Congress’s Joint Economic Committee (JEC) warned that the Biden administration’s economic policies have caused an unsustainable debt crisis and historic inflation.
This assessment was announced formally earlier this week by JEC Vice Chairman and Congressman for Arizona’s first district, David Schweikert, through the 160-page Republican Response to the Council of Economic Advisers’ 2024 Economic Report of the President.
Schweikert stated in a press release that 2024 serves as a “critical juncture” for the nation’s fiscal health, one that transcends political parties.
“The challenge before us is neither Republican nor Democrat — it is our moral obligation to ensure American families aren’t left behind. Congress holds the keys to determine which path we choose,” said Schweikert. “We can either behave like adults and choose the path of fiscal responsibility or continue our partisan gamesmanship that will put the American dream further out of reach for future generations.”
Schweikert said that the problems and proposed solutions put forth by the JEC report were inherently bipartisan, focusing on common-ground economy boosters like a healthier population and secure social safety net programs.
“Those of us on the Republican side, we built a report that offered actual moral, great economic solutions instead of the election year rhetoric.”
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) June 21, 2024
The JEC assessed that the Biden administration’s demand-side policies financed by increased borrowing have placed unsustainable pressure on constrained supply. As a result, JEC predicted that debt-to-GDP would grow from 99 percent to 116 percent by 2034, with interest costs rising. JEC noted that the labor force participation rates haven’t recovered to prepandemic levels; historic mortgage payments for new homebuyers, the highest in 30 years; constraints on budding American industries due to new restrictions on trade; and the cost of clean energy subsidies amounting to $1.2 trillion over 10 years, despite emissions from electricity production declining.
Further exacerbation of the economy comes from an aging population, declining fertility rates, and decreased prime-age labor force participation among men, per the JEC. The aging population is anticipated to drive Social Security spending to 6 percent of GDP by 2035, an increase from the present 5.2 percent and the 1970s at 3.1 percent, though no major expansions have occurred in over 20 years. The JEC reported that one in nine prime-age men remain out of the labor force; if just 25 percent of those entered, the economy would grow by $215 billion.
JEC disputed the Biden administration’s belief that increased taxes of wealthier individuals would amount to their desired revenue, a dwarfed amount of around 1.1 to 2 percent of GDP compared to future deficits. JEC stressed that only reduction in spending would improve fiscal consolidation.
Another demographic with an outsized impact on the economy, according to the JEC, is the rapid increase in obesity. Excess medical expenditures are anticipated to amount to over $9 trillion, as well as federal government spending of over $4 trillion within the next decade. Labor productivity and supply reductions impacted by obesity are projected to cost nearly $3 trillion and $12 trillion, respectively.
As for a positive solution to the nation’s current and looming fiscal woes, JEC indicated that artificial intelligence could grow the economy and improve government efficiency.
JEC also issued a lengthy assessment of the Congressional Budget Office’s revised budget and economic projections for the next decade. This included a $400 billion increase in projected FY2024 deficit, with about 80 percent of the increase coming from President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation failing to recover payments from 2023 bank failures quickly, new legislation, and higher than expected Medicaid outlays.
CBO recently released its updated budget and economic projections for 2024-2034 from the original forecast in February 2024. Below are some key takeaways from the revised estimates 🧵
— Joint Economic Committee Republicans (@JECRepublicans) June 19, 2024
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President Joe Biden has repeatedly called climate change an “existential threat,” worse than nuclear weapons.
Yet, Biden’s green energy mandates result in a greater U.S. demand for wind turbines, solar panels and electric batteries from China, made by coal-fired power plants, increasing the emissions Biden criticizes at home.
The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that in the absence of reductions in carbon emissions, temperatures will rise by about 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The idea that such a temperature change is worse than deaths from nuclear weapons is ludicrous. Over 200,000 people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki after America dropped atomic bombs.
Temperatures have varied for centuries. Climate models are not reliable and accurate enough to attribute global warming to human activities. The observed rate of global warming over the past 50 years has been weaker than that predicted by almost all computerized climate models.
Thirty-six computer models overpredicted surface air temperatures during the summer growing season. The models all showed warming well above what happened in reality, with the most extreme model producing seven times too much warming.
Increases in hurricane frequency are erroneously cited as an effect of warming. Although carbon dioxide emissions and temperature — both in America and globally — have increased over the latter parts of the 20th Century, no meaningful increase in frequency and intensity of hurricanes has been observed.
Hurricane damage has increased over time, but this outcome is largely due to increased incomes and wealth, and therefore infrastructure creation, rather than more violent hurricanes. For example, homes in Florida have risen by a factor of 12 since 1975, according to the St Louis Federal Reserve Bank. The same hurricane that in 1975 destroyed a house worth $100,000 would now destroy a house worth $1.2 million.
Although some say that increased CO2 levels are detrimental to human health and welfare, deaths are more likely to result from medical events triggered by the cold than by the heat.
A 2020 study by Dr. Whanhee Lee and others in Lancet showed that cold-related morbidity and mortality — strokes, heart attacks, blood clots, and other problems — result directly from the influence of cold temperatures on the body, where the body is unable to maintain sufficient core temperature to guarantee survival.
In addition, Environmental Protection Agency data shows that death rates are about 10 percent higher in winter, and January is the deadliest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
If Biden truly thought that climate change was an existential threat, he would try to lower global emissions through greater U.S. exports of natural gas. This would enable other countries to reduce emissions by substituting natural gas for coal, just as America has reduced carbon emissions by 1,000 million metric tons over the past 16 years.
In addition, Biden would try to expand emissions-free nuclear power if he thought climate change was a threat. He would make uranium mining easier, because uranium is a critical ingredient for nuclear power. Yet he has taken swaths of land off the table for uranium development and made no attempt to solve the problem of nuclear waste.
Instead, Biden blocks a new liquid natural gas export terminal in Louisiana, which results in greater worldwide use of coal, increasing global carbon dioxide emissions. Europe has already been turning to coal to deal with energy shortages in the aftermath of Russia’s cutoff of natural gas.
Over the past 20 years, U.S. emissions of CO2 have declined by a billion metric tons as natural gas has been increasingly substituted for coal use in the generation of electricity. Over the same period, CO2 emissions in China have risen by 8.7 billion metric tons.
Biden’s repetition that climate change is an existential threat gives him an excuse to impose more regulations and sign into law subsidies for favored donors.
“Never let a good crisis go to waste,” said Amb. Rahm Emanuel when he was President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff. Biden is inventing the crisis and the waste is following.
Diana Furchtgott-Rothis a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and directs the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation.
The poll was conducted June 1-4, 2024, with a sample of 1,095 Arizona registered voters.
President Trump improved his standing in this poll from an earlier survey in March, when he garnered 49 percent, compared to Biden’s 45 percent.
When other candidates are factored into the race, Trump maintains his five percent advantage over Biden, growing that number from March, when he led the Democrat by four percent (43-39%).
The forty-fifth President of the United States enjoys significant leads over Biden in a number of issues of trust for voters. From the poll, twenty percent more Arizona voters trust Trump than Biden when it comes to immigration and the border (58-38%), while fifteen percent more voters trust the presumed Republican nominee over the economy. Trump also enjoys a double-digit lead in trust when it comes to the Israel-Hamas War.
According to the poll, eleven percent more Arizona voters trust Biden than Trump over climate change (52-41%). The two candidates are closer together with the issues of abortion, health care, and election integrity.
President Trump traveled to the all-important swing state of Arizona on Thursday, where he participated in a packed townhall with supporters. The state’s eleven Electoral College votes will be vital to securing the General Election victory in November, and both Republicans and Democrats figure to spend massive amounts of resources to campaign for the votes of independent voters leading up to the political contest. Arizona also has several other races and initiatives that will be key to the state’s future, including the U.S. Senate, control of the Arizona Legislature, and a number of ballot initiatives.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Former President Donald J. Trump continues to lead in the battleground state of Arizona, though his margin is not insurmountable over President Joe Biden for the November General Election.
Two polls were released last week, showing Trump over Biden in Arizona, whose eleven Electoral College votes will likely prove critical for the outcome of the 2024 Presidential Election.
The first poll was from CBS News / YouGov. This result had Trump beating Biden by five percent (52-47) in their second head-to-head match-up. This poll was conducted between May 10-16 with a sample of 1,214 registered voters across the state.
In this poll, Trump’s high-level support was stronger than Biden’s. Sixty-six percent of respondents indicated that their support for the former president was “very strong” compared to sixty-one percent for Biden. The economy (82%), inflation (78%), and the state of democracy (70%) were the top factors in the individuals’ selections for president, followed by the U.S. Mexico border (61%).
The second poll was from Noble Predictive Insights. This result had Trump beating Biden by three percent, with fifteen percent undecided. This poll was conducted between May 7-14 with a sample of 1,003 registered voters across the state.
The Noble poll also factored in other third-party candidates in the race, showing that Trump actually grew his lead over Biden in Arizona with individuals like Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Jill Stein competing for a share of the votes. With these other candidates in the race, the poll showed Trump beating Biden by seven percent (43-36). Kennedy, Jr. took eight percent, and Stein garnered two percent.
NPI Chief of Research David Byler said, “In 2020, Biden argued that he would be a ‘return to normalcy’ president – restoring competence and confidence to a nation in the throes of a pandemic and bitter partisan fighting. Biden’s problem: COVID-19 is gone, but normalcy isn’t back. Americans are worried about inflation and immigration – and, as a result, he’s lost ground in key swing states like Arizona.”
According to the Real Clear Polling Average, Trump enjoys a 4.6% lead over Biden with different pollsters showing his current margin of victory in Arizona between three and six percent over the past few months. On this day in history on Real Clear’s site, Biden was up four percent over Trump in Arizona in average polling in 2020, and Hillary Clinton enjoyed a one percent advantage in 2016. Trump ended up surpassing Clinton in 2016 to capture the state’s Electoral College votes, while he narrowly lost the state to Biden in 2020.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., accused President Joe Biden of “treasonous” conduct in mishandling the border at a Judiciary Committee hearing on May 10.
Crane joined House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and members of the committee in Sahuarita, Arizona for a field hearing titled “The Biden Border Crisis: Arizona Perspectives.”
The hearing examined the effects of the current southwest border crisis on Arizona’s residents and communities.
Crane said the president has “betrayed” the country. He read a definition of treason from the dictionary and said he thinks the president’s behavior qualifies.
“I think it’s treasonous, I absolutely do,” Crane said. “You guys feel betrayed? I know I do.”
The committee members heard from local residents, including a former Border Patrol sector chief, a former sheriff’s deputy, a fifth-generation rancher whose property and leases cover five miles of the border, and a woman who lost two children to fentanyl overdoses.
The witnesses said the border is the worst they’ve seen.
“It’s purposeful, and the purpose is to change the demographics of this country,” said Jim Chilton, the rancher. “It’s politically thought by the administration, Mr. Biden, that these people will vote for Democrats in the future.”
Chris T. Clem, the former high-ranking Border Patrol chief who served from President Clinton to President Biden and is now retired, said the Biden administration aims “to swing power on their behalf.”
Jordan agreed.
“It’s sad because you don’t want to think that about the commander-in-chief,” the Ohio Republican said. “But it’s tough to come up with any other conclusion.”
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
