s Greatest Ponzi Scheme: Social Security
You don’t have to believe us, here’s how the Congressional Budget put it:
Without legislative action, CBO estimates that benefits would be automatically cut by 23 percent across the board upon insolvency.
We’ve pointed out many times that if Congress had simply allowed baby boomers the option of putting 10% of their paychecks into a 401k plan, they’d receive benefits almost twice as high as Social Security promises. Now they aren’t even going to get that. Now the CBO report confirms today’s young workers will get screwed even worse.
Bernie Madoff and crypto thief Samuel Bankman-Fried were pikers compared to Congress. Someone, please explain how a Ponzi scheme like this is a “success.”
It’s almost comical that California – cheered on by progressive “soak the rich” groups – now wants to impose a 1% annual wealth tax on the state’s gazillionaires. Under this new tax scheme, the top 0.1% of residents will bear 100% of the tax. It’s the ultimate free lunch for 999 out of every 1,000 Golden State Residents.
But what if these 14,000 or so multimillionaires and billionaires just call it quits on California - as the most recent Census data confirms is already happening?
The California Business Roundtable ran the numbers. No state is more reliant on the rich to pay for government services than California.
The top 1% of Californians pay almost half (45% of all income tax).
The top 0.1% pay more than one-quarter of the income tax.
The percentage growth of the millionaire class over the past decade grew more slowly in California than in virtually all of its neighboring states, including Idaho, Utah, Montana, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona. Some of those millionaires are transplants from the Golden State.
Be careful California: if more of those Hollywood and Silicon Valley millionaires cash out and look for greener – or should we say, redder pastures – Sacramento is going to have the biggest budget deficit in the history of the United States.
Your friendly editors at the HOTLINE collectively have our hands covering our faces in red-faced embarrassment.
We stayed earlier this week that Virginia was the state that most improved its U-Haul ranking among the 50 states in top destinations for movers.
That IS true – but our oversight was that we neglected to say that the Dominion State was TIED with Alabama for most improvement. Both states jumped forward by 24 spots in one single year.
Thanks to our faithful reader Gary Palmer – who also happens to be the House Repub Policy Committee chairman (and you guess what state he is from?) for pointing out our error.
High-brows from New York and New Jersey used to celebrate their “cultural enlightenment” by thumbing their noses at the Deep South. These Yankees must be deeply embarrassed that they are now LOSING residents to the likes of Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Jason Smith, the new GOP chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is already making good on his promise to expose IRS abuses that Biden pretends aren’t happening.
Smith has established a new system for IRS employees to confidentially blow the whistle on illegal or inappropriate mishandling or leaking of private taxpayer information. The website is waysandmeans.house.gov/IRSwhistleblower.
Smith says a top priority of Ways and Means will be to provide “aggressive oversight of the agency.”
The IRS has a long history of abuses and foul-ups from Lois Lerner’s denial of non-profit status to conservative groups before the 2012 election to the recent scandal in which the confidential information of over 100,000 taxpayers with individual retirement accounts was revealed.
5) So Embarrassing: Washington DC Back On Track To Be America’s Crime Capital
Speaking of congressional oversight, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is a promising intervention to return law and order to our nation’s capital. Here are some of the depressing statistics and anecdotes he cites:
Over the weekend, in broad daylight, a ride-share driver had his car stolen by a group of men brandishing rifles. City-wide, Washington is averaging a carjacking every day.
Homicides this year are already up 17%.
Earlier this week two 18-year-olds, fresh off a carjacking spree, fled to Capitol Hill, ran into two separate Capitol Police vehicles, and then tried to flee on foot.
So what is the D.C. City Council doing about the crime spree?
Last week, the Council overrode the mayor’s veto and enacted a law that shreds the maximum punishment for gun crimes. It eliminates almost all mandatory minimum sentences. It expands jury trials for misdemeanors – as a way to clog the court system.
And the Democrats want to make this incompetent and dangerous city a STATE?
