Trump Indictment Season Continues, Celebrating Inflation & Florida Sports Betting – Top 3 Takeaways – August 15th, 2023
- Inflation is higher under the Inflation Reduction Act. Tomorrow the so-called Inflation Reduction Act turns one and as it does President Joe Biden is scheduled to “take credit” for bringing down inflation. There’s only one problem. He hasn’t and the Inflation Reduction Act didn’t. You don’t need to be an economist to answer this question. Is your cost of living higher today than it was a year ago today? Of course, it is...that’s a silly question, right?! But to quote an economist commenting on the one-year anniversary of the not-so Inflation Reduction Act Harvard economist Jason Furman said this: I can’t think of any mechanism by which it would have brought down inflation to date. And to be precise the cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index is 3.2% higher than a year ago when we were already suffering under 40-year high inflation rates. Yes, the rate of increase in inflation has come down to still unacceptably high levels. No, life is anything but more affordable today compared to a year ago. And this one-year anniversary serves as a teachable moment. In my Top 3 Takeaways, just over a year ago on August 9th I said this of the legislation I dubbed “The Screw You Act”... Did last year’s huge Democrat spending plan called The American Rescue Plan Act, rescue America? You know the plan which invented $1.9 trillion dollars out of thin air, watering down the value of the dollar in your pocket, and handed out like it was free, though it must be paid back with interest. Did that Act rescue us or...did it quite literally create the crippling 41-year high inflation rate resulting in the average American being 4% worse off than a year ago net of inflation? Listening to and reading the news reporting pertaining to what Democrats dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act”, is about as intellectually insulting and painful. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that’s deflationary about this legislation. Aside from the stuck on stupid maneuver of raising taxes, is new spending on a host of leftist wish list items totaling $433 billion. I’ll make this simple. Higher taxes don’t equal a better economy. Ever. More government debt spending doesn’t equal less inflation. Ever. If the news media were honest about what this legislation is, or for that matter what the American Rescue Plan Act was, these would be called the Screw You Acts – because that’s what they are by way of what the actual policy does. And so predictably here we are today with still higher than acceptable inflation, but now also with the highest interest rates in over twenty years, and the average American greater than 6% worse off net of inflation since Joe Biden became president. We’ve been screwed but then again that was pretty much assured with the results of the 2020 elections. And today we’ll be further intellectually insulted as President Biden will travel to Wisconsin, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will travel to Nevada and Vice President Harris will travel to Washington to “celebrate” the one-year anniversary of the Screw You Act. President Biden will also host another event at the White House tomorrow. They really do think you’re that stupid. But then again since people voted for them once already... What’s done is done. The lesson to be learned here is for us collectively to be smarter when voting in the future. Speaking of the future...
- The future of sports betting in Florida remains cloudy. That’s because West Flagler Associates, the group which is attempting to prevent sports betting in Florida, filed a petition challenging the recent federal Court panel decision which once again legalized sports betting within the state. At issue, the Seminole Compact signed by Governor DeSantis and the Seminole Tribe in the spring of 2021 enabling sports betting. The filing seeks a review by the entire federal court bench in a case that may eventually end up before the United States Supreme Court. The legal outlook will at least temporarily remain murky, which may keep the Seminoles on the sidelines until a final ruling is in. And speaking of legal happenings involving high profile Floridians...
- And then there were four. The Grand Jury indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 of his associates on eleven different charges makes it four indictments in as many months for the former president. It also just might put an end to the indictment season for Trump, for now. The breadth of the charges, pursing as many of Trump’s associates as are being pursued here, may well be aimed at once again attempting to create a chilling effect around the former president. A possible effort to keep talented people from wanting to enter Trump’s orbit under the fear that something like this might end up happening to them. All involved have ten days, until August 25th, to surrender to Fulton County authorities. And here’s the one thing to remember about Trump’s legal jeopardy with all of these cases. The state charges in New York and now in Georgia could be the direst for the former and perhaps future president. If Trump, or an ally of his, were to win the next presidential election – he could be pardoned of the federal charges against him. But there’s nothing he or any other president could do to absolve him of any charges or potential convictions at the state level in either state. Also, Georgia’s RICO law carries a mandatory minimum sentence. If convicted on that charge, there may not be a way to avoid imprisonment unless a potential conviction is overturned on appeal. It’s that kind of stuff, the Stormy Daniels hush money stuff in New York, and these potentially trumped-up charges in Georgia, which could ironically provide him with the greatest legal peril of all.