Exploring what can happen when people think for themselves.
From Jim Geraghty via National Review, an interesting discussion on the nomination of Neera Tanden as the director of the Office of Management and Budget:
What Is Joe Biden Thinking, Nominating Neera Tanden?
I think Jim nailed it; she’s a lightning rod to distract from Biden’s other nominees.
From Fox News:
McConnell cranks up heat on Pelosi, says ‘no reason’ coronavirus relief shouldn’t pass by year’s end
Actually, there are two very good reasons why the Democrats will not pass a coronavirus relief bill by the end of the year: 1) it would give the Trump administration a win (Dog forbid!), and 2) it lets the Democrats blame Republicans in campaign propaganda for the upcoming Georgia senate runoff elections.
In the words of Rahm Emanuel: “Never allow a crisis to go to waste.”
I am (frequently!) annoyed by journalists who twist data to suite their bias. Here’s one such example, from a Forbes “journalist” whose tagline (at least for the referenced article) reads: “I teach students and employees how to ace their personal finances.” If that’s the case, it’s no wonder young adults in America think that socialist math works.
In the article referenced above the author argues that Republican complaints of proposed additional coronavirus relief bills containing “blue state bailouts” are unfounded. The author supports their position in part by pointing out, with respect to the first round of coronavirus Economic Impact Payments (EIP), that the majority of states with the highest average per-person payments were red, not blue.
In my humble opinion the author has misrepresented this data to suit their needs. Bad journalist… Bad! Somebody get a rolled-up newspaper. But let’s take this opportunity to review the facts and come to our own conclusion.
The Republicans are not concerned with past coronavirus stimulus bills; they are only concerned about future bills. Their concern is that such a bill – like that passed by the House – will contain funds for state budgets. The Republicans see these state payments as bailouts for Democrat-run states, bailouts needed due to their failed economic policies. Republicans feel that the rest of the country should not have to pay for bad state-level decisions (and I agree). Tax state residents instead; they elected the politicians that put the policies in place. Why should the rest of the country pay?
Note, too, that the Economic Impact Payments (EIP) referenced by the author are made directly to the inhabitants of a state; these are not payments made to the states. As a result, the EIP – particularly from past coronavirus relief bills – have no relation to the “blue state bailout” concern of Republicans.
But even if the EIP payments were part of the “blue state bailout” payments referenced by Republicans, the author has mispresented the data in such a way to suggest that these payments greatly befitted “red” states over “blue” states. The author does this by comparing the average payment per person in each state, without comparing the total money received by inhabitants of the state. Because the population of each state varies much more greatly than the average EIP payment, it is the number of people in the state that controls how much benefit the “state” received and not the average per person payment amount. If the author wants to compare whether blue or red states benefited most from these payment then they must compare the total amount received by the inhabitants each state, not just the average per person. So, using what I believe to be the same data set as the author, let’s take another look at that EIP data.
If we consider the total amount provided in economic impact payments to the residents of each state, rather than the average payment amount, the results are far different from those portrayed by the author. Of the top 25 states by total economic impact payments, 11 are blue, 8 are red and 6 are a toss-up. In terms of percentage, 47.2% of EIP payments to the top 25 states went to residents of blue states, 27.9% to red states, and 24.8% to toss-up states. To put it simply, in the top 25 states payments to blue states were approximately 170% of the payments to red states – even though red states overall outnumber blue states 22 to 18.
The author’s use of economic impact payment data to support their claim that red states benefited more than blue states from the most recent coronoavirus stimulus bill – and thus that the Republican claims of a “blue state bailout” are unfounded – was an error. The EIP data has no bearing on the Republican arguments the author was attempting to refute. However, the author’s use of per-person rather than per-state data was, in my opinion, a willful misrepresentation meant to deceive readers.
Biased journalism is not journalism. It’s propaganda, nothing more.
Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh…
The far left continues to demand student loan forgiveness – and Biden has indicated a willingness to comply. For example, from a recent Fox News article:
“Immediate $10,000 forgiveness of student loans, helping people up there in real trouble,” Biden said Monday. “They’re having to make choices between paying their student loan and paying the rent. Those kinds of decisions.”
But what about people who have over-extended their credit cards? Or purchased a vehicle they couldn’t afford? Or a home beyond their means? What about every bad financial decision anyone has ever made – wouldn’t relieving any or all of these help people ‘…in real trouble…”? Then why don’t we help them, too?
We don’t help them because, in America, you alone are responsible for your own failures – just as only you reap the benefit of your success (well, except for taxes). To suggest that every time someone makes a mistake that it’s the rest of the population that must bear the brunt of their failure – well, that’s just un-American.
Refusing to hold people accountable for their poor decisions only encourages bad behavior, and government intervention to “help” these individuals will only result in people expecting the government to bail them out whenever they make a bad personal decision. Borrow more money than you can afford because you really wanted that worthless degree? It’s the government’s fault for loaning you the money, and thus they should forgive your debt! Live in a flood zone, but refuse to carry flood insurance? Don’t worry! The government will pay to rebuild your home! Live in a high fire area, but carry no or inadequate fire insurance? No problem! The government will send funds to rebuild your home (and sue the power company, too!). Too many people in jail? It’s not the criminal’s fault, but instead it is the fault of the police. Let’s defund the police! I’m sure that will work out just fine…
It’s time to stop the idiocy and return to our American roots of freedom and individual responsibility. Put on your big boy (or girl) pants and deal with your errors on your own. You’ll be a better person for it.
And no one saw this coming? From a Fox News article regarding a potential recount in Georgia:
Kemp also asked Raffensperger to do a sample audit to compare voters’ signatures on mail-in ballots but the secretary of state has said that’s impossible at this point because the ballots are separated from the outer security envelope during the counting process, according to CBS News.
My guess is that the signature being on the envelop instead of the ballot, which would likely lead to the separation of the two during counting, was by design. How better to avoid claims of fraud then by preventing its detection?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s easy to claim there is no ballot fraud when you make it impossible to detect.
I agree that we need to build more houses. However, should the government get involved – as suggested by this NPR article – or simply get the hell out of the way?
‘We Need To Build More Homes’: Prices Soar Amid Housing Shortage
Capitalism works, if you let it. Just ask the Chinese.
The phrase “We should welcome in our fellow Americans with whom we differ politically” should never be followed by the word “but”:
“We should welcome in our fellow Americans with whom we differ politically,” the group’s website reads. “But those who took a paycheck from the Trump administration should not profit from their efforts to tear our democracy apart.”
Harvard students are acting like Nazi “brownshirts” by blacklisting those with whom they do not agree. One has to ask: what are they afraid of? If their liberal agenda is just and correct, what do they have to fear from the opposition? Alternatively, they could just be pricks hell-bent on punishing their political opponents. Either way, these are the acts of totalitarians, reminiscent of the Hitler regime that they so closely align with Trump. So who’s the Nazi here?
Note some have claimed that this is a political action meant to silence Trump advocates and associates:
Warren urges Biden to bypass Congress and cancel student loan debt
After all, why should these young people be saddled with debt – debt that funded activities that benefited them alone? Debt which now prevents them from buying the nice new home they need to keep up with their more successful colleagues, or that flashy new car they so urgently need to attract a suitable mate? After all, it’s just government money; who cares that it actually belongs to the taxpaying public? And why shouldn’t you, Ms. Warren, and your Democrat brethren be allowed to use some of this “government” money to purchase votes? After all, it’s only about 1.7 trillion (yes – with a “t”) dollars, roughly equal to half of the projected federal deficit this year.
But wait! What about those of us who refused to incur debt to attend college? What about those of us who saved before college, begged our parents for money, studied hard so as to earn scholarships, worked through school, and lived frugally while at college so that we would be debt-free upon graduation? Or those who were responsible citizens and borrowed as little “government” money as they could, but made it a focus upon graduation to repay their loan? Would we get a rebate on our fees and expenses?
No? Doesn’t seem quite fair….so only the irresponsible who borrowed too much money to purchase a degree that was not sufficiently marketable get a a free ride, while the responsible among us are punished for our good behavior?
We complain when large banks receive government bailouts for their poor business decisions; after all, what incentive do they have to behave appropriately when the don’t suffer the adverse effects of their actions? Why, then, do we think it’s OK to reward poor education decisions (or to enable them in the first place with “government” loans not tied to the marketability of a particular degree)?
From a Fox News article, the below quote from Adam Schiff regarding his concern that the GOP will launch investigations into the Bidens instead of passing progressive legislation:
“It is just tearing down our democracy,” Schiff said. “I do expect, in the new Congress, that yes, they’ll continue to try to go after Joe Biden, delegitimize Joe Biden. They won’t be interested in getting things done.”
Uh… hello?!? The Democrat-led House pulls out all the stops – even a bogus, unwinnable impeachment – to disrupt a Trump administration, but Schiff claims that it’s the other side that is “…tearing down our democracy…”? Really??