| Unleash Prosperity Hotline Issue #369 09/14/2021 |
| 1) It’s A $5 Trillion Spending Bill, Not $3.5 Trillion A great piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday by John Steele Gordon emphasizes the fake accounting gimmicks both parties have used over years to cook the books. Biden and the Democrats have just pulled out a whopper. To squeeze the advertised price tag for their “reconciliation” spending bill down to the still- gargantuan $3.5 trillion level over 10 years, they don’t count several years of spending for the new health entitlements. They pretend the programs will go away in three or five years. Right! When has a new entitlement ever been repealed? As the Democrats themselves have boasted: “entitlements are forever.” So from here on in, we will refer to the Democrat’s Frankenstein monster as costing $5 trillion – not counting the $1 trillion sham infrastructure bill. We hope the media follows suit and stops reporting phony baloney numbers. It only encourages them. |
| 2) Illinois Democrats Pass Mini-Me Green New Deal Illinois ranks 47th out of the 50 states on economic competitiveness, according to the latest ALEC Rich States, Poor States ratings, so naturally, the Democrats in Springfield are vying to move the Land of Lincoln past California and New York into the top spot of progressive lunacy. Last week the Democrats passed a near billion dollar climate change bill (because Chicago, which recently had nearly an entire February when the temperatures failed to rise over zero, really needs to worry about the city getting warmer!)  The plan calls for “a historic 100% renewable energy future.” It would mandate 50% wind and solar energy by 2050. As former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, who runs a conservative grassroots group in Illinois notes: “Keep in mind that this is a state rich in coal and natural gas.” For Illinois pols to support this would be like Nebraska voting to outlaw corn or Idaho abolishing potatoes. Renewable standards have been fiascos in other states that have tried them. Residents of these states pay anywhere from 30 to 100% higher power bills than in states that use cheap and abundant American coal and natural gas. Yet Democratic Governor JB Putzker – er Pritzker – laughably calls the bill a “victory for Illinois working families.” The bill will raise state spending by about $700 million. This is a state that has been so short of cash in recent years it can’t pay its vendors and has among the nation’s highest unfounded liabilities. Who does Pritzker think he is? Joe Biden? |
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