September 09, 2020

The Biden Energy Plan Is A Joke

September 09, 2020/ Francis Menton

In any rational world, a candidate proposing the energy plan that Joe Biden has proposed for the United States would be laughed out of the race for President on that ground alone.
The word “unserious” does not remotely begin to describe the situation.
In essence Biden says he will cause a complete transformation of the U.S. energy economy within 30 years — or maybe it’s 15 — with no idea what technology might be able to accomplish that, how much it might cost, or how much poorer the effort might make the American people. We have moved from the real world into the realm of fantasy and gaslighting.
And yet, at least as of today, Biden continues to lead in most polls. . . .

September 06, 2020

Can We Avoid Another Massive Round Of "Stimulus"?

September 06, 2020/ Francis Menton

It was on March 27 this year that the so-called “CARES” Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) became law — a $2.2 trillion federal spending bill, designed to bail absolutely everyone out of any and all downside risk from the economic downturn brought about by government response to the pandemic.
There was virtually no opposition, with the bill passing unanimously in the Senate and by voice vote in the House. Since there was no new tax revenue associated with the bill, it represented approximately a 10% instant increase in the public debt incurred in the 231 years since the founding of the Republic.
Whew! Was there any possible negative consequence to taking on this enormous amount of new debt, mostly just to hand out checks to anybody and everybody, whether they needed the money or not? If so, that subject was barely discussed anywhere.
Hey, this was a “stimulus.” Everybody knows that when the economy is down, it needs a massive federal “stimulus” to get it going again.
Then, almost immediately after the CARES Act became law, the House started working on the next round of so-called “stimulus,” labelling the new effort with the equally idiotic acronym of the “HEROES” Act. . . .

September 03, 2020

September 03, 2020/ Francis Menton

I live in New York City. The City government in New York — and to a lesser extent, the government of New York State — are currently in severe financial distress as tax revenues have plunged in the aftermath of the coronavirus and of state-imposed economic lockdowns.
Both the City and State governments are loudly demanding bailouts from the federal government to cover all their financial shortfalls.
Do you think that, as a New York City resident, I would want the federal government to meet these demands and bail out the City and State?
Absolutely not! They shouldn’t get one additional dime of federal taxpayer money.

September 01, 2020

September 01, 2020/ Francis Menton

Do you think that Joe Biden has signed on to the Green New Deal?
Do you have the idea that Biden is fully committed if he becomes President to doing away with fossil fuel energy and replacing it with the wind and sun as quickly as possible?
Where could you possibly have gotten those ideas? More on that later in the post.
Certainly in the past couple of weeks you might have gotten exactly the opposite impression.

August 29, 2020

August 29, 2020/ Francis Menton

Over at Instapundit, Professor Glenn Reynolds is often the master of the pithy phrase that captures the essence of the political moment.
Yesterday Reynolds wrote that, while the Democrats are trying to make everything in this election (and in life) about race, “Trump’s making clear that it’s about people who are constructive, productive, and generally happy, vs. people who are destructive, parasitic, and generally miserable, and that that difference transcends things like race.”
Have things really gotten so bad that the entire Democrat/Biden campaign has become the coalition of the “destructive, parasitic, and generally miserable”?

August 25, 2020

August 25, 2020/ Jane Menton

In cities across the country, it has been a summer of continuous protests, many of which have escalated to riots, arson, and looting.

The protesters chant to defund the police, but as many of the protests have turned violent, police departments in affected cities have been overwhelmed with calls for assistance.
So should protesters’ demands to “defund the police” be taken literally?