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Families racked up credit card debt and went into delinquencies at an increased rate since the pandemic, the New York Fed found Tuesday.
The post New York Fed: Credit Card Delinquency Spikes as Costs Soar Under Joe Biden appeared first on Breitbart.
During an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that because interest rates are lower than they were in prior decades even with rate hikes, “we can probably manage and have a fiscally sustainable path with [a]
The post Yellen: We Can Likely Be Fiscally Sustainable with ‘Higher Ratio of Debt to GDP’ appeared first on Breitbart.
For Rep. Chip Roy, it’s a frustrating conversation that happens all too often with fellow lawmakers on his side of the aisle.
“‘Chip, we have a razor-thin majority. We just have to win the White House; we just have to win the Senate,’” the Texas Republican recalled in a speech Tuesday.
When he hears colleagues concerned about the narrow 217-212 House Republican majority, he notes the Democrats’ narrow Senate majority—51 senators in the Democratic caucus compared with 49 Republicans.
“Well, when do they ever look across there and say Chuck Schumer has a razor-thin majority?” Roy said of the Senate Democratic leader from New York. “When do they ever look and say, ‘You’re actually in charge of the House of Representatives, which James Madison told you in [Federalist Paper 58] actually has the power of the purse. Do something with it. Stop making excuses.’”
That prompted applause from the audience at The Heritage Foundation at an event, “Defunding the Left.” (Heritage founded The Daily Signal in 2014.)
Roy had earlier quoted Madison—father of the Constitution and later the fourth president of the United States—who wrote in Federalist 58:
The House of Representatives can not only refuse, but they alone can propose the supplies requisite for the support of government. … This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any Constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure.
Though the GOP mostly prevented nondefense spending hikes, and kept the political focus on border security, he said irresponsible spending is a bipartisan problem that “infests the entire swamp” in both parties.
“The fundamental problem is not just the weakening of the dollar and the strength of our financial system. It’s actually the radical Left funding the tyranny, funding the government that’s at war with your way of life.”
He noted the Republican-controlled House approved $62 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid rising crime and fentanyl deaths in the U.S. resulting from the border crisis.
The House majority also went along with $200 million to fund a new FBI headquarters and overall about $40 billion for the Justice Department, despite concerns about politicized lawfare. He noted $824 billion went to the Defense Department with no demands to scrap its focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that are hurting armed forces recruitment.
The House majority allowed $80 billion for the Department of Education; $9 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency; and $117 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services, while requiring no accountability for mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic by departmental subordinate agencies, such as National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While his GOP colleagues often talk about the need to win the next election, Roy said, conservative control of both houses of Congress and the White House are not guaranteed to reverse the trend.
“Literally, on Day One, they are going to say, ‘Chip, we can’t do all you want to do because we don’t have 60 in the Senate. You’ve got to be reasonable.’” Roy predicted. “I promise you that’s coming. So, we have to win majorities. But we have to plan now for driving a steamroller over the weak-kneed individuals in Congress that will use 60 [as a premise] not to fight for you.”
In the Senate, 60 votes are required to end filibusters.
Roy noted there were some positive accomplishments, however. Since winning the majority, House Republicans have for the most part “kept the ball on our side of the field,” he said.
Nondefense spending was largely held flat, while increased defense spending in 2023 was initially paid for by taking money out of the Internal Revenue Service and unspent COVID-19 funding.
That occurred after then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., put caps in place, even though the caps were discarded in January. Further, Roy noted that House Republicans didn’t let Democrats redirect the border debate to one of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
“Amnesty was off the table. All we talked about this last year was border security. We didn’t achieve it, but we didn’t allow the Democrats to start moving the ball down the field and have a debate about amnesty,” Roy said. “It matters where you set the goal post and how you set your mission.”
The Texas lawmaker criticized the recent $95 billion foreign aid package that passed without the support of most Republicans. He said that too often, members of Congress “default to fear” on defense spending.
“I want the strongest military that we can possibly produce. I want it to be sparingly used,” Roy said, adding:
I don’t want to use it often, but if we do, I want it to destroy everything in its path. But we just default to fear, and we use the national security-defense complex to run over everything else.
“People literally come into [House Republicans’] meetings and say, ‘We just can’t risk defense.’ Well, if that’s what you do, you’re never going to change the town,” he continued, “because they are always going to use defense as the leverage to say, ‘We’re not going to cut [the Justice Department]; we’re not going to cut education; we’re not going to make reforms.”
The post Texas Lawmaker Reminds GOP of Madison’s Words About Power of the Purse appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Iranian President Raisi visited Sri Lanka to launch a hydropower project, and a Russian company has taken over China's white-elephant airport.
The post Iran and Russia Move into Sri Lanka After China’s Belt and Road Disaster appeared first on Breitbart.
China’s state-owned oil company CNPC, the China National Petroleum Corporation, has signed a $400 million deal with the military junta that controls Niger, providing a much-needed infusion of cash after the coup damaged relations with Niger’s previous big oil customers, the United States and France.
The post China Buys into Niger Junta to Secure Oil Supply appeared first on Breitbart.
Biden talks up the economy’s strong growth but doesn’t address the fact that the inflation rate he’s given us surpasses the GDP growth rate. He also doesn’t mention that much of this growth was funded directly by government stimulus and other financial aid given to the public.
The White House claims the economy is roaring, and mainstream media suggests only Republicans doubt it. However, consumer sentiment is declining, albeit with a slight recent uptick, which both the White House and mainstream media quickly seized upon as a positive trend. Inflation also rose this month, but the White House contends it’s down compared to 2022 levels. It appears the White House chooses to cite macro or micro data depending on what makes them look better.
The average gas price increased by 7% this month compared to last month. However, it remains lower than the $4.90 it hit in 2022. So, I suppose the White House can chalk up another win.
The reality is, both the average American and business owner perceive the economy as dismal and lack confidence in the future. Despite high inflation, the specter of recession still looms large, suggesting stagflation may become a reality in the near future. We could easily find ourselves grappling with growing unemployment alongside escalating prices. Technically, we’ve been in a recession for some time now, but Janet Yellen’s assertion that a recession isn’t defined by two consecutive quarters of negative growth was surprising to me and most university economics professors, as it contradicts the textbook definition of a recession.
Regarding stagflation, it’s defined by rising prices and growing unemployment. In the strictest sense, the White House is correct that we haven’t reached that point yet. More jobs are being created each month. However, if you’re looking for a job, the difficulty in finding one is obvious. This is largely due to the fact that 70% of the new jobs being created are part-time, while about 20% are government jobs. Depending on one’s definition of “jobs,” an argument could be made that significant numbers of new full-time private sector jobs are not being created.
The truth is, the economy has been on shaky ground throughout Biden’s entire administration. The only thing preventing a complete collapse is government stimulus and government job expansion, both of which add to the deficit and debt, merely postponing the inevitable. And that inevitable end is fast approaching.
Several US municipalities have implemented excessively high minimum wages, reaching up to $20 an hour. As a result, retailers, fast food chains, and ride-hailing apps like Lyft and Uber are exiting these markets. Grocery stores are transitioning to self-checkout systems, while fast-food establishments are introducing order kiosks. Moreover, many CVS and Walgreens drugstores have significantly reduced their floor staff, in some instances to just one employee.
Under Bidenomics, we’ve witnessed a 46% increase in gas prices, with mortgage rates inching closer to 7%. Meanwhile, the demand for new mortgages is dwindling.
Real wages, adjusted for inflation, have dropped by an average of $371. The White House’s deception on this matter lies in presenting a chart of inflation that peaked in June 2022 and has since been declining, while wages have been on the rise. At first glance, it may seem that the worst of inflation is behind us and wages now surpass inflation. However, it’s crucial to remember that prices have not decreased.
The rate at which wages are increasing, at 5%, now exceeds the rate of price increases, at 3.2%. However, over the past four years, we’ve seen cumulative inflation of nearly 20%. So, whereas you once earned a dollar, you now earn $1.05, while goods that previously cost $1.00 now cost $1.20. As a result, your real wages, adjusted for inflation, have decreased.
In short, the money you earn buys you less stuff.
Due to a decline in inflation-adjusted income, US savings rates have dropped to 3.6% from the pre-pandemic level of 6%. Credit card delinquencies and car loan defaults have reached record highs. Many Americans report borrowing money each month just to cover their cost of living.
Bidenomics is a disaster, and the White House is still considering cutting interest rates, which would cause inflation to skyrocket.
The post Credit Card Defaults, Inflation, Part-Time Jobs: The Economy Is a Disaster appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Joe Biden unveiled his 2025 budget proposal earlier today. In general, presidents’ budgets are hardly worth discussing. They project revenue and spending over the next ten years, and if you go back and look at them a few years later, they usually bear no relation to reality. And, in this instance, there is zero chance that Congress will pass anything resembling Biden’s budget, which can best be seen as a campaign document.
But, for what it is worth, this is what the Wall Street Journal had to say about it:
President Biden proposed Monday a $7.3 trillion budget for the next fiscal year that would raise taxes on wealthy people and large corporations, trim the deficit and lower the costs of prescription drugs, child care and housing.
Other than spending $7.3 trillion and raising taxes, it wouldn’t do any of those things. For purposes of comparison, federal spending in 2000, the last year of the Clinton administration, was $1.79 trillion. So Biden wants to spend almost exactly four times that much.
The fiscal 2025 budget would cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade, and it would raise taxes by a net total of $4.9 trillion, or more than 7% above what the U.S. would collect without any policy changes.
Those hypothetical deficit cuts depend on economic forecasts in the out-years that won’t come true. The only meaningful fact is that Biden wants to raise taxes by nearly $5 trillion.
Biden’s purported budget is largely an exercise in fantasy:
The budget leaves some blank spaces. It lists principles for shoring up Social Security, without specifying a plan. It calls for paying for extensions of tax cuts for most households after 2025 but doesn’t detail how that would be paid for. And it calls for restoring the expanded child tax credit, but only temporarily, lumping that into the broader 2025 tax debate.
Biden’s budget proposes absurd taxes on corporations and “the rich”:
The budget repeats many past Biden tax-increase proposals, including higher tax rates on corporations and high-income individuals along with minimum taxes on the wealthiest Americans’ unrealized capital gains.
Which is insane. If the government taxes unrealized gains on unsold securities when the market goes up, will it write checks to investors when the market is down? Logically, it would have to, but of course that is not part of Biden’s proposal.
Biden rolled out several new tax increases last week, such as raising his new corporate alternative-minimum-tax rate to 21% from 15% and denying deductions when corporations pay any workers, not just top executives, more than $1 million.
The net effect of Biden’s proposals would be to give the United States one of the heaviest tax burdens in our history, equaled only once since World War II.
Is that because people are dying to give the federal government more money to waste? No, it is because many people are too naive to understand that, as has been said a million times, corporations don’t pay taxes, they collect them. Those taxes are actually paid mostly by customers (i.e., all of us) and secondarily by employees (i.e., most of us). But Biden’s budget is not about economics or, for that matter, mathematics, as the numbers will never add up. Rather, it is about politics:
Biden’s advisers are betting that a focus on lowering costs for families will help push the president to re-election.
Needless to say, Biden’s budget, if actually enacted, would raise costs for families, not lower them. Fortunately, there is zero chance of that happening.
Vaunce News 