Photo: Getty Images
Top Three Takeaways – September 15th, 2021
- FSA go away. It wasn’t the “major” announcement I’d anticipated when we learned the Governor would be addressing education on Tuesday, but it was a popular one. Calling the abolition of the Florida Standards Assessment one of his top priorities for the 2022 Legislative Session (which starts in January), DeSantis, joined by Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, called it antiquated and said it’s elimination will reduce time spent on standardized testing in the classroom by 75%. It's rare that you get the Florida Board of Education and the Florida Education Association on the same page these days, but this did it. According to the FEA: We appreciate that Commissioner Corcoran and the Florida Department of Education are listening on this issue and are reducing the amount of standardized testing in Florida’s schools. In DeSantis’s book this is the final page to turn to end the Common Core era in Florida. Which also means the Jeb Bush educational era in Florida as well. Florida’s B.E.S.T Standards have replaced Common Core over the past two years in Florida’s schools, which while a big deal, has been overshadowed by the pandemic and all of the other education related drama around it. Making the FSA go away will require legislative approval next year but with broad bipartisan support, is a likely forgone conclusion. What will replace the FSA? Customizable progress tests. Whatever that will mean.
- A Hurricane tax? As though living through them isn’t taxing enough and as though paying the sky-high property and flood insurance rates we already pay in South Florida due to the risk of them wasn’t already expensive enough – comes this. Joe Biden’s tax plan. Kudos to the team at R Street as they found this nugget within Joe Biden’s Socialist States of America Plan, ahem, I mean Made in America Tax Plan. Should the wannabee dictator-in-chief get his tax plan through Congress, guess what it’ll mean to you? Aside from higher income taxes and higher costs of goods and services from businesses who’d pass their higher tax rates on to you. Higher property insurance premiums. Under the Biden tax plan, the average Floridian, already paying the highest property insurance rates in the country, would have to pay an additional $300 annually in insurance costs. That’s right, $300 more a year alone just for property insurance! Just imagine how much more this plan will screw you with all of the other industries. The greatest farce is the “tax the rich” narrative. As I’ve previously discussed, there’s not enough “rich” people to even begin to pay for things like the $3.5 trillion greenish new deal, as the total income of the top 1%, even if outright confiscated, only amounts to $800 billion. But perhaps the biggest lie of all is that tax increases benefit the poor. The fact is no one is hurt more by tax increases than the poor because of higher taxes making everything in society more expensive for everyone including the poor - now including a $300 annual hurricane tax if Joe Biden and the Democrats have their way. Speaking of things that are stinkin’ in Washington, there’s...
- Blinken. His second day of testimony in Congress wasn’t any better than the first, though he dignified the Senate with his presence which is more respect than he showed the people’s House. Want to know how bad his testimony was? Quoting Blinken, referring to President Biden: he speaks very clearly and very deliberately for himself. Biden speaks very clearly? Does he mean when he’s whispering? He does seem to have more command when he’s doing that. And then there’s the actual substance of Blinken’s testimony. On Sunday, President Obama’s CIA Director Michael Morell said on CBS’s Face the Nation, I think that the Taliban winning the war in Afghanistan, and then the way our exit happened, has absolutely inspired jihadists all over the world. On Tuesday, Blinken said the world “has significant leverage” over the Taliban. Which do you believe? Or maybe he’s referring to the $64 million in “aid” we just sent to Afghanistan? Perhaps he’s admitting that we’re now paying terrorists for protection, kinda like the mafia? Now, isn’t that a great reason to raise your taxes? Ahh, Biden and Blinken, their policies really stink.