CO2 Reduction Isn't Really a Goal, Is It?

Liberals say they want reduced CO2 emissions. But do they? If they did, they would be applauding the chart below. Why aren't they? Because all of this reduction was accomplished by the free market exploring new sources of inexpensive natural gas that replaced a lot of coal in electric production.
The truth is that CO2 reduction is not really their goal. Their goal is to make conventional energy sources more expensive so that they can more easily justify their Utopian schemes using wind and solar energy. And create a new source of taxation to fund these schemes.

Fair Share of Taxes?

This chart from Professor Mark Perry.
1396 US taxpayers collectively paid far more income tax than 70 million Americans who paid the least tax.
And yet the constant drumbeat, "The Rich don't pay their fair share of taxes".
Darn right, it's not a Fair Share.

Middle Class Tax Cuts

The mantra in Congress today is "tax cuts for the middle class" -- as if that hasn't been going on for over 30 years. But remember, never let facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

Citizen United Hysteria vs. The Facts

Remember how Democrats screamed that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision would "unleash a tidal wave of corporate spending that would wash away your voice"?
Below are the Top 20 contributors to Super PACs in the 2015-16 election cycle. Not one corporation. In fact among the Top 40 contributors there is only one corporation (and 8 unions).

Economic Ignorance Encapsulated

I came across the chart below from the Cato Institute's Financial Regulation Survey.

It seems to me the perfect capture of the economic naiveté of the public. Anybody who has even a passing understanding of economics would understand making mortgages to more people with low credit qualifications will result in more defaults.

It wasn't in the study, but I'll bet you would get similar results for these questions:

Do you favor or oppose government raising the Minimum Wage?

Do you favor or oppose government raising the Minimum Wage if it meant there would be fewer jobs for low skilled workers?

Or maybe this one

Do you favor or oppose higher tariffs on goods from China?

Do you favor or oppose higher tariffs on goods from China if it resulted in higher prices for most things that you buy?

The illusion of a Free Lunch is still very powerful.

More Mindless Gun Control Hysteria

After the Las Vegas shootings we will once again have to endure the mindless calls for more gun control of some sort. My challenge is a simple one. If murders were related to gun ownership, wouldn't you expect to see a positive correlation between the two? Why would you advocate restricting the right to freely own guns simply to say you did something that has little likelihood of achieving your goal?

If you went to your boss and told him that you could make the company profitable if only he would fund big pay raises for the salesforce, do you think he would ask for empirical evidence to support that relationship? And if you couldn't provide that evidence, what do you think he should do?