Our democracy is not seriously threatened by communists, organized crime, street riots or even “semi-fascist MAGA Republicans.” What is constantly threatened is the rule of law, essential to preserving our democracy.
A new federal report shows that the nationwide shutdown of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic led to historic learning losses for students. The Department of Education released data Thursday showing that national test scores declined the most in decades.
Why this shocking list of government health care failures? It’s because there isn’t ever enough money to give everybody as much free care as they think they deserve. Thus, you get underpaid providers and lengthy waiting times.
Imagine taxing all vegetables but not beef, then giving the receipts to rich people to buy hamburgers and steaks, who could then eat more meat and fewer vegetables, becoming richer and fatter.
Offshore wind is just an example of infrastructure we can’t build even when the money is there. We are not going to achieve any of our infrastructure goals if we let “visible from the beach” or any number of other local impacts block projects.
The policy has several significant shortfalls. First it doesn’t help anyone who didn’t go to college, never took out a loan, paid back their loan, or is going to start taking out loans in the future. Secondly it will only help with a portion of the loan, and depending on the total balance, it might not feel like very much.
Peter Welch, Vermont’s Democrat nominee for U.S. Senate, said he supported this act because it targets the most wealthy tax evaders and helps struggling families and workers. But the data shows that in the past year a vast number of audits were conducted on taxpayers who earned $75,000 or less.
This PAC issue is not just about the spending. It’s about what it is revealing about the Balint team’s worldview — which is that her skepticism of those who wield power can be withheld, and that race, gender and sexual identity can be weaponized when it’s politically convenient.
The Council on Criminal Justice reports the homicide rate is 39% higher in 29 American cities than during the first half of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council also reported increases in aggravated assaults (+4%) and robberies (+19%), residential burglaries (+6%), and motor vehicle thefts (+15%) all increased in the first half of 2022.
Objections by lawmakers to the Convention of States used to have merit, however, the unanimous opinion among Americans, Vermonters included, is there are no good excuses anymore.
“I’ll repeat what I said when I called you a few months back when you were considering joining the race. We should use this as an opportunity to show Vermonters we can rise above the national fray and run only on our respective merits.”
Biden’s student loan “cancellation” scheme is impolitic, unfair, expensive and irresponsible. The price tag will be about a half trillion dollars. Most of that money will go to upper income households. Who will pay for it? It will cost the average taxpayer over $2,000.