Sanders and Clinton Plan to Tax the Middle Class

Eli,


Clinton and Sanders answered a question about hydraulic fracturing at the debate in Flint last week.

Clinton gave a long answer when asked if she supports fracking:

"I don't support it when any locality or any state is against it, number one. I don't support it when the release of methane or contamination of water is present. I don't support it, number three, unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using.

"Right now, there are places where fracking is going on that are not sufficiently regulated. So first, we've got to regulate everything that is currently underway, and we have to have a system in place that prevents further fracking unless conditions like the ones that I just mentioned are met. By the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place," she said.

Sanders had a quick, sharp response:

"My answer is a lot shorter. No, I do not support fracking," he said.

Sanders said he talks to scientists who tell him that "fracking is doing terrible things to water systems all over this country."

Sanders is the Democrat's Trump, just making shit up. One can't find terrible things in water systems in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, North Dakota, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Ohio due to fracturing.

The Energy Information Administration has an interesting article on fracturing today.

Even though hydraulic fracturing has been in use for more than six decades, it has only recently been used to produce a significant portion of crude oil in the United States. This technique, often used in combination with horizontal drilling, has allowed the United States to increase its oil production faster than at any time in its history. Based on the most recent available data from states, EIA estimates that oil production from hydraulically fractured wells now makes up about half of total U.S. crude oil production.

 

 The US consumes about 19 million barrels per day. Clinton and Sanders want to eliminate 5 million produced in the US. Oil prices would go up. Gas prices would go up. Our dependence on foreign oil would go up (which some people, not me, care about).

That's a tax on the middle class, but one that results in  decreased government revenue. Unfortunately, this isn't the worse idea they have suggested.

Bill

Give me power so I can go after them

Eli,

Around 11:45 of this press conference Rubio talks of the message voters are hearing from Trump:

You are working as hard as you can and you can’t make ends meet and along comes a presidential candidate and says to you:, “You know why your life is hard? Because, fill in the blank, somebody, someone, some country, they’re the reasons for it. Give me power so I can go after them.”

 He's right, and he's right to be frustrated by the appeal of Trump. What worries me even more is that it is the exact same message from the Democrats, except they use different boogeymen. For Trump its China, Mexico, Japan and Muslims. For Clinton and Sanders, it's Wall Street, the Koch Brothers, Citizen's United and free trade.

All three are so fundamentally wrong. Sanders is Trump without the violence and racism. Clinton is Sanders without the morality.

We are doomed.

Bill

Good News for Patriot Fans

Eli,

A 7th-grader named Goodell used a science project to solve Deflategate

The NFL spent millions trying to nab Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Deflategate saga. They should've just called Goodell.

Ben Goodell, that is.

The 7th-grader from Lynn, Boston (not related to the NFL Commissioner) decided the punishment given Brady (four games, still racking up dollars in the court system) wasn't fair, so he created a science project to figure out if weather affected the PSI of footballs.

“I put it in humidity, cold, snow, wind chill and the same temperature that occurred during Deflategate,” Goodell told WBZ-TV.

HOW NOVEL! The results from Ben's science project? Well it's kind of awkward for the NFL.

“Every single time I did this test the PSI dropped at least 2 PSI," Goodell said. "That means it was scientifically proven that Tom Brady didn't deflate the footballs, and it was just the weather conditions."

Deflategate always struck me as an Alice in Wonderland kind of process, "Sentence first — verdict afterwards."  Or as my daughter once said to me, "Ready, Fire, Aim." Still one of my favorite maxims.

Bill

Bloomberg Won't Run

Eli,

Bloomberg has decided to not run for President and the nation mourns the lost opportunity to choose from 3 New York Liberals and a socialist.

Bill

More on the Monumental Economic Ignorance of Hilary Sanders Trump

Eli,

The always interesting Mark Perry compares US GDP per capita by state vs. European countries and Japan, Korea, Mexico and China.

As the chart demonstrates, most European countries (including Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Denmark) if they joined the US, would rank among the poorest one-third of US states on a per-capita GDP basis, and the UK, France, Japan and New Zealand would all rank among America’s very poorest states, below No. 47 West Virginia, and not too far above No. 50 Mississippi. Countries like Italy, S. Korea, Spain, Portugal and Greece would each rank below Mississippi as the poorest states in the country.

and

When The Donald tells us that Mexico is “beating us economically” and “laughing at us,” maybe we should remind him that Mexico and China, as US states, would both be far below our poorest state — Mississippi — by 51% and 62% respectively for GDP per capita; and Japan would be barely above our poorest state — Mississippi. Using GDP per capita as a measure of both economic output per person and of a country’s standard of living, America is winning quite handsomely. And one of the factors that contributes significantly to our standard of living, which is among the highest in the world and the highest in history, is the availability of cheap imported goods from countries like Mexico, Japan and China.

Last night Hilary and Bernie made loud arguments to lower our standard of living by rejecting free trade, calling for mandated wages, greater government control of the economy and my favorite, banning hydraulic fracturing (because energy prices should be higher?!?).

The most ironic aspect of their policies is is hurts the poor the most, the very group they claim to be trying to help. 

Bill

HIllary Sanders Trump

Eli,

I'm listening to Clinton and Sanders urinate all over free-trade and thinking there's very little daylight between them and Trump. So sad. Such monumental ignorance.

Bill

A Ray of Hope? Or Confirming my Anchor?

Eli,

 Ted Cruz won 64 delegates yesterday in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine. Trump won 49 delegates, Rubio 13 and Kasich 8.

In the states with open primaries/caucuses, (open to voters, despite party affiliation), 11 so far, Trump has won 275 delegates, Cruz 186. It confirms a piece in the NY Times that asserts a big part of Trump's appeal is to registered Democrats:

He is strongest among Republicans who are less affluent, less educated and less likely to turn out to vote. His very best voters are self-identified Republicans who nonetheless are registered as Democrats. It’s a coalition that’s concentrated in the South, Appalachia and the industrial North, according to data provided to The Upshot by Civis Analytics, a Democratic data firm.

 In the states with closed primaries/caucuses, 10 so far, Trump has won 93 delegates, Cruz 104.

For the remaining primaries/caucuses there are 953 delegates from closed states and 570 from open states, and only 328 if states with semi-open, open to registered Republicans or Independents, but not Democrats, are counted.

We are also getting into winner-take-all elections, which can have big impacts on the delegate count.

Clearly I was wrong about Trump's appeal. I still don't get it. He is such an obvious fraud. But I'm not willing to give up on beating him. I think Cruz can beat him. More closed primaries/caucuses helps Cruz and only 1/3 of the remaining delegates come from the South and Great Lakes states; that could help him also.

Bill