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Are Democrats going to fool us … again?

Are Democrats going to fool us … again?

No where in Government are there more schemes to fool the American people than in legislation that has to do with spending and taxing.

The evergreen con comes in projecting the cost of a program and the anticipated revenues to pay for it.  In that game the Democrats are Lucy, of “Peanuts” fame, and we the people are Charlie Brown at the beginning of football season.  Lucy makes a promise to tee up the ball every year only to snatch it away at the last moment – sending Charley flat on his back as he goes to kick the ball.

Once again, the Democrats tell us that the HUGE Infrastructure Bill and the even Huge-r Reconciliation Bill will be paid for.  And like a bunch of Charlie Browns, too many people believe them – when, in fact, the ultimate cost of the legislation will surpass the initial projections by a LOT and the anticipated revenues will fall far short of the estimate.  

Democrats will tell us that most of the new money will come from taxing corporations – even though they know that we the people will wind up paying those taxes in the form of increased prices for goods and services.

Then there is this scam.

The proposed Biden legislation is given a price tag of $3.5 trillion dollars over the next ten years.  That is $350 billion dollars per year.  That is an enormous amount of money to add to the federal budget.  Too much, in fact.

In an effort to reach a compromise, some Democrat leaders are suggesting that they pass a 5-year bill for half that amount – or a mere $17.5 trillion price tag.   That amounts to … what? … $350 billion per year.

If you follow what West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin calls the “acceptable” amount of $1.5 trillion dollars, that comes to $150 billion per year.  That is still an enormous amount to add to the federal budget each year.  Still too much.

The annual expenditure is the most critical number.  Why?  Because that is how we tax.  That is how we budget.  That is how we spend.  Simply reducing the number of years while keeping the $350 billion annual expenditure is a distinction without a difference.  It is a ruse designed to fool the American public.

Whether it is a ten-year expenditure or a five-year expenditure, Democrats are betting that once their menu of socialistic welfare programs are in place, they will never be cancelled.  In other words, if they get their $350 billion per year for five years or ten years makes no difference.  They will continue ad infinitum.

And even worse, the cost of those programs will continue to increase – meaning that future Congresses will have to appropriate more and more money to keep them going.  If you do not understand that dynamic, just check out the cost of Medicare, school loans, food stamps, unemployment compensation and every other federal program over the years.

Do not be fooled.  The Biden “Build Back Better” scheme will break the bank, increase the National Debt by trillions of dollars and trigger inflation.  But Biden and the Democrats do not care because most of the poop will hit the propeller long after these reckless reprobates are long gone.

There are various levels of proposed spending.  Vermont’s self-proclaimed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders would like to make the figure $6 trillion.  The Biden package is said to be $3.5 trillion.  Manchin sees the ceiling at $1.5 trillion.  It is all too much.

The most responsible number?  Zero – and it does not matter if you project that for ten years, five years or until the end of the millennium.  We can only hope that there are enough responsible members of Congress to kill off Biden’s insane Build Back Broker proposal.

So, there ‘tis

Correction: Kudos to Joseph S. Bruder for finding the typo in the math – the misplaced decimal point.  It should have been $1.75 trillion instead of $17.5 trillion.  However, the point still stands.  Cutting the years from 10 to 5 to get to a $1.75 trillion dollar Bill makes no difference in the annual spending.  It is a scam.  Mr. Bruder chooses a picayune criticism over a refutation of the major point – as usual.

About The Author

Larry Horist

So, there ‘tis… The opinions, perspectives and analyses of businessman, conservative writer and political strategist Larry Horist. Larry has an extensive background in economics and public policy. For more than 40 years, he ran his own Chicago based consulting firm. His clients included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman. He has served as a consultant to the Nixon White House and travelled the country as a spokesman for President Reagan’s economic reforms. Larry professional emphasis has been on civil rights and education. He was consultant to both the Chicago and the Detroit boards of education, the Educational Choice Foundation, the Chicago Teachers Academy and the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts. Larry has testified as an expert witness before numerous legislative bodies, including the U. S. Congress, and has lectured at colleges and universities, including Harvard, Northwestern and DePaul. He served as Executive Director of the City Club of Chicago, where he led a successful two-year campaign to save the historic Chicago Theatre from the wrecking ball. Larry has been a guest on hundreds of public affairs talk shows, and hosted his own program, “Chicago In Sight,” on WIND radio. An award-winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries have appeared on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation. He is praised by audiences for his style, substance and sense of humor. Larry retired from his consulting business to devote his time to writing. His books include a humorous look at collecting, “The Acrapulators’ Guide”, and a more serious history of the Democratic Party’s role in de facto institutional racism, “Who Put Blacks in That PLACE? -- The Long Sad History of the Democratic Party’s Oppression of Black Americans ... to This Day”. Larry currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

14 Comments

  1. Dan Tyree

    Larry with the stupid people in America they might get fooled again. It seems that the population is dying from the neck up

  2. Arthur

    Larry,
    Every comment you send for publication is the result of your going further off the deep end emotionally and mentally.
    Calm done before you do yourself real harm.
    It will all be OK. It will work out as designed.
    Your fixation on Democrats as the bad guys and Biden chief among them has canceled any rational judgement as to the Republican responsibility to the nation.
    Quit penning opinions to an audience of a few who agree and chime in now and then. Send your daily opinions degrading the other side and this President to Washington to your representatives working for you. Make sure the Florida delegation knows how you think. Surely, they will appreciate your insightful input and pass it on across the aisle for instruction.
    That is how democracy in this Republic should work.
    Otherwise it truly is only for the ruling class, by the ruling class and for the ruling class. That being the red right Republican Party.
    Although, when they held all the marbles with Trump at the helm what good for we the people did the GOP stand and deliver. Nothing, just fighting, grifting and conspiracy theories.
    In all, what the did was represent the part of their constituency inclined to misinformation and believing “the big lie”. The Republican Party is scared to death of the truth coming from their lips and a backlash from hard core members believing the propaganda.

    • larry Horist

      I will spend more time on Republican polices when they gain more power to implement them. When you say Trump did nothing for America, you mean nothing you on the left liked. I have liked the Supreme Court appointments — and all those other federal judges. I liked the tax cut. I like implementing school choice. I liked working to actually secure the southern border. I like the fact that he got our NATO allies to pay more of their fair share. I like that he got three Muslim nations to sign a peace accord with Israel. I like the fact that he signed an Executive Order banning ex-congress members from being lobbyists upon leave Congress. US embassy to Jerusalem. I like that he addressed the backlog at the VA hospitals by allowing vets to go to private doctors and hospitals. I liked that he used funds to improve minority unemployment for the first time. I like that he at least halted the Russian take over of Ukraine. I like that he got North Korea to return the remains of American soldiers for the first time. I like that he halted the NK ballistic missile launches — which are not back. And much, much, much more.

      I will not defend his personality, but that is second behind the issues in my book. And there were things I did not like — such as starting the withdrawal from Afghanistan, getting into the trade war with China, forcing the Kurds to give up the border with Turkey. IF you are honest maybe you can tell me the things Trump did that you liked. If you cannot, your are just peddling partisan propaganda.

  3. Joseph S. Bruder

    Well, certainly Republicans are easily fooled. Trump is still getting donations from stupid people to support his various recounts and continuing litigation over the election that he lost almost a year ago. And he hints that he’s going to run, and idiots throw money at his campaign PACs. Those people are stupid enough to believe anything. Hey Idiots! Your money is going into Trump’s pockets, to pay for his failed businesses! Trump will be in jail by the time the next election comes around.

    The US spent approximately $7 billion on the war on terror after 9-11, and about $2.3 billion was on Afghanistan alone. That’s $115 billion per year, saved by Joe Biden. I don’t hear Republicans thanking him for that! Unfortunately, interest on GW’s wars will add up to about $6 trillion and costs of military health care, disability, burial and other costs will add up to another $2 trillion. Republicans have also been pretty silent on all the dollars committed to war by Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and their war-mongering Republican colleagues.

    Janet Yellin, (current Secretary of the Treasury and former chair of the Federal Reserve) estimates that the US loses about a trillion a year because of wealthy tax cheats. Besides the fact that the spending is crucial to the US infrastructure because of the lack of Republican investment over the last 20 years, it can be paid for by going after people who violate US law. Just by hiring more tax enforcers to go after the rich (for a fraction of what they’d bring in), Biden can pay for his proposal.

    The Republicans in Congress who are crying the most about the cost of Biden’s investment in infrastructure are the same people who gave a trillion dollars to the rich (including themselves), just because they were in power and they could pass it. Trump claimed the tax cuts would generate $ 1.8 trillion in added revenue to the US government, but in reality it just put more money in the hands of the wealthy and ballooned the deficit by $1 trillion. It also most likely contributed to the downturn in the economy that started even before Trump completely botched the government’s handling of the COVID response.

    So, yes, the Republicans who put Trump into office and continue to support him ARE pretty gullible, but the snake oil came from the king of snake oil himself, the orange haired idiot.

    By the way, Larry – time for a remedial math class. You stated that $350B x 5 years would be $17.5 trillion. You’re off by a factor of 10… trying to stir up even more resentment among your easily fooled rubes?

    • larry Horist

      Finally, I had something for which I can give you credit — as you can see at the end of the commentary. Based on your childish insults and strained sarcasm — and lack of intellectual integrity — you should not expect more. I once suggested that you evict me from your head, but I see by your lengthy obsessive rants directed at me personally that you are having problems with that. Try harder.

      • Joseph S. Bruder

        Larry, you started your piece with “are Dem’s going to fool us again”? You are admitting up front, as early as you can in your piece, that Republicans were already fooled… I’m only pointing out that the biggest huckster of them all was Trump, and he continues to fool Republicans by scamming them for money. I’m sorry if you can’t understand sarcasm, a common problem with older people…

        If you care to go back through a bunch of historical data, you’ll find that the economy over the last 40 or 50 years has almost without exception done better under Democrats than Republicans. GDP grows faster, deficits go down, debt grows less slowly or even reverses. But you won’t… it would be admitting that Republican conservatism doesn’t work.

  4. frank stetson

    “spending and taxing says the Republican parrot once again. The tax cut and spend crowd should be the last to lecture on deficit spending. Ever since Reaganomics, this management has been bad ju-ju. In your last 4-year reign, you grew the largest debt, deficit, highest unemployment, and welfare spending ever. You can blame covid, that’s convenient, but you blew the federal response on that one too. At least according to the death toll comparison with other modern nations. We are middle of the pack at best, and worse than some many other countries. And you did that on top of a $2T tax cut over ten years that did not return expected results, even before the pandemic: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2019/09/26/475083/trumps-corporate-tax-cut-not-trickling/

    Obama’s investment program management, deficit management, etc. was much better than Bush’s, and let’s face it, Trump is in Hoover territory, the worst of the worsts. (where’s my flack jacket).

    You roll out the favorites, I was surprised you didn’t include welfare moms buying Cadillac’s with food stamps. And I am guessing you shot from the hip a few times like when you said: “And even worse, the cost of those programs will continue to increase – meaning that future Congresses will have to appropriate more and more money to keep them going. If you do not understand that dynamic, just check out the cost of Medicare, school loans, food stamps, unemployment compensation and every other federal program over the years.” First, it depends. America is still a growing nation with a growing economy. Therefore, of course program costs have to increase. The GDP increases also. More people alone = more increase.

    If we “just check out” food stamps, for example: first, let’s note that 92% of snap spending is on customers, 7% on administration. Second, the snap payments as a percentage of GDP, have been falling since 2014. That includes the pandemic period too, I believe. https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/the-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap. You can just check it out, but good chance you are off on a few of your numerical assertions here. But the old Republican song sounds the best. Much better than “snap has become more efficient over time.”

    Larry’s desire zero investment is absolutely the wrong number, doing nothing may be the Republican way, but it is not the American way.

    I agree the number is too high; I base that on the debt, deficit, and risk involved. Do I know the right number? No. Each program should be evaluated for it’s ROI before we invest. Can we afford the $3.5T? They say we can via taxes on business. I still say start smaller, we have a large debt right now. Do consumer prices pay for the tax? Larry says says yes, but that’s probably not true. Competition and the economic concept of “price stickiness” says that the cost increases will be spread, some will be absorbed with less profit, some with lower costs, and some by greater volumes (by winning companies). It does not flow 100% to the consumer and it never happens instantly.

    Does a 10 year view consist of smoke and mirrors? Absolutely. Larry leaves out the actual “funding by year plan” which often front-end loads the cost to the initial years. Then, when combining the number of variables, estimates, forecasts, and the decade used, and you get a view that probably will never become true (like we forecasted covid’s economic effects, not likely). But to do zero is incompetent. Tax cuts and spending is worse.

    So, IMO, let’s invest something in America, and then measure the return, accurately, dispassionately, and decide what to do next. That’s what Congress is charged with, to fund, budget, implement, and measure, America’s Federal progress. Let’s talk about plans, prices, and returns for each of the programs. And let’s quit this broad-brushed, sound bite, chest thumping, rhetoric just looking to gain attention by rolling out those old assumptions and biases.

    It can be done well. Obama’s stimulus netted a benefit to America. The stats show it. One example, a Republican’s favorite whipping boy, is the Solar Energy Program. Republicans love to bash Solyndra, who took a loan, defaulted with some degree of messiness. But what they miss, is that the Solar Energy Program returned a profit to America. The loans were repaid, with interest, and the entire solar market expanded. win -win, government working as it should, yes, it can work. https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363572151/after-solyndra-loss-u-s-energy-loan-program-turning-a-profit No, we don’t need to make a profit always, but just noting that it can be done sometimes.

    And there it is. Larry is off on some of his numbers, his concept of “zero” is stupid, some times government can have programs that profit America and the government as well, and you have to look at each of the programs.

    Yes, I agree it’s complex, and the ten year view is much harder to assess than a 12 month view. But that’s the work, that’s the charge of Congress, they should quit with the PR sound bites and get down to work. Pick a number, prune the plans, and for Christ’s sake, this time monitor, measure, and correct, as anyone managing a project of this magnitude would do.

    The Obama stimulus was measured, scores pretty good, investing in America can work to do things that private industry does not while offering Americans a hand-up, not a hand-out, using American investment, known as taxes. The solar energy program is a model for a world-class government program. That’s what we need today, find models that work and let’s get back to work.

  5. Ben

    I couldn’t for the life of me figure the vitriol of the right out. How did I go from being a moderate Democratic voter to being a leftist , commicrat, libtard without ever changing one political position ?
    I mean, I know Rush and Rodger Allies and Newt were super effective communicators. They had compelling and captivating oration. But I still didn’t get how you guys made the leap from Reagan’s welfare Queen trope to trying to overthrow the government.

    With the revelations of the evil and harm that Social Media is doing to our society, and the way they feed into users anger and perpetuate strong emotional reactions to make more money, it now makes a little more sense.

    I started reading this blog with an unsolicited email from PBP. I kept reading the blog because Larry seemed like an elder statesman, a throw back to the days of, “I disagree with you, but respect your opinion”. Maybe I didn’t have enough sample size to realize my initial impression was wrong, or maybe Larry really has fallen off his principled stances in favor of a more politically charged partisan slant. I’m not sure.

    Life has been super busy with the family, kids sports, and work. I haven’t opened PBP in a week or more and honestly, it’s not something I really missed out of my life. I just came back to say that I now realize that it’s not really your guys fault that you’ve become so radicalized, it’s what traditional media such as Fox, social media and right wing politicians intended to happen. I am disappointed, but it is understandable.

    Thanks for the couple of shout outs you gave me Larry! Heres’s to a ( thankfully) dying breed!

    • larry Horist

      No Ben … I still respect other people’s opinions — especially when they can be expressed intelligently and in a civil manner. I generally avoid name calling and cheap insults — although I do slip occasionally when they come in my direction. Verbally, I am not a barroom brawler. I prefer the Marquis of Queensbury Rules. (That was a straight line for one of your “old man” come back.) I write what I believe … and more than just headlines. I try to make the case for what I believe. I try to be objective — which means I get slammed from both sides. That is how I know I am on solid ground. The reason i do not get angry or hateful is because … after more than 50 years in the public arena, I firmly believe that 99 percent of people are good people. That is true of every racial group, straights and gays, men and women — and the people I have interacted with in foreign nations. To me, political debate is like a boxing match. You give your best punches and when the bell rings you shake hands and go out together for a drink. And despite your good wishes, I do not plan on dying soon enough to satisfy you lol I can only wish that when you reach my age you will be as content and happy as me. And to Arthur … do not worry. My mental state is very good.

  6. frank stetson

    Wow Ben, you really touched some nerves there.

    I agree. My Mom used to call me her “little Republican” so I am pretty sure I am on the right of the far left, if not dead center as a proud Clintonian Democrat willing to steal any great Conservative idea and call it my own and take full credit because we actually did it, just didn’t mouth off about it, we made it happen. I mean, who didn’t love that crime bill, at least in the mid 90’s…..for awhile…..until….. Hey, and we still put the e in ending the welfare hand-outs via Clintonian changes to the system (all based on Republican ideas but sssssh, we will never tell :>)

    I too thought Larry a elder statesman, harkening back to days of old when Republicans were bold and could never be told — “get some principles, man…..” Remember family values? Now it’s commiecrats, libtards, yelling “fuck Biden” is so cool it gets YUGE coverage here. And the site is still grand seemingly allowing different points of view with only a lightest of censures. Hell, they don’t even censure obvious mis-information flows which, if followed, would actually cause physical harm to people. That’s open! Because I draw the free-speech line pretty hard at lies-that-harm.

    At first Larry and I had some nice discussions, agreed name calling bad, I even apologized for a slight transgression there. Lately, he’s been sort of off the reservation not only saying some really silly things, a few blatantly untrue, but getting quite snarky, even name calling, along the way. If he gets paid by the word, and the pay is based on ratings, I would understand more. But somehow, I just don’t think he’s in it for the money unless PBG is just a loss-leader for him and he is trolling for better jobs. I think more likely is he thinks the snarky is funny. I would say: don’t quit the day job, but……he’s already basking in Florida, without a mask, but fully vaccinated.

    Or perhaps we have hit a nerve by ganging up a bit and triple-teaming him. This may just be back-up mode over that. His support team is weak or, worse yet, injurious to his cause, we keep hitting him with hard facts disputing his claims. Lashing out may just be the easier way for poor Larry to compensate. After all, ad hominem attacks are the best if you’re support is weak or crumbling under the tremendous weight of the truth.

    What can I say: in for a peck, in for a pound Larry. HAGD.

    IMO, he’s still night-and-day better that any other of the yellow journalists here. Or maybe yellow bloggers, since, except for Larry, not sure the term journalist applies to the cut-n-paste, trash-talk team.

    • larry Horist

      Frank … You can read my reply to Ben. All of you guys’ concern for me is very touching.

    • Joseph S. Bruder

      I don’t know – except for obvious bias in the titles and the occasional “author’s note” that would spout a far right opinion, Alice is mostly a stick-to-the-facts kind of writer. I got called a bully for calling her out about her writing (along with my own opinions on her subjects), but I call out any writer that spouts opinions without backing them up. Sheridan’s posts have been moderately mild on the rhetoric, and more like a summary of an AP article. The “Machine” guy was totally unintelligible, but he seems to have dropped off the radar. Then there’s old Joe Gilbertson… the ringleader of the whole thing… who fancies himself as a defender of the Constitution and/or having a better understanding of human behavior than anyone else, or something like that… Jumps in with an occasional righteous condemnation of Democratic policies with some very thin arguments and never a look in the mirror…

      In the end, though, Horist is the hod-carrier for the supposedly conservative Trumpist bricklayers. He’s standing on the porch shouting “get off my lawn” to friends, relatives, minorities, women, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, and just about everyone who isn’t him. He has no self-awareness whatsoever, trashing the opinions of others while not recognizing how much he’s part of the problem, and despite quoting some idealized rules of boxing etiquette, he doesn’t understand metaphors or recognize sarcasm, and has no problem insulting readers who call him out for his opinions. He never misses an opportunity to bash Democrats, excuses anything and everything that Republicans do, and seems to have no problem with war, hunger, disease, threats to democracy and international relationships, or any other issues currently facing government. His only concern, the supposedly-conservative prime directive, is government spending, except he won’t admit that since the 1960’s or so, spending and deficits have gone up faster under Republican administrations than Democrats’ admins. His opinions align with the business interests of PBP, and like FOX and Newsmax (and to a lesser extent, most other other media companies), they thrive on scare tactics and outrageousness, so Horist continues to get paid for his almost daily column.

      • larry Horist

        Bruder … what a pathetic post. We all know you hate this site and all the writers on it. Not sure why you bother to obsessively respond. You are a man possessed. I am both flattered and saddened that you single me out for this unhinged emotional screed in which you unleash a torrent of senseless and inaccurate ad hominin attacks on me. Flattering for me. Sad for you. I am aware that I occupy your brain, but I never realized how extensively — and how emotionally unhinged it makes you. There is a lot reported lately about addition to the Internet. If not that, your rants have the “sound” of a person who has hit the bottle or taken a hit of something. I do not respond to you very often because I know it just inflates your ego and exacerbates your affliction. I am taking this opportunity to say that you really should address you obsession. I do not know if it is just this site, your you are all over the Internet with your expressions of arrogance and self-importance. I shall go back to the easier role … ignoring you.

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