As a new year dawns, it’s customary to reflect on the past and set resolutions for the future. This year, let’s resolve to greet three widespread claims with healthy doses of skepticism.

By: Chris Edwards – nationalreview.com – December 18, 2023 Cutting federal aid to the states would reduce our national debt while improving governance. Federal debt is soaring to dangerous levels. Debt held by the public now tops $26 trillion, or $200,000 for every household in the nation. The debt relative to the size of the economy will soon hit an all-time...

By: Katie Pavlich – townhall.com – December 15, 2023 During remarks at the White House this week, President Joe Biden made one of his most disingenuous claims yet against Republicans.  “Congress needs to pass the supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess — before they give Putin the greatest Christmas gift they could possibly give him. And...

Within months, all but the top 1% of consumers will likely be doing worse than they were before COVID, in the bank’s view. Source: 99% of Americans to Be Financially Worse-Off Than Pre-COVID in 2024

Since money-printing went into permanent high gear after the dotcom crash in 2000, the top 1% of households have gained $20 million each in inflation-adjusted net worth. Likewise, the top 0.1% or 131,000 households at the tippy top of the economic ladder have gained $88 million each in inflation-adjusted net worth.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in July highlighted the “underutilization” of federal office space. The GAO “surveyed two dozen federal agencies and found they averaged a roughly 80% vacancy rate during the study period earlier this year. Not a single agency topped 50% use.

President Joe Biden says 24 million Americans “suffer from food insecurity!” News anchors were shocked that there is “food insecurity in the richest country in the world!” ABC hosts turned “insecurity” into “hunger.”

Among the top priorities for newly selected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-L A ) was his announced intention to form a bipartisan panel to cut massive spending that has led to an unsustainable $33 trillion national debt.

Economists have long recognized a phenomenon known as the “wealth effect.” When “households become richer as a result of a rise in asset values, such as corporate stock prices or home values, they spend more and stimulate the broader economy.” Americans at all income levels experienced the wealth effect during the Trump years. “Bidenomics” has brought the wealth effect to a screeching halt, which is one big reason why President Biden’s polling numbers are so low.

By: Andrew Stuttaford – nationalreview.com – September 28, 2023 A hamstrung green economy would mean a worse future The industrial revolution is not yet canceled, but it has become “problematic.” When delegates arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, for Conference of the Parties 26, the 2021 edition of the U.N.’s climate jamboree, Britain’s then–prime minister, Boris Johnson, welcomed them with a speech in...