by | BLOG, ELECTIONS, HYPOCRISY, POLITICS
I was disappointed that a black socialist anti-Semite became a Senator of the United States. While it is well known that he is a progressive and socialist, it’s even more troubling that he is openly anti-Semitic.
In 2019, he signed a letter with other clergy members describing “the heavy militarization of the West Bank, reminiscent of the military occupation of Namibia by apartheid South Africa.” Likewise, during a sermon in 2018, he proclaimed, “We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey.” And yet, the very same time, Warnock has been virtually silent on Hamas.
To the extent that racial bias exists in our system today, one thing is clear: 92% of Georgia black voters supported this anti-Semitic socialist. This result would seem to be clear evidence of true racism – that voters can ignore the openly outrageous policies and positions of a candidate and support him solely based on his skin color. Otherwise, how could anyone actually support Warnock?
by | BLOG, CONSTITUTION, FREEDOM, GOVERNMENT
There is a renewed push for ending qualified immunity especially since the unrest earlier this summer. Qualified immunity affords police officers protection from litigation for their actions in pursuit of the law, while immunity is lost if an officer violates a citizen’s constitutional rights. At least, that is what qualified immunity was before it metastasized into a near entitlement shield for officers and other public officials. Qualified immunity does not need to be abolished but it should definitely be qualified. It needs to be turned around to what it originally meant, not what decades of SCOTUS rulings has made it to be.
by | BLOG, ECONOMY, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM
When we have a generation of voters who take their policy lessons from a person who believes that billionaires shouldn’t exist, we are in trouble. What’s more, she boasts of having an economics degree but her ideas are not rooted in reality. Let’s take a look at some of her more unorthodox economic positions:
- Green New Deal: AOC created a sweeping bill that puts the environment impact as the basis for economic policy. Not only is this inherently anti-free-market, her objectives of addressing climate and economic inequalities are completely undermined by the staggering cost of her proposal. Estimates fluctuate wildly between a minimum $10 trillion and $93 trillion, which would obviously exacerbate economic inequality by massively increasing American’s debt load on the backs of the taxpayer.
- Socialism: While on the subject of the Green New Deal, did anyone notice 8B in her bill? “It is the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal (8B) to create millions of good, high-wage jobs and ensure prosperity and economic security for all people of the United States.” It is out-and-out socialism to insist that the government is the chief means of generating wealth and try to do so through policy.
- 70% Tax Rate: Shortly after taking office, AOC proposed a 70% tax rate on incomes over $10 million aimed at going after wealthy Americans for whom she has utter contempt. After all, during an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, AOC explained, “I’m not saying that Bill Gates or Warren Buffett are immoral, but a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong,” But she fails in understanding that Bill Gates or Warren Buffett has earned their wealth through the creation of millions of jobs and products that have improved the lives of Americans and lifted the economy. Yet a 70% tax rate will quite likely limit future entrepreneurs knowing that being successful results in confiscatory taxation.
- Rent Control: In an attempt to combat poverty through affordable housing, AOC has proposed a sweeping national rent control bill that would institute a cap of 3% or the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI), whichever is greater, for housing markets nationwide. But this is a classical example of price control; what’s more, it would exacerbate the problem of housing affordability that AOC purports to want to fix. Creating new housing (such as apartments) is the best way to help with affordability, but rent control would create scarcity; housing developers will certainly not build if there is a cap on the amount that could be charged to the consumer-renter.
- Investment tax breaks: AOC was viciously against tax incentives for Amazon when they attempted to set up a new, major headquarters in NYC. When New York offered a $3 billion temporary tax break that would result in the creation of 25,000 new jobs for New Yorkers, she proclaimed “If we’re willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves if we wanted to.” What AOC fails to grasp is that nothing was being given away as if there was $3 billion locked up somewhere. It’s merely taxes Amazon won’t have to pay on in the future, money that has yet to exist and now won’t at all. Even worse are the other benefits that won’t exist now that Amazon decided against New York: besides the 25,000 jobs (many likely going to people within her own district), there’s additional sales, income, and property tax revenue that would have been generated for New York. Of course, AOC later gloated about a “victory” when Amazon decided to simply expand some existing NY office space, adding about 1,500 new workers, as if that will grow the economy better than 25,000 would have.
AOC is indeed economically illiterate. The fact that so many people have such little understanding about economics themselves that they are not laughing her out of office for her ideas is even more troubling.
by | BLOG, CONSTITUTION, FREEDOM, HEALTHCARE, LAW
Certificate of Need laws, otherwise known as CON laws, are laws required in many states and some federal jurisdictions before proposed acquisitions, expansions, or creations of healthcare facilities are allowed. They are also absolutely ridiculous and entirely based entirely on cronyism. CON laws are irresponsible, damaging to the economy, and a prime example of an assault on economic liberty.
A recent report by Mercatus noted that “Nearly six decades ago, New York became the first state to enact a CON law for healthcare services. A decade later, the federal government mandated state implementation of CON laws in an effort to control healthcare costs, increase access to care, and improve quality. When early research suggested that CON laws were failing to meet these goals, the federal government repealed the mandate, but many states kept their CON laws on the books.”
The creation of CON laws themselves were supposedly based on some economic theory that restricting competition was going to be better for consumers, but in fact, it’s the opposite. This means that it’s cronyism, not economics that put these laws into place, and that it is cronyism, not economics, that is keeping these laws intact all these years.It’s worth noting that even the federal government realizes that CON laws are terrible. They ignore basic economic principles, that when you restrict competition you get higher, not lower prices. Even though the feds undid their CON laws, the states did not, which means that the states were bent on cronyism, which was the real reason for the laws in the first place.
Ultimately, CON laws are unconstitutional because of their inherent economic favoritism. There’s no reason why some liberties should be treated differently than economic liberty and the right to earn a living should not be considered as fundamental as other rights. CON laws and their cronyism should be eliminated.
