But Is It Too Little Too Late?

Democrats are scurrying. Not the rank and file Dems that are your neighbors. I’m talking about the do-nothing Democrats (when they do something, it’s usually the wrong thing!) in Congress. Realizing they are less than two months away from midterm elections that still don’t bode well for their party, Democrats in the House and Senate are trying desperately to do SOMETHING before November 8th.

But it ain’t gonna be easy.

See, in order to get Joe Manchin on his side for the big trillion dollar budget busting spending bill Congress passed (I think they called it “Inflation Reduction”?) Chuckles Schumer had to agree to a side deal. That was that the fossil fuel industry was going to get some sweetheart deals going forward. Of course, that is included as part of the federal budget bill that has yet to pass Congress. But that throws a wrinkle into the whole process because people like Lizzy Warren and Bernie Sanders are totally against the deal. Worse yet, there are 70 Democrats in the House that say they won’t vote for the budget if Manchin’s deal is included. They don’t have a 70 vote margin! It won’t even pass the House!

So, what happens if Manchin gets screwed and the federal budget doesn’t pass because they don’t have 50 Democrats to vote for it (without Sanders and Warren)? Does Manchin get fed up and join the Republicans (which would give them a majority and totally throw the last month into chaos)? It would be interesting.

But Democrats can’t afford to be blamed for a government shutdown at the end of this month. That would put the brakes on any “wins” they think they’ve had this past summer.

That is the most pressing issue Dems face leading up to the midterms, but they want more. They want a “Defense of Marriage” act that basically codifies what has already been passed as a federal law. Interestingly enough, Congress is worried because of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling by the Supreme Court that ended the federal law with abortion rights. The reasoning here is that it’s a states-rights issue and that states can decide whether or not same sex marriage is legal in their state. But the difference is huge. One is a procedure. The other is a “binding contract” between two parties. I don’t know how you could be recognized in California as a married couple, but not in Ohio (which is the case). A lot of states don’t recognize same sex marriage today, some even have it in their state’s constitution that it’s banned!

The House is still considering a “robust public safety package”. It’s basically a walk-back of the Democrats’ “defund the police” movement. It was supposed to go for a vote in July, but Nancy Pelosi didn’t have the votes (and still doesn’t).

Then there is the ubiquitous assault weapons ban that keeps rearing it’s ugly head. Doubtful that will even come up before the midterms.

Dems are hoping that they can do something besides pass a federal budget bill before the midterms. However that could very well be too little too late. Most people seem to already have made up their minds. Only the independents are making up theirs now, and that’s what causing the races around the country to be tightening. The big question is, will it be enough?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Here’s The Dem’s Playbook

You’re starting to see the Democrats’ playbook when dealing with the situation that they are in. Joe Biden has taken the cue from his handlers, and is bashing the “MAGA Republicans” as being a “threat to democracy”. But what you won’t see is Biden, or anybody on the left bashing the BLM and Antifa crowd for the billions upon billions of dollars and countless lives that were wasted in their riots just a couple of years ago. That’s out of bounds. And there is a simple reason for this harsh rhetoric Biden is spewing.

He is terrified of what’s coming in November.

The greatest human emotion, according to Abraham Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs” is fear. Fear drives us more than anything else. If we are faced with fight or flight, we will either cower and run, or we will fight like a tiger that’s been cornered. And that is exactly what is going on with Biden right now. He’s scared.

And of course he should be. Should the absolute worst case scenario happen to him and the GOP takes back both the House and the Senate, his term as president is, for the most part, over. He won’t be able to pass a bill, nominate any judge that he wants for the federal bench, he won’t be able to pass any more of his agenda, and his spending spree has the tap turned off. You can’t use executive orders for everything in our federal government, and Joe has learned that.

And he realizes very clearly that a) he is wildly unpopular and no one wants him to succeed at this point, even members of his own party, and b) he can’t continue funding his current, already-passed agenda unless he is able to control at least one of the houses of Congress, most likely the Senate. If Biden still controls the Senate at least he can nominate liberal judges and appointments. If the Republicans hold sway in the upper chamber, he can’t do that. He’s going to have to send up moderates at best. And if the GOP gets really power hungry, they can just shut down everything he sends up including budgets.

Now, I’ve written about, and you’ve probably heard rumors that one of the things the GOP is going to do if they win back the House is to impeach him for the whole Hunter Biden stuff. He can also be impeached for several things he’s done since coming into office, like the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan, and the terrible results he’s received on the southern border (violating federal law on that one!)

I doubt seriously that the GOP really wants to go through an impeachment. What they should do if they get control of Congress is flood the White House with bills to fix immigration, fix the southern border, stop spending money by putting a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution out there, and slow inflation to the trickle Donald Trump had it at. That would be the best thing the GOP could do, rather than hold hearings on stuff the people don’t care about. You want to stay in power? Fix what’s wrong with this country!

And Joe Biden will be cowering under his bed!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Here’s Why Biden’s Student Loan Bailout Is Illegal.

You would figure that Democrats would have learned by now. It’s not a matter of whether or not a student loan forgiveness program would be a good thing. I think most people are in the camp that this isn’t good. We’re teaching our kids (and those that are now adults) that it’s okay to backout of a deal like a loan without any consequences. You don’t have to worry because Uncle Sam will come to your rescue.

Except to do it the way Joe Biden did it isn’t going to work.

My hunch is, if it hasn’t happened already, there will be lawsuits filed that block his executive order to forgive $10,000 to up to $20,000 (for Pell grants) for any person with a student loan so long as their income is under $125,000 ($250,000 per married couple). The reason for that is simple. All you have to do is look at Article I Section 8 of the US Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

In a nutshell, that sentence says it all. If the White House is going to shift the payment of the student loan debt to the United States’ taxpayers, and do so by an executive order, it is illegal. Only Congress has the power to “lay and collect taxes”. The mere fact that Biden issued an executive order transferring $10,000 per eligible student to the taxpayers breaches Congress’ role to lay and collect taxes. The Executive Branch cannot do that.

It will make it’s way to the Supreme Court long before any student anywhere receives dollar one off of their student loan. And since Biden has continued the repayment holiday until the end of this year, it’s very likely that the lawsuits will be filed and most likely a temporary injunction issued prohibiting Biden from moving forward on this until the case is settled. That’ll probably happen at the Supreme Court level and may not make their docket this year.

More and more Democrats are having buyer’s remorse when it comes to this plan of Biden’s. They originally were all for the idea until it sunk in that it WILL be inflationary, and it WILL cause harm to the economy. Not only that, but there are several independent and non-partisan accounting groups who have run the numbers and say the $300 billion that Biden has proposed is actually going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 to $900 billion because the administration under-played the number of people that they felt would be applying to have their loans forgiven.

Even liberal bastions like CNN and MSNBC are starting to question the legitimacy of this program, and the intelligence behind it. Of course it stems from Joe’s campaign promise, but didn’t he also promise that taxes wouldn’t be raised on anyone making less than $400,000 a year? And then that was revised to be $400,000 per household. Still, this E.O. will hit every American, regardless what that babbling idiot, Karine Jean-Pierre says as she stumbles through yet another Peter Doocy question!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Will It Really Matter?

I’ve always believed there are three types of people in this world. There are the winners. They are the ones that always seem to be on top. You can tell them by their swagger. They live in the mansions, drive the nice cars. These are the guys that you see taking private jets everywhere. It doesn’t matter what they touch, it turns to gold. They make up probably about 10% of the population, though not all of them are rich.

Then you’ve got the losers. They are the poor slugs that no matter what they do they just can’t catch a break. They’re the ones hit with the IRS audit after struggling to make $18,000 last year. They are the ones that get their car stolen when they just ran into the post office for 10 seconds. They are the ones that never have enough money scraped together to pay the minimum amount on their Visa bill. They could be the happiest people in the world, or the biggest complainers, but they always seem to be on the bottom. They also make up about 10% of the population.

Then you’ve got the rest of us. We have great days and days that just plain suck. Yes, we struggle at times with problems that life throws at us, but once in a while we get tossed a bone. This is where most of us are. About 80%. We’re never going to be living in a mansion, and we know it, but we really don’t care. We’ve accepted our role in society and are just happy to make it through the day. These folks are you and me for the most part. We comprise 80% of society.

Joe Biden probably falls into the 80% group. He’s had a hell of a presidency by anybody’s standards so far. Just getting to that point should be a crowning life achievement for anyone, but to get that far and then suck as bad as Biden has really has to be heart-breaking. At least until this past week.

Biden had a relatively good week or two recently. His approval numbers jumped a bit. He got about 25% of his Build Back Better plan through the Senate, and the House is going to follow later today. He finally got the COVID bug off his butt. And his FBI raided Donald Trump’s house.

But with all of that good stuff for Biden that’s been happening lately, I have one question.

Will it matter come November?

I mean, look, the Democrats have really created some monumental problems. There’s the inflation rate, which most people believe Biden and his Democrat cronies have created, regardless the amount of blame Joe wants to put on Vladimir Putin. There are the high gas prices, which yes, have come down about 65 cents after jumping up to $3 a gallon. There’s the recession that Democrats swear isn’t happening, but Harvard economists say is. Then you’ve still got the supply chain shortages that are plaguing us daily on the stores’ shelves. Crime is at an all time high, with perps feeling like even if they do get caught, no one is going to prosecute them. I watched a smash & grab in Queens on TV where a guy got buzzed into a jewelry store. He held the door open for three guys who came in with baseball bats and ended up taking over $2 million in diamonds in 46 seconds! And then there is the southern border problem. Oh, and the monkeypox crisis that is forming.

It seems like there still is a lot on the plate for someone to solve, and Democrats don’t have a clue how to fix any of it. So, will any of the “good” things that Democrats are crowing about actually matter in a few months when people go to the polls?

I don’t think so.

People tend to vote with their wallet. And while yes, the jobs numbers were double what the experts said they’d be, and Biden got a portion of his mega spending bill passed thanks to Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema caving in at the last minute, it won’t matter. Inflation will still be here. The recession is still going to be hanging on. Crime hasn’t abated. You are still paying about $2 more for gas than you were under Trump. And people are streaming in through the southern border (and being shipped to New York City and Washington DC!). The problems we’ve had a year ago are still the problems we have today. Nothing has really changed, and it won’t by throwing money at it.

We need leaders. I’m not sure who they are or where they are, but they aren’t at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and they’re not on Capitol Hill. That much I know. I don’t know if they are Republican or Democrat, but I know that I haven’t seen too many step up to the plate in the primaries this year. At least not enough to make a difference.

And no…I’m not sure Donald Trump is the answer either. I think it’s terrible the way the left is treating him, but I also am starting to believe that his time in the sun is about over. It’s time for someone else, maybe with the same mindset, but a different name to step up and contribute. And it’s WAY too early to tell you who that is. I just don’t know yet.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

We Are OFFICIALLY In A Recession!

And I’m not at all happy about it. Word came out today that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 0.9% in the second quarter. Coupled with the 1.6% drop in first quarter, we are now officially in a recession.

Now, if you listen to the White House, the FED, the mainstream snowflake media, you’re going to hear that’s not really true at all. For decades the “official” definition of recession has been “two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the GDP.” That’s what we just got. So, to try and redefine what a recession is, just because it’s a Democrat in the White House, midterms are coming up and there is no other good economic news out there doesn’t fly.

In fact, if you really parse what the White House is saying, you can’t even count their “accelerated employment numbers.” Biden wants us to believe that HE has created some eight million new jobs since taking office. That’s a lie. He hasn’t. Those jobs are ones that were lost during COVID and now are being re-hired (though there were somewhere in the neighborhood of eleven million jobs lost during COVID).

What burns me to a crisp with this administration is they don’t want to admit when things are bad, or when they’ve done something wrong. I firmly believe that they’d have a LOT higher approval ratings from the American people if they’d just tell the truth. Yes, we are in a recession. No, I haven’t created any jobs. We’re just getting back to work after COVID, but we’re nowhere near where we were before the pandemic hit. Yes, inflation is high and it’s because I’m spending a lot of money trying to fix climate change because I believe in that theory. And if it doesn’t work, I’ll just move the doomsday date out a little farther. Yes, I want to transform America to more of a socialist government, and I want to do away with the oil and gas industry. Yes, Hunter’s business partners did indeed meet with me 14 times in the White House when I was Vice President. And yes, I have spoken to him numerous times about his foreign business affairs.

Why can’t the man just fess up to what the rest of America knows? And the recession, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, is just the smallest part. This administration has failed America at every turn. Build Back Better? We’re not building back at all. In fact, we are destroying America.

We are in a recession.

There. It’s been said. It’s official according to the official definition of “recession”. Do you feel any better?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

SCOTUS Term Limits?

I’m not sure if you caught the latest attempt by the leftist snowflakes to limit the impact of a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Rather than pack the court, which is a terrible idea that would just end up with the population of Jacksonville, Florida sitting on the bench, liberals have decided that the answer to their problems of not getting their way in the judiciary branch is to invoke term limits. It’s a flawed argument that runs into constitutional issues (Article III, Section 1 gives Justices a life-time appointment as long as they display “good behaviour”).

But the argument goes like this.

Justices are able to serve one 18 year term on the high court. Every president would appoint a Justice in year one and year three of their term (and year five and seven if they serve two terms). So, every president would get at least two nominations. Currently, you may not get any if no one retires or dies on the high court while you’re in office. Donald Trump got three in just four years. So every court would consist of no longer than the last 2 1/2 to 4 1/2 administrations “to better reflect the current make up of the American public.”

Here are the flaws. First, it would require a constitutional amendment. The last constitutional amendment was passed in 1992 (30 years ago) and is never a guarantee. Second, whoever came up with this idea forgot that the Supreme Court is there to interpret the Constitution, not to make decisions based on “the current make up of the American public”.

There are people on both sides of the fence that think this would be a good idea. But the left is playing it like it’s bi-partisan. It’s not. They cite that John Roberts, the current Chief Justice would go along with it. What he said was, “It’s an interesting idea.” That’s not a ringing endorsement. That says, “we can talk about it.” However, it did get me to thinking. We already have term limits for the presidency. If you’re going to insist that there be term limits for the Supreme Court, then you have to do the same thing for the legislative branch as well. So, let’s tackle that one, because that doesn’t require a constitutional amendment.

Members of the House of Representatives would be limited to two terms (4 years), and members of the Senate to one term (6 years). Also, while we are at it, let’s limit the ages to “full retirement age” (currently 70) according to the Social Security Administration. Well, there are five members of the Senate, and 11 members of the House that are 80 or older. Another 21 members of the Senate and 65 members of the House that are in their 70’s. That’s 26% of the Senate and 17.5% of the House are over the full retirement age. We would also lower the wages of both houses to the average worker which is around $52,000 a year. No one should get rich serving their country. There would also be no pension, no healthcare after you leave office, nothing. You go back to what you were doing prior to getting elected.

So, you can serve in the House two terms, and if you’re over 70, until your current term is up. In the Senate you’d serve one term, but cannot serve past your 70th birthday, so you can’t run once you’re past 64. Once you have served in Congress, you are through with politics. You can’t run for the White House, you can’t be a “contributor” on Fox News or MSNBC or CNN. You cannot make any money dealing with government. And you can’t work for a lobbying firm or a political PAC of any kind. Basically, if it has to do with politics, you’re finished when you’re done serving.

What this does is drastically reduce the influence of money in politics. There would be no need for fundraisers because you’re only going to serve one term in the Senate and two in the House. In fact, we could limit campaign spending to $1,000 and the money can’t come from one source. That stops George Soros from buying up Congress like he tried to do with District Attorneys (that hasn’t worked real well, has it?)

Now, we’ve lowered the age of those serving. We’ve eliminated that lifetime politician. We’ve taken the money out of the equation, and you can’t spend the rest of your life writing about, talking about or giving speeches about your time in Washington. Is there anything that I’ve missed on that one?

As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, term limits are a bad idea. Those nine people aren’t there to cave to the whims of the American people. They are there to insure that what we Americans do, what laws we pass, are constitutional. That’s their only job. In fact, that should be the only job of any federal judge. There shouldn’t be any legislating from the bench on either side of the equation. If it’s not in the Constitution, you don’t go along with it. Period.

The only snag in making this term limit idea come true? Getting Congress to go along with it. Somehow, I don’t think they would be receptive to my idea, do you?

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Thursday’s Jan 6th Hearings? A Ratings Flop

Now, you’re going to hear that the made for television congressional hearings on the whole January 6th protest were a winner. Don’t believe it for a minute. The made up event in prime time TV was shown on a total of eight different channels. Basically, unless you were streaming something, or had on HBO or Showtime or some paid channel, you had to watch, or read a book, or do as my wife and did, and shampoo each other’s hair.

In reality, there were just over 10 million Americans tuned in to at least five minutes of the hearings on Thursday night. That would equate to about 3% of America tuning in. Now, let’s just pick up something else for comparison, shall we? CBS aired two game shows, “Let’s Make A Deal” and “The Price Is Right” on Wednesday night, the day before. Those two shows garnered 6 1/2 million Americans watching…all on one channel. Also on Wednesday, ABC had on Game 3 of the NBA Finals. That had 5.5 million people tuned in.

But you’re hearing what a wonderful show this was and it showed the American people exactly what Congress is doing to make sure that “insurrection” never happens again. According to a survey done by The Hill/Harris, 54% of Americans felt that the reason the hearings were done were to score political points. What’s interesting is that 54% also said they no longer blame Donald Trump for the Capitol protests.

If you jump into that survey a little deeper, only 79% of Democrats felt that the hearings are “independently trying to get to the bottom of what happened”. Meanwhile 21% of Democrats, and 55% of Republicans, and 55% of Independent voters think it’s Kabuki theater.

Thus, the low ratings. America basically took the night off from TV Thursday.

What I find to be fascinating is the inconsistencies the Democrats are throwing at this. Let’s compare the 475 riots or so that Black Lives Matter held in over 140 cities across the country, in which there were no hearings. Over 36 people lost their lives in those riots. There were over 1,000 police officers injured. Well over 100 federal buildings were damaged, looted, or burned, causing over $8 billion in damages.

On January 6th, there were a total of four deaths. The Capitol sustained $1.4 million in damages. It was over in several hours. Of the four deaths, two were by heart attacks, and one Capitol Police Officer was killed.

Somehow, I don’t think the two are on equal footing.

I would ask that Nancy Pelosi personally pay the eight stations that carried her fiasco of a hearing for the airtime she used, since it could never be considered anything more than a political broadcast. At the very least, and according to very rudimentary calculations, that should be worth about $2.75 million. Don’t worry…Nancy can afford it!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Where’s The Consistency?

Today I am going to credit one of the blogs I read on a regular basis. I don’t usually recommend blogs, but there are tons of great ones out there. This one is one of the best. Why do I say that? Well, because I really think it’s well researched, extremely well written, and the guy just makes sense every time out. OK, and there’s a secret reason for me too.

I like it when he posts memes. He does it every day.

I’m talking about “Freedom Is Just Another Word…” by a guy calling himself MaddMedic.

He posted this meme a while back, and it just says it all!

Now, the meme says it all. There is only about 30% of us that think the United States ought to be doing what Joe Biden has already said he’s going to do, which is send troops to Ukraine. It’s once again another clown world decision made by Biden. But this meme makes an excellent point.

Can anybody tell me why it is that Biden won’t defend our southern border, letting some two million illegals invade our country, and once they are here, we fly them absolutely free of cost, to cities around the country? And while at the very same time he’s not defending OUR border, he’s sending our military to a foreign country that we really don’t have any national security interest in, to defend THEIR border against a possible invasion? Is his defense of Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders any more valuable to American interests than our southern border is to us?

There has been a lot said since the Border Patrol started leaking body-cam footage of their agents getting off of private jets in West Chester County Airport in the middle of the night with a plane load of illegals. They are driven to a Costco parking lot, where they are put into cars and never seen again. The White House hasn’t said a word, but folks in Congress have rightly called this action “an impeachable offense”. Regardless if you think it’s a good idea to help people that are being persecuted in other parts of the world or not, we do indeed have laws. And the president of the United States has sworn to uphold those laws and the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. And if you’re not following the laws of this country, and are illegally entering it, I would suggest very strongly that you’re an enemy of this country.

So, how is it that Biden can get away with this breaching the law? Why is it that if I choose to break a federal law, I’m going to get arrested, thrown in jail, and The Lone Cactus blog goes on a very long hiatus? But when the president does it, it’s because “he’s helping people”? His party controls Congress and if this is such a big issue for him, why don’t they just change the immigration laws to allow this sort of thing? Maybe it’s because more and more people are getting upset with the crisis at the southern border and this administration’s inability or unwillingness to do anything about it? Just sayin’…it’s a bad turn of events, and someone has got to go to jail for a very long time because of it.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Biden’s $$ Plan Vs. “The Score”

The Congressional Budget Office has started, mind you, only started to weigh in on what the yet to be passed Biden plan for spending will cost. The “Build Back Better” plan is going to be north of a trillion dollars even by the most conservative budget, but how far north? Remember when Biden’s old boss, Bobo Obama was trying to get his healthcare initiative passed? He swore it HAD to be under $1 trillion, and it came in at $900 billion. Actually it was over that. About two years later, the CBO came back and said Obamacare was going to cost America about $1.76 trillion. That’s about double what the original cost estimates were.

And so, we take a look at Biden’s massive spending boondoggle.

Now, to be fair, the CBO has 13 committees to look at their recommendations. It has only looked at four of them. The four are the House Veterans’ Affairs, Small Business, Homeland Security, and Science, Space and Technology committees. And the cost for the four of them is going to be about $20 billion additional over the next ten years. That’s not a bad number, and actually I’m in favor of spending a LOT more in Veterans’ Affairs! I’ve often said if you serve your country, you should be getting the Cadillac healthcare plan for life for you and your family for free. You were willing to sacrifice your life if need be. Free “great” healthcare is the least the country can do to show it’s gratitude.

The problem I have with the CBO is they rarely get the number even close to accurate. Look at the Obamacare figure for instance. They missed it by half of the actual amount. That would be a 50% in school and that’s an “F”.

Biden has said that he’s going to spend about $1.75 trillion on his plan, and hopes to raise $1.45 trillion in new taxes. That is a pipe dream. Democrats have this problem with getting things to pay for themselves. In this case, the cost is going to be more like $3.5 trillion (which is what the scaled down version of Biden’s wish list was), and the taxes that come in from the tax hikes “to the rich” and to corporations is going to be roughly $800 billion. That leaves about $2.7 trillion in debt, which goes right to the federal debt and gets picked up by China in the form of bonds that they are buying. Is that really where we want to be?

Biden’s plan, like his administration lacks a lot of attention to details. He’s big on Green New Deal stuff, but has no solid basis other than government funded (by a liberal government) studies that it’s going to be able to do anything. They have computer models that were ginned up to show huge gains to an increasing average temperature, but no one other than savvy scientists who aren’t dependent on government funding (very rare), and former climate change guru, Michael Shellenberger, who has debunked the whole climate change theory as a hoax to get more money.

Now, having said all of that, I’ll go on record and say you really can’t blame the Democrats. Well, you can, but you have to do so understanding that their whole mantra for the last 80 years has been that government can solve all of your problems. It doesn’t matter if it’s poverty, racism, equal pay for equal work, or something that mankind has nothing to do with…climate change. It’s failed at all of the things it says if we throw enough money, and pass enough laws, we can solve the problem. Some things, sorry to say Democrats, cannot be legislated. Our climate is one of them.

But I get it that they need to try. Because if they don’t at the very least try to “save the planet” with massive spending and send us down a very dark, and very deep rabbit hole that there is no end to and no way out of, they lose the argument that their entire existence is based on. And that’s the real problem here. They have to double down because they can’t lose. If they do, they lose everything. So, they keep doubling down and the demands get wilder and wilder because they have to.

Biden’s spending plan has most Americans shaking their heads at the lunacy of it all. Most people are starting to wake up to the fact that Democrats’ plans aren’t well thought out, and certainly are not fiscally sound or based on fact. They’re based on a wish list of ideas that give the largest groups of people a payout in hopes of gaining their future votes. And that in a nutshell is the Democrat party. It’s also one giant reason why they need to be defeated at the polls to the point where the party dies. It’s the only way we as a nation survive.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!

Biden Gets His Infrastructure Bill

It’s nowhere near the mega monolith that he wanted, but Joe “Brandon” Biden did get his infrastructure bill finally passed by the House or Representatives Friday night after a “rules change” on how voting should be done, and a lot of arm twisting and rabble rousing.

So, we’ve heard all sorts of crap about this bill, and haven’t really heard much about what is in it. Everyone and their cousin says that our infrastructure, and I’m using the traditional definition of infrastructure here, sucks. They’re right. Roads, bridges, airports, railways, all need upgrading, as does our nation’s power grid. How much of the $1.2 trillion package is going to help that and how much is going to boondoggle stuff that progressive socialist snowflakes want? Let’s find out, shall we?

$110 billion of the $1.2 trillion is going to roads, bridges and “other infrastructure projects”. This is a pare-back of about $49 billion from what Biden originally wanted. According to the White House, there is about 20% of our roadways in “poor condition” (I’d agree), and there are 45,000 bridges in our country deemed unsafe.

$11 billion will go to “transportation safety”, which basically means they’re going to use it to tell us to drive safer. Interestingly enough, included in that is “pipeline safety”. It’s cute that Biden would throw that in after cancelling the Keystone XL Pipeline project that was already underway when he took office.

$1 billion is going to go to “reconnecting mostly black communities” who’s towns were divided by highways and interstates. That is really nothing more than a bailout to black communities.

$39 billion will go to modernizing mass transit, such as busses, bus stations, and the like. That’s less than half of what Biden originally wanted.

$66 billion goes to passenger and freight rail modernization, including $12 billion for inner city high speed rail.

$17 billion goes to upgrade our ports, and another $25 billion goes for upgrading airports.

$65 billion goes to our aging power grid to get that more into the 21st century, and yes, Virginia, it will be more like the Green New Deal than the current power grid is.

$55 billion goes to upgrading the water infrastructure. I can tell you, that will be welcome news out here in the desert where we are starting to see all of the water reduction plans that the state is foisting on the public.

Another $50 billion is going toward making our water system more resilient and less prone to terrorist attacks.

Then we get into the area I would call “less than infrastructure stuff”, which includes $65 billion to upgrade internet services.

$7.5 billion will head toward electric busses and ferries, while another $7.5 billion will go to charging stations around the country, which is one of the biggest drawbacks to electric cars today. Well, that and the fact, no one has figured out what to do with old, discarded batteries that will soon be piling up.

$21 billion going to juice up the Superfund, which is used to clean up environmental hazards.

And how to pay for it all? Well, there will be a LOT of tax increases for folks using cryptocurrencies, for businesses (though the increase in corporate tax rates didn’t make the cut). Businesses will see more taxes in the non-revenue sides of their endeavors, and there will start to be a rather large bill sent to businesses that bring in the Superfund to help clean up environmental oopsies. However, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which scores the costs of these programs, it will add about $350 billion in debt to our federal debt. It isn’t a zero cost as the White House explained it would be. And you know as well as I that these things ALWAYS cost more than they originally bargain for. That means that the likelihood that you will see a tax increase coming your way, regardless how much money you make is 100% certain. Chew on that next summer when all of our interstates are torn up and you’re sitting in traffic jams!

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!