Monthly Archives: December 2025

Where Our Tax Money Has Gone

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At one point there was a meme going around suggesting that Congressmen wear logos on their suits like the ones race drivers wear so that we would know who sponsors them. In looking at some of the expenditures by Congress in recent years, I think that would be a really good idea. Particularly in the area of renewable energy. How much of our tax money used to subsidize green energy wound up in China?

On Monday (updated Tuesday) Just the News posted an article about the distribution of the energy subsidies provided by our federal government.

The article reports:

A new report from the National Center for Energy Analytics (NCEA) finds that 90% of subsidies for the energy sector in 2025 went to renewable energy. The analysis also shows that oil, gas and coal industries’ subsidies come mainly in the form of tax expenditures as opposed to direct subsidies.

Using data from the Department of the Treasury, Paul Tice, senior fellow with the NCEA, calculates that in fiscal year 2025, explicit government subsidies in the form of tax expenditures for the entire energy sector totaled $64.1 billion. This was more than all other domestic industries. The NCEA was created by The Texas Public Policy Foundation as a national energy think tank.

The total fossil fuel-related tax expenditures came to $2.6 billion in revenue losses for the federal government in fiscal year 2025. 

By comparison, the total amount of federal tax money subsidizing renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy-efficient equipment in fiscal year 2025 was $57.9 billion, which exceeds the total for fossil fuels over the entire fiscal year 1994-2025 period, according to the report. 

The article notes that “Big Oil” is not gobbling up all of the energy subsidies:

The analysis disputes claims from other sources that “Big Oil” is gobbling up trillions of dollars in subsidies every year. The International Monetary Fund pegs the global figure at $7 trillion. A report in September from the climate advocacy nonprofit Oil Change International estimated that oil, gas and coal in the U.S. receive approximately $34.8 billion per year. 

The article concludes:

Tice concluded that repealing all subsidies for fossil fuels would have no meaningful impact on the profitability of the industry or the demand for its products. The main driver of energy-sector subsidies are tax credits for renewable energy. 

“Income tax expenditures for renewable energy producers and clean energy users will continue to dwarf those for the traditional energy sector for the foreseeable future,” Tice wrote. 

While the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed in July will phase them out, it will be another decade before that happens. And there’s no certainty they will. The tax credits were originally established in 1992 as a means to boost a fledgling industry. They’ve been renewed 11 times since. 

This is another place where Congress needs to act to save the taxpayers’ money.

The Value Of Private Property Rights

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In 2010, I wrote an article about the relationship between private property rights and poverty. The source of the article was a post by John Stossel at Townhall. The conclusion of the article was that enforcing property rights and the rule of law breeds prosperity. Unfortunately, New York City is on the verge of forgetting that principle.

On Monday, The Post Millennial reported:

The New York City Council has passed what has been called the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) that will force private building owners to offer up their property to nonprofits and government entities before they make any private sale, effectively causing massive delays in property sales and other regulatory hurdles in the Big Apple’s housing industry.

In the scenario that it is passed, NYC will have the largest COPA program in the country. The act forces landlords to offer their property to the city as well as nonprofits before the building can be sold on the public market. The lawmaker who sponsored the law, Council Member Sandy Nurse, claims that it will be a win for New Yorkers.

“Corporate interests and big real estate tried their hardest to block the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act with a misinformation and fear-mongering campaign, and they failed,” Nurse said about the law’s passage, per Pix 11. “Today marks the beginning of a new social housing era in New York City… COPA levels the playing field and makes it possible to preserve and create thousands of permanently affordable homes across our city.”

The act dictates that landlords must first tip off the government entities and nonprofits that qualify, and “may not take any action that will result in the sale of such covered property to a person other than” those entities. Then the owner must sit on that property for 25 days as it is up for sale to the nonprofits, which can submit a statement of interest.

According to JD Supra:

COPA applies to to Class A multiple dwellings with four or more dwelling units, subject to several important limitations and timing thresholds. Owner-occupied properties for residential purposes with five or fewer units are expressly excluded. (Let’s see how long that provision is honored.)

Beginning one year after the legislation’s anticipated 2027 effective date, COPA’s scope expands. Properties may qualify as a Covered Property based on hazardous or immediately hazardous housing violations, expiring affordability restrictions, or other criteria established by HPD through future rulemaking.

The law is billed as something that is going to create affordable housing. Actually, it will simply create chaos in the New York City real estate market.

This is a definite infringement on private property rights. I hope there is a lawsuit filed as soon as the Mayor signs the bill into law.

UPDATE: Mayor Adam’s vetoed the bill on New Year’s Eve. The City Council needs a two-thirds majority to override that veto.

Affordability: The Next Scam

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, PH.D.  

The leftist Democrats are always looking for some issue, real or not, that they hope will appeal to voter’s emotions and return them to political power so that they can continue the destruction of America. Apparently, “affordability” will be used in the 2026 election year. As is the case in all these political scams, the reality is much different than the picture they want to present.

Look at the recent mayoral race in New York City. Not only was affordability the key issue of the Mandani campaign, but he actually presented no solutions that any sensible economist would say that could solve the problem. Why? Because the communist ideas of price controls, government owned retail stores, and taxing the rich have never worked and will never do so. Free market capitalism is the only system that has ever been shown to improve wealth and standard of living of the people. The troubling issue is why so many gullible people continue to buy into the communist lies.

As in most instances of Leftist propaganda, the youth and those looking to the government for solutions to their problems are the people most easily duped. This is the reason the Leftists have always wanted to lower the voting age and import more immigrants–they can place them on welfare programs and make them wards of the state.

One of the few advantages of getting older is the historical perspective one gains from having lived through various economic conditions. Take for instance mortgage rates. The current mortgage rate around 6% is blamed, in part, for the housing affordability problem. Freddie Mack Mortgage Market survey started tracking the 30-year mortgage rate in 1971, which at that time was 7.3%. The rate went as high as 18.5% in 1981. The average rate from 1971 to the present is 7.8%.  The lowest rates ever recorded were in 2021 at 2.8%; which quickly jumped to 8% during the Biden administration. The abnormally low mortgage rates of 2021 were an aberration not likely to be seen again. These low rates drove up housing prices and expectations, making homes affordable that many people could not have afforded previously.        

There is another issue that needs to be recognized, and that is the idea of living within (preferable slightly below your means). That does not appear to be a value that most young people live by these days. It used to be an American value to live within your income and to save for the future. This was facilitated by the system of paying with cash and or writing checks that required a person to spend no more than was in their checking account. The current digital/credit card systems hide the reality of what a person is spending. That is the reason credit card debt in the U.S. recently reached an all-time record high of $1.23 trillion!

Another contributing factor to overspending is family size. The average number of children per household in the 1950’s was 5.6 children, now it is less than 2. The result is that the youth of our country are used to living at a higher standard than we older people experienced as children. For example, my family rarely if ever went to restaurants, never owned a new car, and did not purchase a home until my parents were in their 40’s. Not unusual. Now, the youth of this country are used to having things the older generation never experienced. Drive by a local high school parking lot and observe the number of new or nearly new cars provided to the students by their parents.

The solution to the affordability issue is encouraging the youth to live within their means, accept the responsibility for their own financial wellbeing, to work hard, reduce or eliminate debt, and save for the future. The Trump economy, if not derailed by the leftist Democrats, will provide more opportunities for the youth to benefit from free enterprise than the failed communist ideology that is being pushed on them could ever do. We must get this message across to our children and grandchildren if we are to continue the economic success of the past 250 years. The idea of voting back in office the Democrats who are responsible for the highest inflation since the 1970’s to solve the problem is total lunacy.

Remembering Christmas 1984

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1984 was the year that Band Aid released ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’  On Thursday, Christmas, Legal Insurrection posted an article reminding us of the impact and meaning of the song.

The article notes:

The whole thing was put together by Bob Geldof, the lead singer of the Irish rock group the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox. They somehow managed to write the song, invite lots of other musicians to sing and play it, and then get it to market in record time.

Participants included Boy George, Bono, Sting, George Michael, Phil Collins, members of Kool & the Gang, Duran Duran, and dozens of others. MTV played its part by putting the video into heavy rotation and the record sold millions of copies. In other words, celebrities used talent and capitalism to help solve a problem. It was a different time.

The song is great. To this day, it’s one of those songs that I turn way up if it comes on the radio in the car.

The article quotes from a CNN special and American Songwriter:

We then see another clip from the recording session showing Bono listening to one of the verses with Geldof. He comments, “It’s a hymn, really. Far out, Bob.”

The segment then returns to present-day Geldof, who explains what he was trying to convey with that line.

“The war, the horror of the famine, just be aware of it,” he notes. “There’s nothing sentimental about what I’m saying or trying to say. I’m being very f—ing blunt.”

The article at Legal Insurrection observes:

If celebrities really want to help with social solutions, they would be better off doing something like this instead of lazily echoing the Bernie Sanders message of taxing the rich.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Technology Probably Saved A Teenager’s Life

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On Saturday (updated Monday), USA Today posted an article about a father who may have saved his daughter’s life. On Christmas afternoon, a 15-year old girl took her dog out for a walk. When she did not return at the usual time, her father became concerned.

The article reports:

She had parental controls on her phone, allowing her parents to track her phone’s location.

The father tracked the daughter’s location nearly 2 miles away, in a secluded, partially wooded area, the sheriff’s office said. The father found his daughter and her dog inside a maroon-colored pickup truck, with a “partially nude” man, later identified by officials as Giovanni Rosales Espinoza, 23.

The father helped his daughter escape from the truck and contacted law enforcement, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators said Espinoza threatened the teenager with a knife and abducted her from the street. Witnesses nearby provided a description of the suspect’s truck, and deputies found the vehicle and identified Espinoza as the driver.

Thank God she had her cell phone with her. Espinoza is being held without bail.

A Well Informed Citizenry…

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Thomas Jefferson said, “A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.” (source here)

I am not sure we are currently meeting that criteria.

One of the major stories that finally got national attention this week was the rampant fraud in the Somali community in Minnesota. This is not a new story. The story finally went national due to a video posted on YouTube by Nick Shirley. How many other states that we have not heard about are also guilty of medicaid fraud or other fraud in government programs? I haven’t heard any real outrage from the major media.

In an article posted at Hot Air on Monday, Duane Patterson states:

Now I know what you’re saying. Media isn’t covering this new scandal. In fact, the Star-Tribune and Pioneer Press, the two papers of the Twin Cities, haven’t spent so much as a column inch on the story. The glorious thing about 2025, and a trend that shows it will accelerate going into 2026, is that people are not getting their news from old leftist media anymore. That 42-minute Nick Shirley video I showed you earlier? 90 million views in two days. 90 million! Not bad for a 23-year-old kid doing the unthinkable – reporting and journalism. 

Alphabet networks and Minnesota local stations will continue to ignore the story into oblivion, like they did with Powerline’s Medicaid fraud scandal. But the truth has this funny way of getting out. As white hot as the internet is with Nick Shirley’s reporting, Fox News jumped in over the weekend, and by the time they interviewed him about the Somali daycare scandal, another 10 million had seen his video on YouTube. 

What is happening in Minnesota is not an isolated incident. At what point will American voters become so disgusted with fraud that they will ‘throw the current bums out’ and elect a new set of bums?

How many college students who supported “Palestine” in campus protests actually knew what happened on October 7th or how the hostages taken were treated? How many young female American college students understand that rape was part of that day and part of the treatment of the hostages? Would they still support “Palestine” if they knew? On Monday, The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article that included the testimony of one of the Hamas hostages from October 7th. Where are the women protesting the idea that rape is a valid part of war?

We will not survive as a republic if people don’t begin to discover their own alternative sources of news rather than relying on the mainstream media.

Disappointed Doesn’t Cover It

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When President Trump picked Mike Pence as his Vice-President during his first term, I thought it was a good choice. I heard through the grapevine that I was wrong–something about teachers in Indiana, but I really didn’t understand what the issue was. I still don’t, but the former Vice-President’s behavior since President Trump’s loss in 2020 has been appalling to me.

On December 29, American Greatness posted an article about Vice-President Pence and some of his recent activities. The facts given have only reinforced my negative opinion of the man.

The article reports:

To listen to the chatter of the Important People, you would think that a “decent and elevated conservatism”™ was about to return, has returned, or is just about to triumph in the person of—cue the drum roll—Mike Pence, former vice president and perpetual Mr. Goody Two-Shoes.  

Yes, that’s right, because a baker’s dozen of less-than-fully gruntled employees of the Heritage Foundation decamped to Pence’s “Advancing American Freedom” sandbox, we are supposed to believe—at least, we are supposed to say—that a “Reorganization of the Conservative Movement” is underway.  

What do you think? Does the mutiny at the Heritage Foundation signal a “significant shift within the American right?” Or is it just the familiar anti-Trump palaver we’ve been used to since the media’s “loud and troublesome insects of the hour” began each day by announcing (praying?) that “the walls are closing in” on Donald Trump? 

In my opinion, decent and elevated conservatives don’t stab each other in the back.

The article notes:

I hate to crash that party, but it is worth noting that Donald Trump has yet to pass the one-year mark of his current four-year term. In that brief time, he has sealed the southern border, overseen the deportation (self- and assisted-) of more than two million illegal immigrants, and dismantled the insidious racist institution of DEI. He is in the process of destroying the archipelago headquarters of the Teachers Union, also known as the Department of Education, and those bits of the EPA that are concerned more with virtue signaling than with maintaining clean air and water. He has also begun the long process of defunding the international empire of Democrat satellites, the myriad of so-called “Non-Governmental Organizations,” which turn out on closer inspection to be semi-camouflaged proxies for the progressive agenda. Then there are little things like brokering peace in the Middle East, destroying ISIS, and stanching the flow of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into the U.S.  

The biggest problem with President Trump’s first term was that he didn’t know who belonged to the uni-party or the deep state. I think he has some of that under control now. Please follow the link to read the entire article.

One Person Can Make A Difference

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The Minnesota government fraud case has been in the headlines nationally recently. Power Line Blog has been reporting the story for years, but one young journalist is partially responsible for getting the story to the public.

On December 29, Scott Johnson posted an article at Power Line Blog about the corruption.

The article reports:

Bill Glahn, Lou Raguse, and other members of the local Twin Cities press have been covering the massive public-programs fraud committed by a large cast of almost exclusively Somali perpetrators for a while now. For those just tuning in, Bill points out — to take one example — that KSTP’s Jay Kolls knocked on alleged daycare doors in this January 2025 story.

YouTuber Nick Shirley has brought the daycare story to a national audience with the video he posted last week. Bill posted the video here on Power Line. The delayed detonation of this story represents another rendition of the Rufo effect. Like Chris Rufo’s linked City Journal column, the Shirley video implies that something must be done. An investigation must be conducted. Perpetrators must be held to account. This implication does a disservice to what has been done by the federal authorities to date. I tried to add this perspective to the story in “Minnesota’s Somali fraud problem.”

Shirley has a local guide named David. David alludes to frauds centered on St. Paul’s Grigg’s-Midway Building. One wouldn’t know from the video that the FBI executed search warrants and the United States Attorney brought an initial set of charges arising from the Griggs-Midway Building. I wrote about the searches here in July (“Another massive Minnesota fraud”) and the charges here in September (“The fraud this time”). The linked September post includes a video of the press conference announcing the charges.

Shirley acknowledges a recent FBI raid on an Eagan or Minneapolis office building at about 26:10 of the video. You can see the FBI at work lugging boxes of evidence removed from the building. Shirley also checks out the Griggs-Midway Building itself at 29:20 of the video.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Now that the reporting of the fraud has gone national, those responsible need to be held to account. I think all of us are tired of hearing about massive government fraud, and then the story goes away. I am looking for orange jumpsuits!

Understanding Some Of The Logic

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The Trump administration seems to be targeting Venezuela for a number of reasons. One reason is to remove a dictator who is a threat to the western hemisphere. Venezuela is hosting a number of terrorists groups and other groups that have a goal of destroying America. They are also a source of drugs that have killed millions of Americans. But there is more to the story.

According to an Oil Price website article of December 22:

  • Trump’s rhetoric aligns closely with unresolved arbitration rulings over Venezuela’s 2007 seizure of U.S. oil assets.
  • The dispute, long confined to courts and asset seizures, is now being reframed as a matter of U.S. foreign policy.

According to a Bloomberg Law article from January 23, 2025:

Venezuela must pay an $8.7 billion claim to ConocoPhillips stemming from asset seizures during the reign of the late Hugo Chavez after an international court rebuffed the South American nation’s final appeal.

The World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes upheld a 2019 ruling in favor of the US oil explorer’s demand for compensation for seizures more than a decade ago, ConocoPhillips announced Thursday.

The Oil Price article states:

The Legal Case Behind the Rhetoric

ConocoPhillips pursued international arbitration for years and ultimately won multiple awards. Most recently, in January 2025, arbitration rulings were upheld totaling approximately $8.7 billion plus interest. Venezuela has consistently refused to pay.

The U.S. Treasury has authorized ConocoPhillips to pursue enforcement actions worldwide, including the seizure of Venezuelan assets held abroad. Some assets have been targeted over the years, but full recovery has remained elusive.

Trump’s framing of Venezuela as having “stolen” American oil aligns directly with this legal history. While Venezuela claims sovereign authority over its resources, international tribunals ruled the expropriation illegal under international law. Trump appears to be elevating that unresolved legal judgment into a matter of U.S. foreign policy enforcement.

I don’t recommend toppling foreign governments. Historically we have done more harm than good when we have done that. However, the people of Venezuela have been protesting the Chavez and Maduro regimes for a number of years. If the people who could create a democracy or a republic are still alive and able to do that, it would be good news for everyone.

Saving Taxpayers’ Money

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On Friday, Red State posted an article about the closing of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters building.

The article reports:

On Friday, FBI Director Kash Patel took to X to announce the official shuttering of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Headquarters building. Patel first made this announcement in May during an interview on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures program with Maria Bartiromo. Since Congress holds the power of the purse to designate what happens with federal buildings, Patel cleared the proper channels in order to finally execute his plan.

The article notes:

December 26: Shutting down the Hoover Building.

After more than 20 years of failed attempts, we finalized a plan to permanently close the FBI’s Hoover headquarters and move the workforce into a safe, modern facility. Working directly with President Trump and Congress, we accomplished what no one else could.

When we arrived, taxpayers were about to be on the hook for nearly $5 billion for a new headquarters that wouldn’t open until 2035. We scrapped that plan. Instead, we selected the already-existing Reagan Building, saving billions and allowing the transition to begin immediately with required safety and infrastructure upgrades already underway. Once complete, most of the HQ FBI workforce will move in, and the rest are continuing in our ongoing push to put more manpower in the field, where they will remain.

This decision puts resources where they belong: defending the homeland, crushing violent crime, and protecting national security. It delivers better tools for today’s FBI workforce at a fraction of the cost.

The Hoover Building will be shut down permanently.

This is what happens when the President is a businessman and a builder. The article also notes that plans are in the works to move much of the FBI personnel to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL. Hopefully, moving a large portion of the FBI out of Washington, D.C., will help the agents and leadership avoid getting tangled up in the deep state.

Five Things President Trump Did This Year To Protect Children

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On Saturday, The Liberty Daily posted a list of five things President Trump did in 2025 that the media somehow overlooked.

This is the list:

1. Pardoning the FACE Act Prisoners

2. Expanding the Mexico City Policy

3. Classifying Transgender Procedures for Kids as Human Rights Violations

4. Ending Taxpayer-Funded Abortions for Illegal Migrant Children

5. Upgrading Human Trafficking Hotline

The FACE Act prisoners were the people arrested outside abortion clinics for praying or encouraging women to keep their babies. The Mexico City Police forbids the use of taxpayer money to pay for overseas abortions.

The article concludes with information regarding the upgrading of the Human Trafficking Hotline:

The Trump administration has chosen a new provider to run its human trafficking hotline after complaints that the Biden administration’s provider failed to answer calls from victims, The Daily Signal first reported.

HHS’ Administration for Children and Families announced a five-year, projected $35 million grant to Compass Connections to run the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

HHS received complaints from victims and state attorneys general that with the previous provider under the Biden administration, wait times were too long, calls were dropped, and victims could not rely on the hotline to deliver the necessary quality of service.

“State attorneys general were telling us that third-party tips were not getting delivered to law enforcement, so their investigations into human trafficking were hindered,” acting Administration for Children and Families Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison told The Daily Signal, “and they had a much harder time getting criminals off the streets of human trafficking, to get information where it needs to go on time in an accurate way, so that law enforcement can make arrests and end human trafficking.”

The award includes an increase of $1 million annually and will bring annual funding to $7 million, showing Trump’s commitment to protecting survivors of human trafficking, according to Gradison.

We are moving toward better protecting our babies and children.

Beware The Pseudo-Recession

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On Thursday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness about the danger of a coming ‘pseudo-recession.’

The article notes:

As the 1992 campaign approached, incumbent president George H.W. Bush was seen as a shoo-in for reelection.

The First Gulf War ended in 1991 with a spectacular U.S. victory at the head of a coalition that had expelled Saddam Hussein from Kuwait with few losses.

For much of 1991, Bush’s approval ratings hovered between 90 and 70 percent.

By February 1992, an obscure Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, emerged as the favorite Democratic nominee. But he was written off as having little chance to knock off the popular Republican incumbent president with far more foreign affairs experience.

Bush, however, had just lost his brilliant 1988 campaign manager, Lee Atwater, to cancer. And third-party prairie-fire candidate Ross Perot had entered the race, drawing off conservative Bush support.

Most importantly, in 1990, the U.S. economy had experienced a mild recession that had bottomed out in early 1991.

By the 1992 election, the U.S. was headed to full recovery.

The article notes that the economy was rapidly improving, but the Clinton campaign ignored that and used the slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid!” The Bush campaign dropped the ball with their response. Americans believed what Clinton and the media told them, Ross Perot entered the race, and Clinton won.

The article concludes:

The pseudo-recession of 1992 should remind the Trump people not to repeat the same mistake in the 2026 midterms.

Trump’s first ten months of foreign policy achievements are almost as impressive as Bush’s entire four years.

He neutered the feared Iranian nuclear bomb project. He ensured Israel could devastate the terrorist cabals of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, as well as their sponsor, theocratic Iran.

Instead of a trade war, increased tariff revenue and fair trade agreements were signed.

The border was closed shut.

Military recruitment rebounded to near record levels.

NATO was strengthened, and the intractable Ukraine war may end in a ceasefire.

Compared to the prior moribund Biden economy, Trump’s has set new precedents: record energy production and falling gas prices; inflation now below the three percent he inherited; and third-quarter GDP growth at a remarkable 4.3%.

…Yet, the left, like the Clinton campaign of old, is talking nonstop bout “affordability”—both ignoring the Democrats’ own dismal 2021-2025 economic record and claiming Trump, like Bush, cares more about those overseas than at home.

Whether the pseudo-recession of 2025-2026 works as well as the fake 1992 recession now hinges on whether the Trump campaign learns from the past and from now on fixates on the economy.

This has been a remarkable year.

Positive Changes In Healthcare Costs

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about solving the rapidly rising cost of healthcare in America.

The article reports:

Americans grappling with affordability just got a helpful boost from the Trump administration, which on Friday announced a new push to reduce health care costs. 

The move helps patients get health care prices upfront rather than astronomically high surprise bills later.

The new Transparency in Coverage (TiC) proposed rule will improve data structure, reduce unnecessary file size and increase usability. This will make transparency easier to analyze and more accessible to employers, researchers and innovators working to lower health care costs. 

By receiving prices upfront in a clear, easy-to-use format, Americans can shop around for the best provider at the lowest cost—driving more competition and empowering patients. Friday’s move was announced jointly by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Labor, and Treasury Department.

President Donald Trump already fought hard in his first term to improve health care price transparency, and Friday’s announcement continues that momentum which continued in Trump’s February executive order.

In December 2020, Trump also signed the No Surprises Act, meant to provide patients detailed upfront price information about their care. But the Biden administration delayed implementing these policies, and the American people never saw the full benefit of price transparency.

Additionally, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 requires insurance companies and brokers to reveal all historical claims data and broker fees while also removing gag clauses. Hospitals must not surprise patients with bills after insurance companies refuse to pay more.

The article includes the following graph:

The article notes:

There’s a simple reason health care prices skyrocket above overall inflation: no free and fair competition. Costs for hospital services in particular have seen the highest rates of inflation among major U.S. consumer goods and services, per economist Mark J. Perry.  

Notice that college tuition has also gone up faster than inflation. I think that if we could get the government out of healthcare and out of student loans, the price of healthcare and of college would go down.

Letting Children Freeze For The Sake Of Your Agenda

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It is generally common knowledge that batteries do not respond well to cold weather. They tend to lose their charge quickly. That is one of many reasons I am skeptical about electric cars and electric school busses in areas of the country that have real winter. Well, my skepticism has been proved to be warranted.

On Monday, The Daily Caller reported:

This is a classic example of bureaucratic blindness to unintended consequences and projects that might sound rational in theory but end up absurd in practice.

New York has mandated that all school bus purchases must be entirely electric by 2027, citing cleaner air, “better academic outcomes,” a quieter, more peaceful ride for students and staff, among other seemingly bogus reasons. Now that schools across the state are making the transition, one school district in western New York, the Lake Shore Central School District, is confronting a downside: heating.

WIVB News 4, a local news outlet in Erie County, New York, has received several calls from parents alleging that their kids come home freezing cold because drivers turn down or completely turn off the heat to save energy for the electric engines.

“The heaters on the bus run off the same electricity as the bus itself,” Scott Ziobro, a local parent, told the outlet. “They were told that it drains the battery capacity of the bus itself.”

…Another parent said an electric bus broke down, leaving kids stranded in the cold.

“The bus broke down en route,” parent Chris Lampman told the outlet. “They deployed a substitute bus, and the bus was more than 30 minutes late. My son stood outside for over 35 minutes waiting for a bus that wasn’t coming. Some of those kids are on there for upwards of a half hour or more while the bus makes its route. There’s no reason that the kids should freeze for all that time.”

The people who make the rules need to be subject to them. Let’s make every legislator or school board member who supported the electric buses ride them to work!

The Trump Economy

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On Tuesday, CNBC posted an article reporting that the U.S. economy grew by 4.3% in third quarter, much more than expected (the mainstream media always has low expectations during a Republican administration).

The article reports:

The U.S. economy grew at a much greater-than-expected pace in the third quarter, boosted by strong consumer spending, a delayed report released Tuesday showed.

U.S. gross domestic product, a sum of all goods and services produced in the sprawling U.S. economy, expanded by 4.3% in the July-September period, the Commerce Department said in its initial reading of third-quarter growth. Economists polled by Dow Jones expect a gain of 3.2%.

Consumer spending expanded by 3.5% in the third quarter after rising 2.5% in the second quarter.

Increases in exports and government spending also boosted growth, while a smaller dip in private fixed investment helped as well.

The report originally had been scheduled for release on Oct. 30 but was delayed by the government shutdown. This release also replaces a second estimate that was set to drop on Nov. 26. The department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis will release one final estimate later.

A measure of growth called real final sales to private domestic purchasers rose 3% in the quarter, up 0.1 percentage point from the prior period. Federal Reserve policymakers watch the data point closely for signs of consumer demand.

When gas at the pump is $1 less a gallon or more, people have more spending money and don’t feel the pressure of inflation quite as much. If you put 15 gallons of gas in your car every week, you have saved $60 a month without doing anything. The lower price also encourages people to travel and spend a little more freely than they otherwise might. Unfortunately, the price of diesel fuel has remained high.

Moving Toward Election Integrity

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First of all, until everyone who is guilty of election fraud is put in jail, election fraud will continue. We hear a lot of things about votes that were certified that should not have been certified and other fraud, but when will those responsible for the fraud pay a price?

On Monday, Just the News reported:

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, says the lawsuits she is bringing against both red and blue states over voter list maintenance will help clean voter rolls for the 2026 midterm elections.

With the congressional elections coming up next year, the DOJ said it is trying to ensure that only eligible voters are on states’ voter rolls. While some states have voluntarily complied with the DOJ’s requests for voter registration data or are cleaning the voter rolls themselves, others are refusing to hand over the information, citing privacy concerns.

In a Just the News and Real America’s Voice special report Wednesday with the Association for Mature American Citizens titled “Top Priorities for 2026,” Dhillon said this Trump administration marks the first time that states have been sued to ensure their voter rolls are maintained.

“There had been no prior lawsuits to enforce states’ requirement to keep their voter rolls clean for all federal election rolls, which is basically they keep the same rolls for state and federal elections for the most part,” Dhillon said.

The article notes:

Dhillon also laid out states’ arguments over privacy, noting that “they’re saying, ‘our state law doesn’t allow this.’ But federal law regarding elections and this data trumps state law, and we’re talking about federal elections and people who vote for president, Senate, Congress. We have a right at the federal government level to ensure that only American citizens are voting at only one time in one state when they vote. And so this is a no-brainer.”

She also said that when states tried to clean their voter rolls before, they would get sued, which happened under the Biden administration.

“You’re going to see hundreds of thousands of people in some states being removed from the voter rolls correctly,” Dhillon said. “And by the way, why did they hesitate to do that in the past? Because the DOJ and some left-wing organizations would sue them when they did their jobs. So it’s like, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

This is one of the first steps toward voter integrity. Hopefully, there will be more.

The Cost Of Inflation To Homeowners

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It’s great when the value of your house increases. For most people, their house is a major investment that increases in value and that they can pass on to their children. Homeowners make up 65 percent of American households. However, there is a down side to increasing property values. Cities and towns (in most cases) reevaluate the value of houses, and as your house increases in value, your real estate taxes go up. Sometimes the taxes go up to the point where you can no longer afford to live in the house you own. Some Americans are starting to get upset about that.

On Sunday, Betsy McCaughey posted an article at Hot Air about the property tax revolt that is beginning. This issue is up for discussion at the North Carolina legislature.

The article reports:

Across the nation, these homeowners are angry and ready to fight against soaring property taxes. Their homes have appreciated, but they don’t have more cash in their pockets to pay the rising taxes that come with rising home values.

A property tax revolt, with silver-haired payers leading the charge, is likely to shape the political map for November 2026.

Steve Moore, cofounder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, predicts fierce battles in state capitols, where teachers unions and other special interests will try to stop the tax relief movement, scaremongering about damaging cuts to school budgets and potholes in the streets.

These interests favor any state law that forces towns to reassess homes periodically because it leads to more local revenue. More money taken out of homeowners’ pockets to fill public workers’ paychecks.

The fights are already happening, and evidence so far shows that property tax relief is a winner. It’s dominating in Texas and Florida, underway in Wyoming and Wisconsin, and there is even some hope that it will catch fire in tax-hell New York state and neighboring, tax-beleaguered Connecticut.

In the blue city of Austin, Texas, 63% of voters rejected a proposal last month put forward by the Democratic mayor and city council to increases property taxes. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing a 3% annual statewide cap on how fast a home’s assessment rises. He’s styling himself as the protector of homeownership. Smart politics.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is making property tax reform his issue too, even floating eliminating property taxes entirely and replacing them with sales taxes, a state fund to help the poorest counties and — imagine this — frugality.

The article concludes:

With outrage rising, all that could change. Homeownership is the American dream. Property taxes threaten it. Voters of all persuasions are feeling the pain, setting in motion a demand for tax fairness that could make 2026 an upset election season.

Stay tuned.

The Price We Pay For Setting Criminals Free

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about Marvin Morales-Ortez, who is  from El Salvador and is in the country illegally.

The article reports:

A 23-year-old Reston, Virginia, man was arraigned on a murder charge Thursday after authorities say he killed a man on Wednesday and led police on a two-hour manhunt.

Two elementary schools were placed on secure-the-building status as police urgently searched for Marvin Morales-Ortez.

He killed a man he lived with, 40-year-old Marvin Ernesto Morales, police said. No information on the relationship between the two was released other than they shared the same residence.

Morales-Ortez was released from jail the day before the shooting. According to a criminal complaint, he was charged with maliciously wounding someone who lived in the home on Sept. 12. He was taken into custody on multiple charges.

That case went before a judge on Tuesday. But the prosecutor’s office said the victim didn’t show up to court to testify against Morales-Ortez, so charges were dropped.

The judge ordered Morales-Ortez released from custody.

He has a history of mental health issues, court records say. The county’s Community Services Board issued an emergency custody order shortly after his release from jail. An ECO allows police to arrest someone who poses an immediate threat to themselves or someone else. Police can take them in and get them services.

The article notes:

We need to start prosecuting the people who are responsible for releasing criminals who then kill.

Morales-Ortez was in America illegally. He should have been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported. The article notes that an ICE detainer request was ignored. He had already been accused of a crime. Had Morales-Ortez been kept in jail under an Emergency Custody Order (ECO), the man he lived with would still be alive. Cooperation with ICE or getting the Emergency Custody Order quickly would have saved a life.

Rigging An Election By Deciding Who Can Vote

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On Sunday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plans to hold an election in Ukraine.

The article reports:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to hold elections if there is a ceasefire. However, Eastern Ukraine citizens, those currently living in the Donbas region, who are supportive of Russia, will not be permitted to vote.

This creates a rather bizarre official hypocrisy within the Zelenskyy regime. The official position of Zelenskyy is that Eastern Ukraine will never be accepted as a part of the Russian federation.

Zelenskyy has recently noted, with EU leadership support, that his government will never recognize Eastern Ukraine as part of the Russian federation. However, this same region, approximately 20% of Ukraine, will not be permitted to participate in his controlled election.

Essentially, any Ukraine resident who does not support Zelenskyy will not be permitted to vote in any election, if any election is ever permitted. Additionally, Zelenskyy notes that “there is the practice of voting abroad,” however, any region not controlled by Zelenskyy cannot submit votes.

Zelenskyy claims that if the election included Eastern Ukraine there would be no way to insure the security of the election. He may actually be right on that, but there are other factors at work here. Allowing an election is a public relations move–it is one way to fight the claim that he is a dictator. Actually, he is a dictator, and the corruption surrounding Ukraine and its war is immense. There are a lot of people in Ukraine, Europe, and America who are making a lot of money because of this war, and they have no desire to see it end. The money America has sent to Ukraine has never been audited, and there have been charges that some of the military equipment we have given them has been sold on eBay.

Making peace in Ukraine is not going to be easy. The propagandists who want to war to continue are using the same domino theory that they used for the war in Vietnam. The only way to stop this war is to cut off the flow of money.

Restoring Discipline in Schools

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.   

Let’s face the facts, the public school system in this country is getting worse–not better. We spend more money per child than any other country, and yet the academic achievement scores are lower now than they ever have been. Obviously, we are doing something wrong, which must be identified and corrected if we are going to turn things around. Another indicator of public-school failure is the large number of parents who are choosing private schools or homeschooling. Also at issue is high teacher turnover, indicating significant dissatisfaction with teaching as a satisfying career. Let’s examine some causes.

In any endeavor when things are getting worse, it is essential to look back and identify changes that were done in the past since not all changes are improvements. Let’s start with student discipline. Clearly, successful classroom instruction depends on the student’s paying attention, completing classroom assignments, not being disruptive to other students, and respecting the teacher. Discipline can only be effective when unacceptable behavior is immediately identified and teachers have the tools to correct the misbehavior. Human behavior is controlled by two things:  reward and punishment. It is just a fact of human nature. In this regard, fortunately, we also learn by observing what happens to others and do not have to experience the consequences directly ourselves.

The first thing that needs correction is doing away with the Obama administration mandate that the rate of disciplinary sanctions for students has to be the same for all races/ethnic groups regardless of differences in their behavior. Funding was threatened to be cut if this was not implemented. The data consistently shows that black students generally misbehave at a higher rate than Hispanics or whites. In one school district report, black students represented 15% of the student body but were 35% of the suspended students.

The Left believes in “soft” responses to crime (just like they have in cities and states they control) and this carries over to school discipline. Again, the Obama administration instituted a program called “Restorative Justice,” which was to be used when dealing with misbehaving students. Instead of administering punishments (like detention and suspension), the schools were required to have discussion meetings with the perpetrators and victims, where the personal and family issues of the perpetrators are discussed as well as how the victim could have acted differently. For example, in one case a student accidentally bumped into another student who reacted by punching him in the face. The victim and perpetrator had to attend a series of counseling sessions. In another example, a middle school student was not disciplined for groping girls because he was a special education student. Fortunately, the Trump administration has issued directives to curtail the restorative justice practice; however, many school systems continue this ridiculous practice. As a result of the Left’s policies, the FBI reports that crime in schools has tripled from 100,810 incidents if 2020 to almost 330,000 in 2024.

We need to go back to classrooms where all students face the teacher (which is not the case now), and give the teachers the authority they need to discipline students–including extra work, detention, and suspension. Also, we need to return to a strict grading process that actually reports the performance of each student instead of the inflated system now where most students get A’s or B’s. Failed students should be required to repeat the grade.

Some states have taken action to return to stricter discipline. More needs to be done. Students cannot learn and teachers cannot teach in a chaotic environment. It should also be remembered that children who do not learn to respect authority and learn self-control are much more likely to grow up and engage in criminal behavior. We are doing them a lifetime disservice by not disciplining them in school.

The Hymn Of Christmas

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In 1816, Joseph Mohr, the assistant priest in the parish of Oberndorf, wrote the lyrics to Stille Nacht! (Silent Night). The music for the poem was composed by Franz Xaver Gruber for a Christmas Eve service in 1818. The organ in the church was broken, and the music was composed for two voices and a guitar. The song was translated into English in the 1850’s. Most of the translations translate only three of the six stanzas of the song.

The song played a role in the Christmas truce of 1914.

According to The Conversation:

At least as famous as the story of the carol’s origin is that of its role in the Christmas truce of 1914. In his book on the truce, historian Stanley Weintraub identifies the singer as Walter Kirchhoff, a German Officer and sometime member of the Berlin Opera. Kirchhoff’s singing of the carol in both German and English is credited with encouraging the exchange of songs, greetings and gifts between the opposing soldiers.

While there is debate among historians about the nature and scope of the truce, Silent night is firmly established in popular imagination as the soundtrack for this remarkable event….

The contrast between the carol’s message of tranquillity and hope and the violence of war is obvious and compelling, but the intimacy and simplicity of Gruber’s music is important too in providing an antidote to the grimness of trench warfare.

The depth of significance attached to Silent Night is summed up its inclusion on UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list in 2011. Words, music and contextual narratives combine to create its aura and reputation, making it one of the most striking examples of the ways in which musical associations shape our experiences of the Christmas season.

The Truth Comes Out

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On December 23, The Federalist posted an article about the corruption in Georgia during the 2020 election.

The article reports:

Fulton County, Georgia, recently made an admission that should have commanded national attention. During a hearing before the Georgia State Election Board, county officials acknowledged that approximately 315,000 early ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election were unlawfully certified yet were nonetheless included in Georgia’s final, official results, in a race Joe Biden was officially declared to have won by just 11,779 votes.

The admission arose from a challenge filed by David Cross, an election integrity activist, who alleged that Fulton County violated Georgia election law in its handling of early voting. Under state statute, each ballot scanner is required to produce tabulation tapes at the close of voting, and poll workers must sign those tapes to certify the reported totals. These signed tapes are not merely an administrative safeguard. They are central to determining whether the vote count itself is legitimate.

I am not saying that all of the questionable ballots were case for Joe Biden, but isn’t it interesting that it took over 300,000 questionable votes to defeat President Trump.

The article notes:

On Jan. 2, 2021, Trump called Raffensperger (Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger) to discuss the irregularities in Fulton County, mentioning the county no fewer than 14 times during the call and stating flatly that it was “totally corrupt.” Trump cited estimates of “250 to 300,000 ballots” that had been “dropped mysteriously into the rolls,” repeatedly noting that Fulton County had never been “checked.” In light of what has now been formally admitted, those claims read less like hyperbole and more like an uncannily accurate description of what actually occurred.

Rather than taking those concerns seriously as questions of whether the law had actually been followed, Raffensperger dismissed them outright, insisting that “we do have an accurate election.” What he did not disclose was that his chief of staff, Jordan Fuchs, was secretly recording the conversation in violation of the law, as The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway reported last year. Immediately after the call, Fuchs leaked the tape to The Washington Post, where, the very next day, it was selectively framed to create the now-infamous narrative that Trump had pressured Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”

The article concludes:

If the State Election Board declines to act, this episode may quietly fade from memory, leaving nothing to prevent it from happening again. Democracies do not fail when rules are broken. They fail when no one is held accountable.

The state needs to make restitution to all of the people who were financially destroyed by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) case brought against the people who challenged the integrity of the Georgia election.