The Patriot Post Digest 3-1-2019

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-1-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest

Mar. 1, 2019

https://patriotpost.us/digests/61507-mid-day-digest

THE FOUNDATION

“A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species.” —James Madison (1792)

https://patriotpost.us/fqd/61506-founders-quote-daily

IN TODAY’S EDITION

The latest GDP report reveals more good economic news for the nation.1
So what better time for Dems to unveil their plan to take over health care?2
Daily Features: More Analysis3, Columnists4, Headlines5, Opinion in Brief6, Short Cuts7, Memes8, and Cartoons9.

IN BRIEF

Cut Taxes, Grow Economy10

Nate Jackson

It’s not news that the economy has emerged from the doldrums of the previous administration and is growing at a healthy pace. Yesterday’s release of fourth-quarter and full-year GDP numbers was another confirmation.

Fourth-quarter growth was a modest but higher-than-expected 2.6%, slowing from 3.4% in the third quarter and 4.2% in the second, and growth for calendar year 2018 was a healthy 2.9%. Yes, that’s just shy of President Donald Trump’s promise to grow the economy at 3% or more each year. Yes, it marks a record 13th straight year11 without 3% growth. And yes, the government shutdown may have put just enough drag on the economy that it missed the 3% mark.

But the White House offered a slightly different measurement, backed up by Bloomberg12: “GDP grew by 3.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018,” which “represents $280 billion more in American economic output” than if previous trends had continued. In any case, it’s part of a significant upward trend since Trump took office. Remember when Barack Obama and his Keynesian stimulus pals informed us that 2% growth may be the “new normal”? Or when former Obama adviser Larry Summers dismissed the idea that tax cuts would yield growth unless “you believe in tooth fairies and ludicrous supply-side economics”?

Well, according to Jim Moran, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, “For all the hand-wringing and angst, you’d have to go back to 2005 to find a year in which the economy grew at a faster pace.” The bottom line: The Trump administration has an exemplary record13 on tax cuts, deregulation, and economic growth.

However, we’ve said repeatedly over the last two decades that the economy in many ways amounts to a measurement of consumer confidence — a measurement that’s pretty high right now14. We’ve also warned that Democrats are so set on their “Hate Trump” campaign, especially leading into 2020, that they actually want a recession15. How will they get one? Undermining consumer confidence with incessant Leftmedia doomsaying.

A prime example is the yarn that Republican tax reform is yielding smaller tax refunds16 — due to limited deductions for some and smaller withholding for others. Well, The Daily Signal reports17, “Tax refunds have increased this week, the Treasury Department announced Thursday. … The average refund at this point in the filing season is now up 1.3 percent over last year.”

Either way, Heritage Foundation fiscal policy analyst Adam Michel gets it right: “The important point to remember is that 90 percent of Americans got a tax cut. It is likely that more Americans will also get larger refunds, but the two are not connected.” What is connected is that when the government confiscates and redistributes less of our money, the economy grows more substantially.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61505-cut-taxes-grow-economy

The Left’s Latest Socialist Health Care Plan18

Thomas Gallatin

As part of their ever-expanding effort to buy votes with “free” stuff19, House Democrats this week introduced their latest attempted government takeover of health care under the now-infamous label “Medicare for All.” The sweeping legislation, introduced by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI), would essentially outlaw private health insurance, replacing it with an entirely federal-run single-payer system similar to those found in Canada and the UK. Obviously, this stands no chance of becoming law … yet. But let’s look at what Democrats want.

Evoking classic socialist, anti-capitalist rhetoric, Jayapal asserted, “It’s time to put people’s health over profit. Our bill will cover everyone. Not just those who are fortunate enough to have employer-sponsored insurance.” She further asserted, “Not just children. Not just seniors. Not just those who are healthy. Everyone. Because healthcare is a human right.”

How do Democrats treat such “rights”?

Make no mistake: This legislation is, as The Heritage Foundation’s health-care expert Robert Moffit writes20, “profoundly authoritarian.” Individual freedom regarding health care would be a thing of the past. No more keeping your doctor or your health insurance. Those would all be eliminated in favor of a system based on centralized government control. While hospitals would not be owned by the government, they would essentially be controlled — along with many treatment choices — by bureaucrats in Washington. Hello, fascism?

Taxes would necessarily increase significantly, as the estimated cost for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s similar Medicare for All plan comes in at a whopping $32.6 trillion over 10 years21. Moffit further notes, “Ken Thorpe of Emory University, formerly an adviser to President Bill Clinton, estimates that the federal taxation needed to finance the Sanders plan would amount to an additional 20 percent tax on workers’ income, and more than 7 out of 10 working families would end up paying more for health care than they do today.”

So, not only would Americans lose their freedom to choose their own insurance plans and doctors, they’d be paying more than ever for health care via taxes while receiving poorer service. Citing the Journal of the American Medical Association’s comparison of the current U.S. system to that of both Canada and the UK, Moffit explains, “Concerning access to specialized care, for example, they found that only 6 percent of American patients reported waiting more than two months to see a medical specialist, compared to 39 percent of Canadian patients and 19 percent of British patients. The Fraser Institute, a prominent Canadian think tank, estimated that in 2018 the median waiting time for a Canadian patient to see a medical specialist on referral from a general practitioner was 19.8 weeks.”

There are no two ways about it. This Democrat legislation is a boondoggle designed to buy votes and then install an authoritarian system to effect greater centralized control over the lives of all Americans, all under the guise of providing “universal” health care. This monstrosity of a bill is about as un-American as it gets.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61486-the-lefts-latest-socialist-health-care-plan

ON OUR WEBSITE TODAY

Featured Analysis: Some Good Advice for Men From … Obama?22 — He spoke to young black men about the dangers of promiscuity, bullying, and selfishness.
Baltimore Reverses Course on Arming Cops in Schools23 — One of the nation’s worst cities for murder finally makes a sensible decision on guns.
Seeing Is Believing24 — We’ll believe Democrats mean what they’re saying when they start walking the walk.
Video: War on Women: Two Trans ‘Girl’ Athletes25 — By “transgender women,” we mean two biological guys who just stole awards from biological girls.

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The Patriot Post Digest 3-1-2019
From The Federalist Patriot
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TOP HEADLINE SUMMARY

“Andrew Wheeler will be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after the Senate voted to confirm him in a mostly party-line … 52-47 vote on Thursday, seven months after his predecessor Scott Pruitt resigned. Republican Sen. Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote against Wheeler.” (ABC News27)
“Sen. Bernie Sanders’ new deputy national press secretary likely won’t be eligible to vote in the 2020 election due to what she says is her status as an undocumented immigrant. The hiring of Belen Sisa, an Arizona leftist activist, was announced Wednesday evening. Sisa, who says she was brought to this country illegally from Argentina by her parents at age six, is currently protected from deportation under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.” (Washington Examiner28)
“Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday he’s running for president, saying he will emphasize attempts to combat climate change during his bid for the Democratic nomination. … But it’s far from clear that voters will make the environment a priority on Election Day. Inslee lost a 2018 ballot initiative in his home state that would have imposed the nation’s first carbon fee on large polluters.” (CNBC29)
“Israel’s attorney-general announced on Thursday he intends to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges, a decision coming just six weeks before a closely contested national election. It was the first time a serving Israeli prime minister has been put on official notice of planned prosecution, and deepened uncertainty over how Netanyahu … will fare against a coalition of upstart centrist rivals.” (Reuters30)
“Trump derangement syndrome has gone so far into overdrive that his detractors are now criticizing him even when he does something solely to their benefit. The LGBT pushback against his administration’s policy to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide is perhaps the most puzzling example. According to Fox News, LGBT activists have largely denounced the Trump administration’s policy on decriminalizing homosexuality as a cheap ploy rather than an actual promise.” (The Daily Wire31)
Always blame Trump: “Undocumented immigrants are increasingly choosing to cross the U.S. border illegally rather than waiting in line to claim asylum at legal ports of entry. … Immigration lawyers and rights advocates say asylum seekers are opting for illegal crossing because they are growing frustrated with waiting lines caused by Trump administration policies.” (NBC News32)
Lazy journalism: “A sinister game called ‘The Momo Challenge’ exists online. It involves a creepy woman’s face popping up when children are watching cartoons on YouTube or playing video games or just messaging each other. Momo orders these children, as part of this game, to do harmful things to themselves, up to and including suicide. The most important thing to understand about ‘The Momo Challenge’ is that it doesn’t exist. … This is a great example of media people conjuring fake news.” (Reason33)
Not-so-humorous: Democrats essentially say, “The only thing more precious than a newborn baby is the right to kill it” (The Babylon Bee34)
Policy: “Properly understood, state and local taxes don’t reduce your ability to pay federal income tax, and don’t tax the same dollar of income twice. Instead, they reflect a choice you made to live in a place in which the government provides a certain set of goods and services to taxpayers. Residents of lower-tax states should not be on the hook for spending decisions of governments in higher-tax states. … Congress should get rid of the deduction entirely. To minimize disruption, the deduction should be set on a gradual glide path toward zero over a number of years.”(Michael R. Strain, Bloomberg Opinion35)
Policy: “Colorado is joining a list of states attempting to overturn the way Americans have selected their presidents for over two centuries. … While the Constitution, intentionally, gives wide latitude to states to create their own electoral systems, the law passed in Colorado, along with the rest of this effort, would be unprecedented. It would be the first time states potentially outsource their Electoral College votes to the will of the nation as a whole, rather than having elections determined by their own voters. The result of this, ironically, could be very undemocratic.” (The Daily Signal36)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights37.

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61503-friday-top-headline-summary

OPINION IN BRIEF

Jonah Goldberg: “I have long argued that the North Koreans can’t be talked out of their nuclear program because their nuclear program is central to the rationale for the regime’s entire existence. It would be like talking Hitler and the Nazi regime out of their desire for conquest and their obsessions with the Jews; it’s simply the nature of the regime. You cannot reason a leopard to abandon its spots. It’s doubtful Trump fully recognizes this yet, but that’s irrelevant. He recognized enough: Any deal he could have gotten with Kim would have been worse than doing what he did — walk away from the table. Whether he came to this conclusion on his own or was cajoled into it by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton is irrelevant, too. One can rightly bemoan or lament the fact that the Trump presidency made the Cohen spectacle possible in the first place. But that doesn’t change the fact that the president defied political temptation and did the right thing.”

SHORT CUTS

Insight: “Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” —George Orwell (1903-1950)

Hell hath frozen over: “[Single-payer health care] is, administratively, the simplest thing to do, but to convert to it? Thirty trillion dollars. Now, how do you pay for that?” —Nancy Pelosi

Non Compos Mentis: “I don’t know if Michael Cohen is truthful, but if he is, he should get the Congressional Medal of Honor for finally … moving us toward the end of this nightmare.” —Alec Baldwin

Non Compos Mentis II: “If you want a party that is moving closer to the center or whose voters say they want to be closer to center, that would be the Democrats.” —Washington Post “conservative” blogger Jennifer Rubin on a party so extreme that it just voted to block a bill outlawing infanticide

Braying Jackass: “[George W. Bush] and I had our differences, but no one ever questioned his patriotism. Our battles were strictly political battles. There’s no question in my mind that George Bush would be Babe Ruth in this league that he’s in with Donald Trump in the league. Donald Trump wouldn’t make the team.” —Harry Reid

Alpha Jackass: “There is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the vice president.” —Joe Biden after getting blasted for calling Mike Pence a “decent guy”

And last… “The camera-preening and antics of members of Congress at televised hearings like [Cohen’s] is genuinely embarrassing for the country. You would not trust this crew to search for that missing sock in the dryer, never mind unravel a complicated criminal conspiracy.” —Jim Geraghty

https://patriotpost.us/articles/61504-friday-short-cuts

Join our editors and staff in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis

Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher