Politics/Religion Consolidated Megathread Extravaganza

[Herman]

I aint advocating cutting benefits that working folks paid for and count on when they retire. But, American Social Security aint sustainable as is. And it does add to deficits.





Fact check: Social Security does contribute to federal deficit and national debt

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/08/fact-check-social-security-does-contribute-federal-deficit-debt/11185952002/">https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/fac ... 185952002/">https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/08/fact-check-social-security-does-contribute-federal-deficit-debt/11185952002/



The claim: Social Security has 'nothing to do' with deficit and national debt

A Jan. 12 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) from left-wing pages Occupy Democrats and Being Liberal shows a claim about Social Security.



"Dear Republican Party, If you take or cut OUR Social Security, I will bring a lawsuit against you for all the money taken from MY paychecks," reads the post. "Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit or the national debt. You created that fiction and we're not falling for it."



The post generated over 10,000 likes in less than a month. Occupy Democrats shared the same claim on Facebook on Jan. 12, where it accumulated over 4,000 likes before it was corrected.



Our rating: False

Economic experts said Social Security, which has run an annual deficit since 2010, uses bonds issued by the Treasury Department to pay out benefits. The government must borrow money from the public to repay those bonds, which contributes to the federal deficit and national debt.



Social Security contributes to deficit and national debt

Social Security and the rest of government are "far more intertwined" than this Facebook post claims, Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, told USA TODAY in an email.



Since 2010, however, Social Security has been running an annual deficit, meaning it has been collecting less in revenue than it pays out in benefits, according to Gleckman.



As a result, Social Security redeemed the bonds held in the trust funds to pay out the full benefits, Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told USA TODAY. When the federal government repays those bonds, it must borrow from the public to obtain the funds to do so.



"Thus, if Social Security runs a tax deficit of $1 this year, it redeems $1 of trust fund bonds, and the federal government borrows $1 from the public to repay those bonds," Biggs said.



That in turn increases the unified budget deficit, which covers the entire federal government budget, and the national debt on a dollar-for-dollar basis, Biggs said.

[Herman]

Jim Crow Joe's IRS plan is to target workers' tips. Finally, we're gonna take down the rich waitresses. ac_toofunny



The program would track point-of-sale data provided by employers in order to ensure that service workers like waiters, many of whom are paid less than minimum wage and rely on gratuity from customers, are paying taxes on the tips they receive.



The IRS, flush with a boosted enforcement budget that they totally promise is to go after rich people has announced a crackdown on service industry tipped workers. Stop the presses. No need to raise the debt limit. Jim Crow Joe is going after those billionaire waitresses' tips. Do not fret folks, Jim Crow Joe is going to make rich waitresses pay their fair share.

[Herman]

Another Republican councilman in New Jersey has been murdered. 51-year-old Russell Heller was shot and killed.



Heller is now the second Republican councilperson in New Jersey to be murdered in a matter of days. On the evening of February 1, Eunice Dwumfour, a 30-year-old councilwoman and mother, was shot multiple times in her vehicle just outside her home in Sayreville. Though Sayreville is only about 12 miles from where Heller was killed, the two incidents are not believed to be connected. The Dwumfour case remains unsolved.

[Herman]

Aint it ironic, old Jim Crow Joe is accusing Republicans of wanting to sunset Social Security.



White House distances Biden from 1975 bill to sunset Social Security: 'Not part of the president's agenda'

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-distances-biden-1975-bill-sunset-social-security-not-part-presidents-agenda">https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white- ... nts-agenda">https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-distances-biden-1975-bill-sunset-social-security-not-part-presidents-agenda

Republicans have accused Biden of hypocrisy in criticizing Scott, citing the president's own past proposals to sunset federal entitlement programs.



In 1975, while Biden was in the upper chamber of Congress, the now-president put forward a bill requiring all federal programs to sunset after four years.

[Oerdin]

Jim Crow Joe's IRS plan is to target workers' tips. Finally, we're gonna take down the rich waitresses. ac_toofunny



The program would track point-of-sale data provided by employers in order to ensure that service workers like waiters, many of whom are paid less than minimum wage and rely on gratuity from customers, are paying taxes on the tips they receive.



The IRS, flush with a boosted enforcement budget that they totally promise is to go after rich people has announced a crackdown on service industry tipped workers. Stop the presses. No need to raise the debt limit. Jim Crow Joe is going after those billionaire waitresses' tips. Do not fret folks, Jim Crow Joe is going to make rich waitresses pay their fair share.

Republicans literally said Democrats wanted to target little people because they will just pay up instead of spreading $20,000 fighting it.  Democrats denied they would target regular people so Republicans proposed legally restricting the new agents to only investigate corporations and people making more than $250,000 a year.  EVERY SINGLE Democrat in Congress voted against that.  Every one.



Then it went into effect and only little people got targeted by the IRS.  The reason is simple; rich people have accountants and tax attorneys so the IRS loses money and ties up huge resources trying to go after them.  Thus Democrats target regular people but lie to their stupid base that they want to go after the rich.  You can't fix stupid.

[DKG]

Jim Crow Joe's IRS plan is to target workers' tips. Finally, we're gonna take down the rich waitresses. ac_toofunny



The program would track point-of-sale data provided by employers in order to ensure that service workers like waiters, many of whom are paid less than minimum wage and rely on gratuity from customers, are paying taxes on the tips they receive.



The IRS, flush with a boosted enforcement budget that they totally promise is to go after rich people has announced a crackdown on service industry tipped workers. Stop the presses. No need to raise the debt limit. Jim Crow Joe is going after those billionaire waitresses' tips. Do not fret folks, Jim Crow Joe is going to make rich waitresses pay their fair share.

Republicans literally said Democrats wanted to target little people because they will just pay up instead of spreading $20,000 fighting it.  Democrats denied they would target regular people so Republicans proposed legally restricting the new agents to only investigate corporations and people making more than $250,000 a year.  EVERY SINGLE Democrat in Congress voted against that.  Every one.



Then it went into effect and only little people got targeted by the IRS.  The reason is simple; rich people have accountants and tax attorneys so the IRS loses money and ties up huge resources trying to go after them.  Thus Democrats target regular people but lie to their stupid base that they want to go after the rich.  You can't fix stupid.

There were not hiring tens of thousands of new agents for only 614 billionaires in the US.

[Herman]

Jim Crow Joe's IRS plan is to target workers' tips. Finally, we're gonna take down the rich waitresses. ac_toofunny



The program would track point-of-sale data provided by employers in order to ensure that service workers like waiters, many of whom are paid less than minimum wage and rely on gratuity from customers, are paying taxes on the tips they receive.



The IRS, flush with a boosted enforcement budget that they totally promise is to go after rich people has announced a crackdown on service industry tipped workers. Stop the presses. No need to raise the debt limit. Jim Crow Joe is going after those billionaire waitresses' tips. Do not fret folks, Jim Crow Joe is going to make rich waitresses pay their fair share.

Republicans literally said Democrats wanted to target little people because they will just pay up instead of spreading $20,000 fighting it.  Democrats denied they would target regular people so Republicans proposed legally restricting the new agents to only investigate corporations and people making more than $250,000 a year.  EVERY SINGLE Democrat in Congress voted against that.  Every one.



Then it went into effect and only little people got targeted by the IRS.  The reason is simple; rich people have accountants and tax attorneys so the IRS loses money and ties up huge resources trying to go after them.  Thus Democrats target regular people but lie to their stupid base that they want to go after the rich.  You can't fix stupid.

The democRATs are using the IRS to wage war on working folks.

[Herman]

City Councilor Alex Bierk put out a call on Twitter for donations from the community for "encampment support," posting a list that included weed, alcohol, cigarettes and more.



The politician in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, did not hesitate to defend his charitable actions on Twitter or in subsequent statements to the Peterborough Examiner.



People "are going to drink regardless. Can u imagine being in withdrawal in this weather in a tent? Or panhandling or collecting cans all day etc..etc..to get a few tall cans," Bierk said in response to a critical comment, which remarked "alcohol is dangerous with hypothermia and frost bite."

https://twitter.com/alexbierk/status/1621541144394956807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1621541144394956807%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Fcdn-city-council-alcoholmarijuana-homeless">https://twitter.com/alexbierk/status/16 ... a-homeless">https://twitter.com/alexbierk/status/1621541144394956807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1621541144394956807%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theblaze.com%2Fnews%2Fcdn-city-council-alcoholmarijuana-homeless

[Herman]

Alex Epstein giving democRATs hell for their anti oil and gas phobia.



Democrats are claiming there's nothing they could have done about today's oil and natural gas prices. These prices, they say, are outside America's control because they are largely set by global markets.



In fact, had Democrats been pro-oil-and-gas our prices would be much lower.



Democrats could have ensured far lower oil and gas prices despite global tumult had they, upon taking power in 2019:



1) Liberated oil investment, production, and transport.

2) Liberated natural gas investment, production, and transport.



Instead, they systematically strangled oil and gas.



How Democrats could have made oil prices lower



By supporting the liberation of oil investment, production, and transport, Democrats could have unleashed our vast resources and industrial ingenuity to dramatically add to global oil supply—putting major downward pressure on prices.



American oil producers can only have a huge effect on global markets if investors are free to invest in oil production.



But Democrats have sabotaged oil investment by 1) supporting various "ESG" policies that call for reduced oil investment and 2) threatening oil producers' existence.



Since Barack Obama ran for President declaring "the age of oil must end in our time" and continuing through Joe Biden's "guarantee" that "we're going to end fossil fuel," US Democrats have threatened the future of oil production—a major deterrent for investment.



Energy Secretary Granholm's statement "that oil is a global market; it is controlled by a cartel...called OPEC" captures the view that US policy has little effect on global markets. But as the shale revolution proved, American industry can have a huge effect on global markets.

[Herman]

Jim Crow Joe used a tax loophole to dodge taxes that should have gone to Medicare in his own filings.

[Oerdin]

Enabling is not help for addicts and make no mistake the reason people become street homeless instead of entering a free recovery program is because they are addicts.  In the US 85% of street homeless are addicts with the remainder mostly mentally ill.  There is some over lap, of course.

[Herman]

Jim Crow Joe claims he is laser focused on combatting inflation. His policies say otherwise.



https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/3851981-bad-news-bidens-agenda-will-drive-inflation-higher/">https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/385 ... on-higher/">https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/3851981-bad-news-bidens-agenda-will-drive-inflation-higher/

First off, there was little suggestion in Biden's rambling State of the Union address that exorbitant federal spending – blamed by many economists for sky-high prices – would come down any time soon.  



His war on fossil fuels, which has discouraged higher oil and gas production, and his push to increase regulations on businesses, and the Federal Reserve will have its hands full bringing inflation down to 2 percent.



Biden has yet to admit the connection between spending and price inflation. In his speech, he again passed the buck, saying, "Inflation has been a global problem because the pandemic disrupted our supply chains and Putin's unfair and brutal war in Ukraine disrupted energy supplies as well as food supplies, blocking all that grain in Ukraine."



See? It's all the fault of COVID-19 and Vladimir Putin.



And yet, voters connect those dots, and blame Biden's blowout budgets for the decades-high hit to middle class real incomes. Consequently, the president dishonestly brags about bringing our deficits down even though the decline is from emergency levels to still elevated totals. We are nowhere near back to "normal."



For example, he continues to advocate forgiving certain student loans, which the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School estimates will cost $361 billion.



In the laundry list of ambitions outlined in the president's speech, Biden also included an extended care program that will allow seniors and people with disabilities to stay in their homes, more Pell grants, pre-school for the nation's three and four-year-olds, two years of free community college and a raise for public school teachers.



Biden says these programs are "fully paid for."  Will increasing the tax on stock buybacks or adopting a billionaire's tax fund these large programs? It's doubtful, and in any event those measures are not expected to pass a GOP House.



Biden also wants more money to fund new vaccines and treatments for future viruses. He wants to combat crime not through reversing the idiotic no-bail programs progressives have adopted in blue cities like New York, but rather by ratcheting up "more resources to reduce violent crime and gun crime, more community intervention programs, more investments in housing, education and job training."



In a similar vein, he vows to stem the flood of illegal immigrants entering our country if only Congress would "pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border." And he wants to up support for veterans, helping them to afford housing and providing more job training.



Many of these programs are well-meaning, but they would add to our deficits. In addition, some, like forgiving student loans or the child tax credit, would help keep people from working, which is one of the key sources of inflation today.



Some 5.6 million Americans have disappeared from the workforce since January 2020. Since then, the population has expanded by 7 million, but only 1.4 million more people are employed. This is a problem.



Tight labor markets are driving wages higher, proving a speed bump to lowering inflation. The Atlanta Federal Reserve shows wages rose 6.1 percent in January on average, which was below the 6.7 percent jump posted last August, but still a challenge to the Fed's 2 percent inflation target.



Its analysis concluded that the Buy American rule would "likely impose a cost of 5 to 10 percent on US taxpayers through inflated prices for public purchases. The elevated cost—essentially government waste—could exceed $100 billion annually."  



Biden probably thinks pushing the Buy American program will enhance his poor standing with blue-collar workers who have defected to the GOP. Instead of micro-managing U.S. businesses and programs, maybe he should unleash our productive energy industries to bring down gasoline prices, reduce – not increase – regulations that are making our companies less productive, buck the teacher unions and demand better educations for middle-class kids and drop the woke agenda that middle America hates.







In his speech, Biden promised his coming economic plan "is going to cut the deficit by another $2 trillion." And yet, his address was peppered with expensive new promises.

[DKG]

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy masterfully avoided taking the bait after a CNN reporter attempted to instigate a rift between him and Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah.



McCarthy instead managed to hit at both Romney and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California without ever losing a step.



CNN's Manu Raju spoke to Romney on Wednesday and asked him about an exchange he had on Tuesday night with embattled Republican Rep. George Santos of New York.



Romney responded by laying into Santos with the kind of fury he reserves only for Republicans. He said Santos had no business mingling with senators and the president after the State of the Union address.



"Look, he says that he embellished his record," Romney said of Santos. "Embellishing is saying you got an A when you got an A-minus. Lying is saying you graduated from a college you didn't even attend."



Romney was then asked if he was disappointed with McCarthy for sticking by Santos. He responded with an emphatic "yes."



At no point during the interview did Romney call on Swalwell to resign after his much-reported tryst with a Chinese spy.



Romney also refrained from calling on Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut to quit, despite the Democrat's past lies about fighting in the Vietnam War — which he did not.



This is what we have come to expect from Romney, sadly. He is always good for a soundbite for the establishment media and quick to hold everyone but his Democratic colleagues accountable.



In any event, Raju got his Romney soundbite without a great deal of effort. When the CNN reporter took the quote to McCarthy, he wanted a fiery response. He definitely got one.



Raju informed the speaker that Romney had expressed disappointment in McCarthy's refusal to call on Santos to resign.



McCarthy refused to get baited into Republican infighting. He fired back, "Romney should be disappointed that Swalwell hasn't resigned."



It was a mic-drop moment. McCarthy hit two birds with one stone, and he somehow managed to do it in stride.

https://ijr.com/mccarthy-gets-ambushed-rino-romney-criticism/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ijr-presents&utm_content=2023-02-10&utm_campaign=storyfeed">https://ijr.com/mccarthy-gets-ambushed- ... =storyfeed">https://ijr.com/mccarthy-gets-ambushed-rino-romney-criticism/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=ijr-presents&utm_content=2023-02-10&utm_campaign=storyfeed



Romney is a Dem in all but name.

[DKG]

The msm is at it again publishing libelous accusations against GOP politicians. This time it's WaPo.



Latina Republican rep. goes nuclear on WaPo article, forces retraction: 'Sorry leftists but I'm about to blow up your BS story'



Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida ripped into a Washington Post article intended to smear her reputation, and the paper was forced to issue a retraction.



The article claimed that Luna had a history of identifying as different ethnicities based on what served her purposes and accused her of lying about her upbringing.



Luna launched into a series of tweets undermining the article on Thursday.



"Holy s*** the Washington post just tried to claim my dad was never incarcerated, left out comments from my mom, said I was a registered Democrat, and did not report a convo they had with a former roommate, and interviewed 'family' I don't talk to. This is comical," she tweeted.



She went on to deny other claims made in the article and posted screenshots that refuted or contradicted some of the claims.



The Post issued a retraction of one claim.



"A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Anna Paulina Luna was registered as a Democrat in Washington state in 2017 based on an erroneous voter registration database. Washington state only requires voters to declare their party affiliation when they cast a ballot in a presidential primary," the article reads.



Luna said that she is ready to pursue legal action if the Post fails to issue more corrections.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/rep-luna-wapo-smear-article?utm_source=theblaze-dailyAM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__AM%202023-02-11&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Daily%20AM">https://www.theblaze.com/news/rep-luna- ... Daily%20AM">https://www.theblaze.com/news/rep-luna-wapo-smear-article?utm_source=theblaze-dailyAM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__AM%202023-02-11&utm_term=ACTIVE%20LIST%20-%20TheBlaze%20Daily%20AM

[DKG]

Biden Signs Order for 24-7 Surveillance of all US Citizens. Executive Order 14057 was not approved by congress or given meadia coverage. The most treacherous act ever signed by a sitting president.