July 2021 Archives

Rahm Emanuel: Deceitful as Always – this Time On Taxes

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, “Why the GOP Has Gone Quiet Over Tax Hikes,” Rahm Emmanuel suggests that the GOP has gone quiet over tax hikes because Biden’s new tax plan is popular. For someone who is supposed to know about economics, however, his ignorance is overwhelming.

Rahm claims that nearly 60% of Americans are bothered by rich people and corporations who don’t “pay their fair share.” But this very concept of “fair share” is just the repetition of a media sound byte not grounded in any reality. The wealthy here in the United States pay more in taxes than in any other developed company in the world, no matter how measured. Rahm specifically omits that from his article. In fact, all of his numbers are misleading or disingenuous. He likewise fails to note that almost half of US households pay virtually no income tax, while in the rest of the world even the lowest earning constituents contribute. Where was that in the article?

Rahm also claims that 66% of Americans think that their tax level they pay is fair, but it bears repeating that since 47% pay zero income tax, you have to assume that 66% includes the 47% who pay nothing. So in actuality, only 19% only think that, which probably includes the next tier of taxpayers — those who pay low (not zero) taxes.

Rahm also claims that Republicans think that Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts yielded little-to-no direct benefit, but in reality, the economies that followed after each of those cuts were healthy and robust. Most recently, it was precisely Trump’s 2017 Jobs Act that brought the economy finally back to life (after Obama’s anemic term), until it was upended by the pandemic and prolonged shutdowns. Moreover, Rahm says that “Trump and Bush both sent the federal government deep into the red,” yet purposely excludes Obama’s excessive deficit spending which was double that of Bush!

Rahm opens his article with the line, “sometimes what people don’t say tells you more than what they do.” Ironically, this is exactly what Rahm does throughout his piece. By selectively omitting anything that doesn’t support his Democrat talking points, he paints an economic picture far different from reality all in the name of “tax fairness.” But that’s not really fair, is it?

Biden’s Unclean, Unseen Energy

by | BLOG

Mark Mill’s had an excellent piece recently in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Biden’s Not-So-Clean Energy Transition.” In it, he lays out the hidden costs and pitfalls of Biden’s energy plans, a sentiment shared by the International Energy Agency (IEA) 287 page report on clean minerals.

The green and clean energy movement is a perfect example of Bastiat’s “seen and unseen.” Everyone says that clean energy, such as wind and solar, is clean and the cost of energy is zero, so how can you have anything better than that? What is seen are windmills and solar panels but what is unseen is what it takes to get there.

When talking about fossil fuels, opponents often focus on the externalities: they are bad for the environment, they produce large amounts of carbon dioxide, etc. But the externalities of wind and solar power are much bigger. For instance, you need rare earths and critical minerals for solar power, the panels have high replacement and repair costs, you need fossil fuel backup, and so forth. All of these unavoidable costs, however, are not factored in. The lowly windmill is even worse. You need excessive amounts of plastic and cement. They kill large numbers of birds and other animals. They require large tracts of land. The noise, the marine life, the visibilities are all “unseen” factors that are not considered when touting the clean energy “zero cost. But windmill externalities are actually so important and big enough that if we were to ramp up using windmills as a power source past 10%, it would completely change the landscape and maybe even the economy.

Mill’s synopsis is a good summary of the IEA report, showing the geopolitical dangers and the current lack of industries and infrastructures required to make the change to clean energy. Biden and others on the left would do well to brush up on their Bastiat and consider the “unseen” consequences of their energy plan.