Biden's America Last Program
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Senators on Both Sides of Aisle Rip Biden Admin After Briefing From DNI on Classified Docs
“I think I speak for every member of the committee, the position DNI is taken on this topic is untenable,” Rubio said. He said they were stonewalling the Committee. “It cannot be that their answer is we can’t tell you what was discovered until the Special Counsel allows us to tell you; the information we’re asking for has no bearing whatsoever, or would interfere in no way with a criminal investigation.”
The Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner (D-VA) was also very frustrated. “I’m very disappointed with the lack of detail and a timeline on when we’re going to get a briefing,” he said. He repeated what Rubio had said, saying that the Biden team wasn’t coming across. “We’re left in limbo until somehow a special counsel designated it’s okay for us to be briefed. And that’s not going to stand,” Warner declared.
“All things will be on the table,” Warner said, to ensure that they got access to the Trump/Biden/Pence classified docs.
“There’s a sense of frustration that Justice is preventing the committee from hearing what they need to hear,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said. Wicker said he didn’t buy their explanation, “I do not. I absolutely do not. It has to be resolved.”
Your tax refund will likely be smaller this year. Here are more things to know
"People should absolutely expect smaller tax refunds this year. And frankly, some people might even owe the government money," financial expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox told NPR.
"There's really four main reasons why," she said. "The first is: no more stimulus checks. The second is that what was called the enhanced child credit — that's gone."
A special pandemic-era tax break for charitable deductions was also nixed, Khalfani-Cox said. And even after a volatile year on the stock market, some people might face taxes on investment gains, especially if they own mutual funds that had to sell off stocks.
To answer some of the most frequent questions about this tax season, we asked Khalfani-Cox, the financial expert also known as the Money Coach, for guidance and advice.
Can't wait for the child tax credit to happen. People count on that extra money for vactions and extra items. Sorry, you got it up front.
I do love the new tax filing services ads, until people realize it ain't going to be raining money on them.
Sneakers
Just sneakin' around....
Just finished doing my taxes. Had a fair return last year, owed this year, no changes to income, claimed standard deduction.
The American Consumer Is 'Starting to Freak out,' Spending Drops 3 out of Last 4 Months
Although President Biden keeps insisting his economic programs are working great, there are plenty of troublesome signs indicating otherwise, including the all-important rate of consumer spending. Simple rule: if people are buying more things, it generally means they feel good about the state of their finances and the economy.
When folks tighten their belts, however, it’s because they either simply don’t have enough money to purchase more than the essentials, or they’re holding on to their wallets because they fear for the future.
Consumer spending is often known as the “engine of the economy”—and it’s out of gas. The Wall Street Journal reports that Americans are “starting to freak out”:
Finally: One Roman Catholic Bishop Has Had Enough of Biden's 'Fake Catholicism'
Old Joe Biden says he is a Roman Catholic; he even claims to be a devout, committed, observant believer. “The new president,” the New York Times propagandists bubbled three days after Joe started pretending to be president, “elevates a liberal Catholicism that once seemed destined to fade away.” By “liberal Catholicism,” the Times means an ostentatious, external piety emptied of all its content and cynically designed to win Catholic votes, and on Tuesday, Catholic Joe was finally called on his game. Roman Catholic Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas denounced Biden’s “fake Catholicism.” Will woke Pope Francis rush to Old Joe’s aid? This time, that’s unlikely.
Owen Jensen, the White House correspondent for the Catholic network EWTN, asked Biden about the fact that “Catholic bishops are demanding that federal tax dollars not fund abortions.” Biden responded: “No, they are not all doing that, nor, nor is, nor is the pope doing that.” The putative president did not, of course, offer any evidence for his claim that the pope was just fine with federal tax dollars funding abortions, and he would have been hard pressed to do so, as even the famously Leftist and only marginally Catholic Francis has spoken out strongly and consistently against abortion, saying that it “suppresses innocent and helpless life in its blossoming.” The pope added: “Is it right to take a human life to solve a problem? It’s like hiring a hitman. Violence and the rejection of life are born from fear.”
Biden has revived democratic capitalism – and changed the economic paradigm
Democratic capitalism, organized to serve public purposes, all but disappeared. It was replaced by corporate capitalism, organized to serve the monied interests.
Joe Biden is reviving democratic capitalism.
From the Obama administration’s mistake of spending too little to pull the economy out of the Great Recession, he learned that the pandemic required substantially greater spending, which would also give working families a cushion against adversity. So he pushed for the giant $1.9tn American Rescue Plan.
This was followed by a $550bn initiative to rebuild bridges, roads, public transit, broadband, water and energy systems. And in 2022, the biggest investment in clean energy in American history – expanding wind and solar power, electric vehicles, carbon capture and sequestration, and hydrogen and small nuclear reactors. This was followed by the largest public investment ever in semiconductors, the building blocks of the next economy.
Notably, these initiatives are targeted to companies that employ American workers.
Biden has also embarked on altering the balance of power between capital and labor, as did FDR. Biden has put trustbusters at the head of the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the justice department. And he has remade the National Labor Relations Board into a strong advocate of labor unions.
Unlike his Democratic predecessors, Biden has not sought to reduce trade barriers. In fact, he has retained several from the Trump administration. But unlike Trump, he has not given a huge tax cut to corporations and the wealthy. It’s also worth noting that in contrast with every president since Reagan, Biden has not filled his White House with former Wall Street executives. Not one of his economic advisers – not even his treasury secretary – is from the Street.
I don’t want to overstate Biden’s accomplishments. His ambitions for childcare, eldercare, paid family and medical leave were thwarted by senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. And now he has to contend with a Republican House.
Nearly Two-Thirds Say They’re Worse Off Than Two Years Ago: I&I/TIPP Poll
The online I&I/TIPP Poll asked 1,358 Americans a simple question: “Are you better off today than you were two years ago, or not?” Possible responses were “Yes, better off,” “No, not better off,” and “Not sure.” The poll, which was taken from Feb. 1-3, has a margin of error of +/-2.8 percentage points.
By 61% to 33%, Americans overwhelmingly picked “No, not better off” over “Yes, better off.” Just 6% said they weren’t sure.
Not surprisingly, Republicans overwhelmingly say they are not better off (76% “not better off” vs. 21% “better off”). But so does a super majority of independents (71% to 20%). Even among Democrats, few are celebrating. The poll found that less than half (49%) said they are better off, while 45% say they are not better off.
Each month, the I&I/TIPP poll asks people to describe themselves as either conservative, moderate or liberal in their political views. Unlike party affiliation, the views are unexpectedly similar across the ideological belief spectrum: Self-described conservatives (64% worse off, 32% better off), moderates (60% vs. 31%) and liberals (57% vs. 36%) are not, in fact, far apart in their responses.
Why would he be charged with murder for shooting a dead Mexican?
Poor editing at that "news" source.
Poor editing at that "news" source.
The moment of candor occurred as Biden worked through his prepared remarks on the evil oil industry. According to the official transcript, he was supposed to bash the fossil fuel producers like so: “You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. It’s outrageous. They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down. Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.” This was the equivalent of red meat for the vegan Earth-first crowd.
But then, Biden began ad libbing. “We’re still going to need oil and gas for a while,” he allowed, and, “We’re going to need domestic oil for at least another decade.” This elicited boos from Earthist Democrats and cheers and even laughter from reality-based Republicans.
During these off-the-cuff remarks, Biden’s admission came in the form of an anecdote, recounted here by Fox News:
Did you get that? Biden admitted that the oil industry — which remains crucial to our entire way of life, no matter what the Earthist fantasizers say — will not invest in domestic production because they don’t trust him.
Biden has earned every drop of that distrust with his egregious actions to eradicate domestic fossil fuel production beginning the day he was inaugurated. He kicked off the hostilities by shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline project — costing thousands of jobs and throwing away billions of dollars. He has bashed, threatened, and throttled the oil industry ever since.
But then, Biden began ad libbing. “We’re still going to need oil and gas for a while,” he allowed, and, “We’re going to need domestic oil for at least another decade.” This elicited boos from Earthist Democrats and cheers and even laughter from reality-based Republicans.
During these off-the-cuff remarks, Biden’s admission came in the form of an anecdote, recounted here by Fox News:
Did you get that? Biden admitted that the oil industry — which remains crucial to our entire way of life, no matter what the Earthist fantasizers say — will not invest in domestic production because they don’t trust him.
Biden has earned every drop of that distrust with his egregious actions to eradicate domestic fossil fuel production beginning the day he was inaugurated. He kicked off the hostilities by shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline project — costing thousands of jobs and throwing away billions of dollars. He has bashed, threatened, and throttled the oil industry ever since.
Bar staff beware! Biden's IRS proposes crackdown on TIPS by making servers report cash they take home
- Proposal would be voluntary program between IRS and employers that the IRS says would 'decrease taxpayer and IRS administrative burdens, according to IRS
- The proposal is now open to public comment until May 7
- 'When you go around and you tell people that we're going to audit people who wear monocles and hats, that's not the service industry'
Without ‘Seasonal Adjustment,’ US Economy Actually Lost 2.5 Million Jobs, Not Gained 517,000
https://img.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2022/11/15/GettyImages-1431464182-1200x800.jpgThe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Feb. 3 that the U.S. economy added 517,000 new jobs in January, surpassing the upwardly revised figure of 260,000 in December and exceeding economist predictions of 185,000. Without seasonal adjustment, however, the January 2023 number is 2.5 million lower than that of December 2022.
According to the BLS, seasonal adjustment is a method used to remove the effects of recurring seasonal patterns in data. Throughout the year, the labor force, employment levels, unemployment, and other labor market indicators are affected by seasonal factors such as weather changes, holidays, and school schedules. The BLS claims these seasonal patterns can be accounted for by seasonally adjusting the data each month, making it easier to identify underlying trends and non-seasonal movements.
The seasonal adjustment in the January 2023 U.S. BLS report added a total of more than 3 million jobs to the economy. In January 2022, a similar adjustment increased the report’s count by approximately 2.2 million jobs. Conversely, the seasonal adjustments for November and December 2022 subtracted about 2.14 million jobs from the report.
New Info on 'Object' Just Shot Down Reveals Glaring Problem for Biden Team
While NORAD issued a statement last night saying there was an “anomaly” and they said they didn’t see anything when they went to look, now we’re hearing on Sunday that they are saying that the object shot down over Lake Huron is likely the same object as that spotted over Montana.
Biden’s Labor Market: 1.9M Fewer Americans Working, 2M Foreign Workers Funneled into U.S. Jobs
A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, close to two million fewer native-born Americans were working in jobs compared to the same time in 2019 while two million foreign-born workers have been added to the workforce compared to the same time period.
For more than two decades, the number of native-born, working-age Americans in the workforce has declined, CIS notes:
Cuts Are Coming to Social Security and Medicare Whether the Politicians Want Them or Not
Social Security and Medicare are on an “unsustainable course” and will run out of funds by 2037. That’s the conclusion reached by the General Accountability Office (GAO) and the Social Security Administration.
There is no saving these programs without massive changes. And demagoguing the issue, as Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing, only delays the day of reckoning. To pretend these programs don’t need intervention now — right now — is to play with dynamite. The sooner we can get started, the less pain will be inflicted on senior citizens.
Pain there will be. In order to put these programs on the path to long-term viability, it will take political courage absent from today’s politicians.
Veronique de Rugy has been the Paul Revere on Social Security unsustainability for as long as I’ve been writing. Her article in Reason.com explains the problems with the two biggest government programs plainly and succinctly.