| Unleash Prosperity Hotline – Weekend Edition Issue #323 07/09/2021, 07/10/2021, 07/11/2021 |
| 1) Biden Gets Something Right!! Stop the presses. A new executive order by the White House on “Increasing American Competition” is filled with dozens of rotten ideas, such as adding new Federal Trade Commission restrictions on mergers and acquisitions and granting unions even power in the workplace, but there are a couple good ideas that we want to endorse: • “Make it easier to change jobs and help raise wages by banning or limiting …unnecessary, cumbersome occupational licensing requirements that impede economic mobility.” • “Save Americans with hearing loss thousands of dollars by allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter at drug stores.” We’re excited that the Biden administration sees the negative effects – especially felt by minorities and low income workers – of state and local occupational licensing restrictions, which are effectively state-chartered cartels. Someone needs to explain why you need a license to be a hair braider or to run a moving company. Biden is right that the FDA rules have made hearing aids way too expensive – and these devices should be sold over-the-counter at much lower prices to those of us who are hard of hearing! It all goes to show that even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then. |
| 2) Our Plea to Republicans in Congress Yesterday, CTUP sponsored a letter with the support of other leading conservative voices urging Republicans in Congress to demand four conditions if there is to be a bipartisan infrastructure deal. (Obviously the deal for $1.2 trillion of new spending is completely unacceptable.) The letter has been sent to the GOP leaders in the House and Senate and has gone viral on the internet. Here are the four conditions: 1. Every dollar of new spending must be paid for by reprogramming some $2 trillion of federal funds already approved by Congress this year. 2. Any infrastructure bill MUST include authorization of the Keystone XL Pipeline. There is no infrastructure more urgently needed today than pipelines to transport our energy resources across the U.S. and the world. This project costs taxpayers nothing. 3. No money for Green New Deal projects. Every penny must be for real infrastructure: roads, bridges, pipelines, and airports. 4. No additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service, especially given its multiple scandals over the past decade. We have not forgotten about Lois Lerner’s tactics of using IRS enforcement to harass conservative groups and donors. Republicans in Congress shouldn’t either. Special thanks to our friends Adam Brandon of Freedom Works, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, Morton Blackwell of Leadership Institute, and many others for joining this crusade. The Washington Post has given the letter top billing:  Why would Republicans put their fingerprints on a supersized IRS audit army to harass small businesses — and perhaps political opponents of the current administration? As for our #1 point, the states are swimming in cash right now (see below) so why do they need hundreds of billions more?  That money should be committed to legitimate infrastructure priorities before Congress even considers spending even more. |
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