Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #714
02/17/2023, 02/18/2023, 02/19/2023
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1) Sorry, We Goofed – Turns Out Chicago May Have Worse Schools Than Baltimore
When we wrote in the last Hotline that no place could possibly have worse educational results than Baltimore, we heard back from many readers about the rotten conditions in other school districts.
One reader alerted us to a report by Wirepoints, an Investigative journalism center, which found that more than 30 schools in Illinois failed to lift even ONE student to grade level reading. You’d think one of these schools might have taught a child or two to read by accident.
Wait, it gets worse. Illinois has more than 50 schools where not a single student had achieved grade level math.
Wouldn’t the proper response be to close down these schools straight away before they can inflict more damage on our children?
Not in Illinois. In fact the state educators rated the performance of several of these abysmal schools - are you ready for this? - “commendable.” This takes grade inflation to a whole new level of absurdity.
Don’t believe for one heartbeat the blather from the unions that this calamity is due to a shortage of money. Many of these Chicago schools are spending up to $30,000 per child.
We despair. How much longer will Americans - especially the mostly minorities who are the victims of this educational abuse - tolerate failing schools?
And please, dear readers, don’t further depress us by informing us that there’s a place in America with even more dismal results than in Chicago and Baltimore.
2) Biden Has Lifted the National Debt By More Than $5 Trillion in Just Two Years
Remember when the media used to scoff at Trump as the “King of Debt.” Trump was a big spender for sure, but Biden is the unrivaled biggest spender (and borrower) of them all. This week’s Congressional Budget Office update on federal finances finds the debt held by the public through 2031 is now expected to surge by $5.6 trillion MORE than was predicted when Trump left office.
In two years the total gross has risen by $6.7 trillion more than anticipated and is now expected to hit $46.7 trillion in less than a decade. And yet Biden keeps saying he’s reducing debt and deficits - while the media continues to recite this nonsense.
How Much Has Biden Raised the Debt (Trillions of Dollars) Through 2031?
Publicly Held Debt Gross debt
2/2021 Forecast 35.3 40.0
2/2023 Forecast. 40.9 46.7
Biden’s Added Debt 5.6 6.7
3) We Were Right (and the Alarmists Wrong) on Flu Panic
When flu arrived early in October and November the media and many so-called public health experts tried to whip the public into a panic.
Some places even tried ordering masking for flu - despite a dozen trials showing no effect on masking for flu.
So how did it turn out? Here's a look at the flu season by the positive percentage of clinical lab tests reported to the CDC.
You'll note that end-of-season was reached a few weeks ago about six to eight weeks early, just as it arrived and peaked early.
We are fairly certain that the new health industrial complex will use every runny nose season to panic Americans and restrict freedom and impose mandates.
4) Is FERC Letting NRDC Call The Shots?
The latest investigative work from our friends at the Institute for Energy Research finds evidence that the radical environmentalist outfit NRDC is calling the shots at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission:
Before a federal energy commissioner promiscuously entered into dealings with climate activists — including a former client who opened the discussion by suggesting what she asked might be 'inappropriate' —this official presumably sought ethics guidance that would address any potential conflicts of interest or restrictions, or the propriety of what she was about to do. But up until now, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, has refused to release any documents showing what guidance was offered, or even if any was sought, or even admit if any such records exist in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Its silence suggests a strategy of delaying any admissions, one way or the other, until a court orders it to let the public know any more about FERC’s attention to, or disregard of, laws that govern all federal regulators...
The Institute for Energy Research, a Washington-based nonprofit that supports free market energy policies, has broken loose emails, Zoom calls, Zoom chats, Microsoft Team chats, text messages, calendar records, and phone bills that provide insight into how FERC has gradually morphed into a tool for climate activism while operating at or beyond the edges of laws governing all federal agencies. After early and relatively timely calendar releases put Chairman Glick in the spotlight over his candor about White House coordination on climate, IER has filed 15 lawsuits dating back to last May that probe further into the record of coordination between FERC appointees and climate activists from inside and outside of the Biden White House.
This is no small matter. We now have in the Biden era leftwing lobby interests that are dictating the agenda of so-called “independent” regulatory agencies that are in turn making laws. These ABC agencies are only independent of accountability and oversight.
Read the full story at Real Clear Energy:
5) STEVE FORBES: The Three Basic Principles To Promote Peace And Prosperity
Steve Forbes explains the keys to peace and prosperity that the Biden Administration refuses to try, instead following a much more dangerous and inept path.
6) And these are the people who say they are going to save the planet…
