There is a particular depth of disingenuous detachment when listening to “Establishment Republicans” discuss the Donald Trump tax proposal today.

Especially when we see a pundit like George Will espousing “a profound moral hazard” within a tax proposal that removes federal tax liability from those earning less than $25,000/year.
Before giving an accurate history of the issue, please watch the 30 seconds of this video. Here is George Will on Monday.  The video is prompted to 36:15 where he opines:
https://youtu.be/wSeG-oYjPMo?t=39m15s
Ah, what a short memory, and insufferable disconnect, these “establishment” types carry.
However, the narrow-minded, and profoundly convenient history-rewriting is not limited to the professionally disingenuous. (more…)

(Via WFB) More than half of households headed by immigrants in the county illegally, or 62 percent, received welfare benefits in 2012, according to a report released by the Center for Immigration Studies.
In the same time period, 49 percent of households headed by legal immigrants received welfare benefits, while 30 percent of households headed by natives received the same.
The report evaluates data from the Census Bureau and found that illegal immigrant households benefit mostly from food programs like food stamps and Medicaid through their native-born children. (more…)

Lots to discuss, absorb and discover.

Texas swing state polling shows Trump expanding his lead over home state candidates Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz.  Similar to Florida Polling, the risk presented by Donald Trump is growing exponentially; which also explains the new Quinnipiac approach.

Beyond the Texas Polling, and specifically because of what Trump is accomplishing, you’ll note the data inside the Quinnipiac polling begins to present new paradigms, new questions.
Q-pac is beginning to test out Trump VS Biden.  EVERYONE should have fully anticipated this new ‘dynamic’, it was entirely predictable. (more…)

Here comes the beginning of the second holy grail goal of the Obama administration. This one comes with guarantees of billions for Chicago Jesus and his ideological co-horts. Get ready for “Carbon Trading” in the U.S. energy sector along a similar vein to the historical “Mortgage Trading” in the housing sector.

Listen closely tomorrow and you’ll hear some familiar catch phrases. Remember “if you like your plan you can keep your plan”, or “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor”, or “it will save the average family $2,500 per year on health insurance premiums”, or “we have to pass the bill (regulation) to find out what’s in it” etc… the nouns will change, the verbs and adjectives will remain the same.

WASHINGTON DC – President Barack Obama will Monday unveil what he called the “biggest, most important step we’ve ever taken” to fight climate change, a sensitive issue central to his legacy.

The White House will release the final version of America’s Clean Power Plan, a set of environmental rules and regulations that will home in on the pollution from the nation’s power plants, setting limits on power-plant carbon emissions.

Laying out how climate change was a threat to the health, well being and security of millions of Americans, and adding that time was of the essence, Obama said in a video released early Sunday: “Climate change is not a problem for another generation. Not anymore.” (more…)

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras really screwed the pooch when he called for a national referendum on austerity cuts and accepting a bailout. His own country voted overwhelmingly to say no, to the cuts, but he has no other option – they’ve run out of money, and need yet another bailout.

Apparently the borrower forgot: when you’re broke, the lender has all the leverage.

(Via Reuters) Skeptical euro zone finance ministers demanded on Saturday that Greece go beyond painful austerity measures accepted by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras if he wants them to open negotiations on a third bailout for his bankrupt country to keep it in the euro.

The ministers postponed until Sunday a decision on whether to recommend starting talks on a new loan for Athens and sought further commitments first on product market liberalization, labor laws, privatization, state reform and more defense cuts, plus a promise to pass key laws next week, officials said.

The Eurogroup session will resume on Sunday, five hours before heads of state and government of the 19-nation currency area are to meet to decide on Greece’s fate in the euro zone. (more…)

(Reuters) […]  On Wednesday, more than 500 China-listed firms announced trading halts, bringing the total number to around 1,300, almost half of China’s roughly 2,800 “A share” listed companies.

[…]  China’s stock market has so far tumbled 30 percent from its mid-June peak, reversing a year-long, highly-leveraged bull run, and wiping out nearly $3 trillion in market capitalization.

A slew of government support measures, including direct purchases of blue chips, a central bank pledge of liquidity support, and a halt in initial public offerings, has not been able to stem the slide. (more…)

WASHINGTON POST – An emergency summit of European leaders called to salvage Greece’s financial rescue broke up acrimoniously late Tuesday, with officials saying the country now has just five days to avoid bankruptcy.

Following a day of talks in Brussels aimed at finding a way out of months of bitter deadlock, European leaders were scathing in their assessments of Greece’s proposals, calling them inadequate and demanding that the Greek government return with a detailed plan by Friday morning.

The leaders of all 28 European Union members will then meet on Sunday in what officials said would be the final chance to save Greece from economic oblivion. (Read More)

• Before agreeing to EU demands Greece put their financial strategy to a vote. • The electorate voted “no” in a referendum where the question asked is should the government reduce benefits in order to become fiscally responsible. • However, the Greek government cannot sustain the benefits being paid – and needs a bailout to be solvent. • The EU member nations have said no to any further bailout without spending cuts.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece faced an uncharted future as its interior ministry predicted Sunday that more than 60 percent of voters in a hastily called referendum had rejected creditors’ demands for more austerity in exchange for rescue loans.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was gambling the future of his 5-month-old left-wing government on the vote, insisted that a “no” vote would strengthen his hand to negotiate a better deal with creditors, while a “yes” result would mean capitulating to their harsh demands. (more…)

The government of Greece gets themselves into financial trouble with unsustainable social benefits and promises. Now, when they run out of money, they begin confiscating funds from those who actually saved money. “Recapitalization”, the ultimate spread the wealth program.

2016 will be known as the year when “socialism” confronts “capitalism”.  Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton leading Socialism Team U.S.A.

(Financial Times) Greek banks are preparing contingency plans for a possible “bail-in” of depositors amid fears the country is heading for financial collapse, bankers and businesspeople with knowledge of the measures said on Friday.

The plans, which call for a “haircut” of at least 30 per cent on deposits above €8,000, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank, the sources said.

A Greek bail-in could resemble the rescue plan agreed by Cyprus in 2013, when customers’ funds were seized to shore up the banks, with a haircut imposed on uninsured deposits over €100,000. (more…)

The reoccurring problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people’s money !!

I’m not quite sure what the exact percentage is currently, but it was previously estimated more than 50% of all Puerto Ricans receive federal government subsidy (welfare) benefits of some form.  It is an unsustainable socio-economic system based on massive federal expenditures to subsidize their residents. 

Puerto Rico now saying “repayment is impossible”.  Here come the cries for bailouts from the Democrats.

(Via New York Times) Puerto Rico’s governor, saying he needs to pull the island out of a “death spiral,” has concluded that the commonwealth cannot pay its roughly $72 billion in debts, an admission that will probably have wide-reaching financial repercussions.

The governor, Alejandro García Padilla, and senior members of his staff said in an interview last week that they would probably seek significant concessions from as many as all of the island’s creditors, which could include deferring some debt payments for as long as five years or extending the timetable for repayment.

“The debt is not payable,” Mr. García Padilla said. “There is no other option. I would love to have an easier option. This is not politics, this is math.” (more…)