Featured

Debt Ceiling – Janet Yellen Pitches ‘Dog and Pony Show’ Farce While She Stiffs GAO and CBO

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Key Points

  • Janet Yellen is avoiding underlying problem.
  • GAO says U.S. facing unsustainable growth in debt.
  • JCT tax expenditures act as direct spending programs.
  • Bloomberg Tax reports tax expenditures cost $1.5 trillion annually.
  • CBO offers 76 options for reducing budget deficit.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is engaging in a “dog and pony show” unworthy of her lofty position and the gravity of America’s financial position.

Dog and pony show is an apt description of what Yellen is up to – a heavily promoted, over-the-top performance, presentation, or event designed to sway or convince opinion for political reasons.

On Jan. 19, she announced via a letter to congressional leaders that the U.S. has reached the statutory debt limit of $31.381 trillion and Treasury has started to implement so-called “extraordinary measures” to continue paying its bills. Congress must “act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” she declared.

Yellen then graced the AP with an interview while flying off to Africa during which she spouted that spending cuts to get a debt limit increase are “very irresponsible” and it is “about paying bills and not new spending,”

She was quick to assure the fickle public that White House and Treasury officials “will have discussions with members of Congress to try to understand what they see as a path forward. Congress has to do it. It’s can’t be something that’s contingent on cuts.”

Is it fair to opine that Yellen is performing like a political hack hiding behind the aura of being a former president of the Federal Reserve Board and lacks the fortitude to push the White House and Congress into action?

GAO Says Act Now

On Nov. 9, 2022, the Government Accountability Office released a report on the federal debt, which – not for the first time – unequivocally declared that valuable time is wasting as Congress and the White House procrastinate. “Absent action to address the growing imbalance between spending and revenue, the federal government faces unsustainable growth in the debt,” GAO said.

There are almost no serious declarations from Capitol Hill, the White House and the Treasury Department for immediate and specific actions to reduce federal budget deficits and taking the requisite steps to begin paying down the federal debt. Only a shedding of crocodile tears that Treasury is now resorting to extraordinary measures!

However, there are several convenient and invaluable roadmaps to guide budget cutting. Admittedly, they involve negotiating political minefields of epic proportions even while leaving aside the red herrings of cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

 JCT and Tax Expenditures

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation provides an explanation of tax expenditures as well as specific details.

Tax expenditures are defined in the Budget Act of 1974 as “revenue losses attributable to provisions of the federal tax laws which allow a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction from gross income or which provide a special credit, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability.”

According to JCT, tax expenditures include any reductions in income tax liabilities that result from special tax provisions or regulations that provide tax benefits to particular taxpayers. Special income tax provisions are referred to as tax expenditures because they may be analogous to direct outlay programs and may be considered alternative means of accomplishing similar budget policy objectives. Tax expenditures are like direct spending programs that function as entitlements to those who meet the established statutory criteria.

The Treasury Department has its own discussion of tax expenditures on its policy page website.

While they may sound innocent, tax expenditures – which according to Bloomberg Tax carry an annual price tag in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion – are a continuing gold mine for K Street lobbyists, Wall Street and a variety of stakeholders whose livelihoods depend on them.

So, reasonable thinking may well conclude that cuts in tax expenditures are likely to translate into increased tax revenue flowing into federal coffers, thereby lowering the need to borrow at unsustainable levels.

CBO Enters The Fray

On Dec. 7, 2022, the Congressional Budget Office published two documents which should have a profound role in the current debt limit brouhaha.

The first, Options for Reducing the Deficit, 2023 to 2032 – Vol. I: Large Reductions, contains  detailed discussions for 17 large options. “Each of those options would either reduce the deficit from 2023 to 2032 by more than $300 billion or, in the case of Social Security options, have a comparably large effect in later decades,” CBO said.

The second, Options for Reducing the Deficit, 2023 to 2032 – Vol. II: Smaller Reductions, provides estimates of the budgetary savings from 59 options that would each decrease federal spending or increase federal revenues over the next decade by less than $300 billion.  

According to Phillip Swagel the CBO director, based on certain assumptions about taxes and spending, federal debt held by the public rises from 98% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 to 110% of GDP in 2032 and 185% of GDP by 2052. The cost of interest on the debt doubles as a share of GDP over the next 10 years and continues to increase thereafter.

“To put the federal budget on a sustainable long-term path, lawmakers would need to make significant policy changes – taking actions to cause revenues to rise more than they would under current law, reducing spending to amounts below those currently projected, or adopting some combination of those approaches,” Swagel said.

However, unlike the GAO, Swagel may be a bit more optimistic. “The nation has time to implement these changes,” he opined.

Time will tell!

Spineless Janet

Meanwhile, the treasury secretary is expected to continue her dog and pony show.

Can Janet Yellen, for the good of the country, abandon partisan politics and candidly speak to the issue as an eminent economist?

If she chose to do so, it is likely she would find allies in GAO, CBO, and even on Capitol Hill.

Don’t hold your breath.

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This article originally appeared on Jan. 26 at https://unamericanactivities.substack.com/p/debt-ceiling-janet-yellen-pitches.

Featured

GAO and Freedom Caucus March in Lockstep on $31 Trillion Federal Debt – Wall Street Set to Join Them

By: Jeffrey Winograd

KEY POINTS

  • GAO warns of unsustainable federal debt.
  • GOP conservatives draw line in the sand.
  • Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase sounds the alarm.
  • Federal debt stands at $31 trillion.
  • Interest on federal debt is soaring.
  • Vote on increasing debt limit is on the horizon.

A recent report by the Government Accountability Office pulled no punches when it comes to the financial health of the federal government which it views as being in critical condition.

At the same time, it sends a powerful message that the Republican-only Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives is spot on with one of its key concerns – the out-of-control federal debt.

The Freedom Caucus, which is no Johnny come lately with its focus on “limitless federal spending,” made clear its intentions in a Dec. 8, 2022, “Dear Colleague” letter. “We must commit to not raising the debt ceiling without a concrete plan to cap spending and operate under a budget that balances in 10 years or less – and  hold to it In addition, we must not return to the blind embrace of earmarks emblematic of the swamp,” said the letter which carried seven signatures.

A key Wall Street figure has just stepped into the role of pathfinder on the issue for the financial sector. Jamie Dimon, the head honcho of JP Morgan Chase & Co., on Jan. 10 told Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business that the problem is not today but when the federal debt hits 130% of gross domestic product. “I’m talking about on the day that America can’t pay its debt, that has potentially disastrous outcomes,” he said.

Dimon laid out a scenario where over a period of time there are continuous defaults on Treasury bills. “It is so potentially dangerous we shouldn’t get anywhere near it. And after all the shenanigans of politics, we’re going to have to fix this. I think it’s very bad for the nation to constantly be looking at this type of thing,” he declared, adding that the credit rating of the United States was unimaginably dropped from AAA to AA due to a previous controversy over raising the nation’s debt limit.

GAO’s Perspective

GAO’s overriding warning, according to the report, is that the United States is continuing to edge closer and closer to the precipice of a financial meltdown – a situation created courtesy of bipartisan feeding at the trough of unsustainable borrowing.

“From fiscal year 1997, GAO’s first year auditing the [financial books], through September 30, 2022, total federal debt managed by the Bureau of Fiscal Service has increased from $5.4 trillion to $30.9 trillion, and the debt limit has been raised 22 times,” GAO reported. That period of time includes five presidential administrations, six speakers of the House of Representatives and six Senate majority leaders.

According to GAO, during FY 2022, total federal debt increased by some $2.5 trillion. Interest on the public debt ballooned to $497 billion, up from $392 billion in the previous year.

“The primary reason for the increase in debt held by the public was the federal deficit, which was $1.4 trillion for fiscal year 2022,” GAO stated. Another category of federal debt is intragovernmental debt holdings, it noted.

Over the years, repeated delays in raising the debt limit have resulted in increased borrowing costs and this history portends further increases with federal spending “projected to increase more rapidly than revenue,” the report said.  “Absent action to address the growing imbalance between spending and revenue, the federal government faces unsustainable growth in its debt,” GAO warned.

Publicly Held Debt Includes Foreign Owners    

As described by GAO, debt held by the public represents the amount the federal government has borrowed from the public to finance cumulative cash deficits.

Debt held by the public, in contrast to intragovernmental debt holdings, “represents a claim on today’s taxpayers and absorbs resources from today’s economy,” GAO explained. “In addition, the interest paid on this debt may reduce budget flexibility because, unlike most of the budget, it cannot be controlled directly,” GAO said.  

Since fiscal year 1997, the total federal debt has mushroomed from $5,398 billion to $30,924 billion at the conclusion of FY 2022. In other words, it increased by 473%.

Total federal debt has increased by $9,418 billion, or 44%, from $21,506 billion as of Sept. 30, 2018, to $30,924 billion as of Sept. 30, 2022. This included “an increase in debt held by the public of $4,210 billion – the largest annual dollar increase in history – occurring in FY 2020,” GAO reported.

“Treasury [Department] reporting shows that foreign ownership of Treasury securities represents a significant portion of debt held by the public,” GAO noted. As of June 30, 2022, the amount of foreign holdings of Treasury securities represented an estimated 31% of debt held by the public. The estimated amount of foreign holdings of Treasury securities increased from $983 billion as of June 30, 2001, to $7,431 billion as of June 30, 2022.

The Federal Deficit

As defined by GAO, the federal deficit is the amount by which the government’s spending exceeds its revenues for a given period, usually a fiscal year.

“The primary reason for the increase in debt held by the public was the federal deficit,” said the report, which added “the federal deficit of $1,375 billion for FY  2022 was down from $2,772 billion and $3,132 billion for FYs 2021 and 2020, respectively – the two largest recorded federal deficits in history – and up from $984 billion and $779 billion for FYs 2019 and 2018, respectively.”

GAO attributed the larger deficits for FYs 2020 and 2021to “economic disruptions” related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which both decreased revenues and bolstered federal spending. “The deficit decreased in FY 2022 as a result of revenue growth and the phasedown of the pandemic-related spending, offset by the long-term costs of certain forms of federal student loan debt relief for many borrowers,” it said.

Debt Limit Ceiling and Extraordinary Measures

An attempt to significantly increase the debt limit that began in FY 2021 continued through mid-December 2021. Some progress was made by mid- October when the president signed a bill increased the debt limit by $480 billion, from $28,401 billion to$28,881 billion. However, Treasury still had to resort to “extraordinary actions” to keep from exceeding the debt limit. Finally, on Dec. 16, 2021, legislation was enacted to raise the debt limit by $2,500 billion from $28,881 billion to $31,381 billion.

On Jan.11, an AP article explained the particulars and warned of an upcoming political brouhaha with its attendant economic consequences. “Once the government bumps up against the cap – it could happen any time in the next few weeks or longer – the Treasury Department will be unable to issue new debt without congressional action,” the article said. The department plans to use “extraordinary measures” to keep the government operating “but once those measures run out, probably mid-summer, the government could be at risk of defaulting unless lawmakers and the president agree to lift the limit on the U.S. government’s ability to borrow,” it added.

Interest Payments on Debt

Interest paid on debt held by the public totaled $497 billion in FY 2022. In FY 2021 that amount was $392 billion and in FY 2020 it was $371 billion. The increase from 2021 to 2022 was attributed to an increase in inflation adjustments, an increase in the average interest rates, and an increase in the outstanding debt held by the public.

While noting that interest rates on publicly held debt have been “historically low,” the outlook for the future is bleak, the report said. “In the longer term, interest on debt held by the public is projected to increase overall and as a share of the federal budget as debt grows – from the imbalance between spending and revenue – and as interest rates rise. Interest rates can have a compounding effect on the debt, as borrowing to make interest payments adds to the debt,” GAO said.

What GAO Foresees

Here is how GAO wrapped up its report, with a message to both Democrats and Republicans, as well as the voting public:

“Absent action to address the growing imbalance between spending and revenue, the federal government faces unsustainable growth in its debt. The underlying conditions driving the unsustainable fiscal outlook existed well before the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to pose serious economic, security, and social challenges if not addressed.

“Congress should consider developing a plan to place the government on a sustainable long-term fiscal path. Congress and the administration will need to make difficult budgetary and policy decisions to address the key drivers of the debt and change the government’s fiscal path. A fiscal plan would provide policymakers with a framework to help manage such uncertainty and support difficult policy decisions that will help to achieve a more sustainable fiscal policy. The sooner actions are taken to change policy to alter the government’s fiscal path, the less drastic the changes will need to be.”

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This article originally appeared on January 12 at https://unamericanactivities.substack.com

Featured

Gerard Piqué’s Master Class for Democratic Party Aging and Decrepit ‘Elites’

This article originally appeared on https://unamericanactivities.substack.com

By: Jeffrey Winograd

OPINION

Gerard Piqué, an FC Barcelona icon, by example and presentation, has delivered a master class in how to take leave from a beloved profession with charm, humility, integrity and consideration of the greater good.

Before almost 93,000 adoring Barcelona fans, the 35-year-old world class soccer player expressed his feelings about departing the playing field after a career spanning 25 years.  

The world of professional soccer was caught by total surprise when Piqué announced his decision to permanently remove his boots on November 3 and several days later took to the pitch for what turned out to be his 616th and final appearance for Barcelona. Along the way, he won 30 trophies for Barça.

Not inconsequentially, according to the BBC, he had 18 months remaining on his contract and his early departure will boost the club’s critical efforts to reduce their wage bill.

Afterwards, Piqué, with a microphone at the ready while standing at the center spot of the field, made a heartfelt speech and near the end was overcome with tears:

“In life, as you grow older, sometimes to love is to let go. It was a relationship with so much love and passion between Barça and me. I’ve always said there won’t be any other team after Barça. And that’s how it will be. I have to organize myself a little. Now it is time to enjoy my friends and family. As my grandfather says – I was born here and will die here. Long live Barça”

Democrat’s Roster of So-Called Elites

Now substitute the United States for Barça and decide whether love-of-country or self-interest is the name of the game for the following Democratic “elite”:

  • President Joseph Biden (soon to be age 80) who as a presidential candidate hid in his basement during the campaign, and now constantly forgets his rehearsed lines, spews falsehoods and claims that inflation is a transitory affair.
  • Vice President Kamala Harris (only age 58) who is prone to repeat nonsense during her public remarks and is Biden’s designated Border Czarina who has deemed the southern border safe and secure.
  • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (age 82) who spearheaded, behind a false face, the misnomered Inflation Reduction Act and refused to green-light the presence of National Guard troops offered by President Trump days before the January 6th affair because she feared bad political optics.
  • Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (soon to be age 72) who at the drop of a hat spews forth his staunch support for Israeli security but fast-tracked President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal which constitutionally was a treaty requiring Senate approval.
  • Rep. Bennie Thompson (age 75) who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee with oversight of border security matters and also heads the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, a panel which only has GOP members approved by Pelosi.
  • Pennsylvania Lt. Governor John Fetterman (age 53), the senator-elect whose campaign emulated Biden’s by his avoidance of a debate with his opponent until after the bulk of mail-in ballots were submitted leaving an electorate generally unaware that the effects of a stroke impede his ability to answer questions in an understandable and thoughtful manner.  

The Piqué Way

It may seem a stretch to suggest professional politicians take to heart and follow the Gerard Piqué model of integrity, responsibility and loyalty to something far greater than himself.

The FC Barcelona motto, in Catalan, is “Més que un club.” [More than a club]

The honorific for Gerard Piqué should be “Més que un home.” [More than a man]

It is highly doubtful that any known Democratic party bigwig, man or woman, could achieve such venerated heights.

That’s America’s loss since our faltering nation is “Més que un país.” [More than a country]

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Featured

Election Day Chaos: The Political Climate Crisis and the Top 10 Constitutional Remedies

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Election Day is on the doorstep and the related political climate crisis is threatening to overwhelm the American social fabric.

The Congressional Research Service (Election Day: Frequently Asked Questions) describes Election Day as “the day legally established for the general election of federal public officials: President, Vice President, and U.S. Congress.”

It is obvious that Election Day in America has been hijacked by the various states. “State and local elections are often, but not always, held on the same day as federal elections,” according to the CRS.

In fact, Election Day, as now practiced, is a misnomer of epic proportions – better to call it Election Weeks. The result is that more than 100 election lawsuits that impact the conduct of federal elections are now on court dockets across the country.

Typical Election Issues Circa 2022  

Looking at the United States from outside its borders, it must be unimaginable to view a laundry list of issues that continue to overwhelm the judiciary in various jurisdictions.

The issues contributing to the chaos run the gamut from requiring photo identification to signature matching to the use of unregulated drop boxes for ballots.

No wonder there are so many Americans who have been labelled “election sceptics.”

The Constitutional Fix

While the Constitution and federal statutes provide a structure for elections and voting in the United States, election administration is primarily a state responsibility, explains the CRS.

A second CRS publication (Campaign and Election Security Policy: Brief Introduction) delves a bit further and, as if by magic, emerges a golden constitutional nugget: “The U.S. Constitution and federal statute regulate the division of governmental responsibility for election security, although no statute is devoted specifically to the topic. Most broadly, the Constitution’s Elections Clause assigns states with setting the ‘Times, Places and Manner’ for House and Senate elections, and also permits Congress to “at any time…make or alter such Regulations” (Art. I, §4). [Emphasis Added]

It would seem that, if projections on the eve of Election Day are accurate, the Republican Party is likely to be the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Consequently, the GOP can claim “ownership” of the issue and deliver a comprehensive package of federal election reforms for delivery to the White House for signature.

Top 10 Fixes

A series of bicameral legislative hearings could produce a comprehensive package of reforms that would withstand any constitutional challenges and progressive Democratic claims of racism and other bogus issues.

Take a look and even compile your own Top 10:

#1 Establish a 3-day period named Election Days, running from a Sunday through the following Tuesday, with no early voting except via restricted absentee ballots.

#2 Valid photo identification is a must with provisions to give low-income citizens, regardless of race, such identification.

#3 Given the open border in the south, proof of citizenship is essential. Passports and birth certificates (along with a photo ID) are common-sense possibilities with others to be added.

#4 Mail-in ballots and absentee ballots only for cause and with 100% signature matching by humans.

#5 Drop boxes for ballots must be restricted, regulated and placed at secure locations.

#6 Specific standards for voting machines must be established and enforced.

#7 Ballot harvesting must be prohibited.

#8 Ballot counting timeframes and procedures must be established and enforced.

#9 So-called ballot curing must be prohibited unless carefully regulated.

#10 No voter registration on Election Days.

Pennsylvania Calamities

The argument for restricted early voting is best made by the unfortunate case of John Fetterman’s candidacy for the Senate. Most fair-minded persons among those who have already voted for him would now likely want to reclaim their vote.

And then there is a significant ballot counting issue that has been festering in the Keystone state for more than two years. Read about it at the risk of winding up totally confused.

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Featured

Marc Elias Redux: The Prophet of a Potemkin Democracy

By: Jeffrey Winograd

The dark shadow of Marc Elias, the maestro of Democratic party election law manipulation and the epitome of legal ethics as it is now practiced in American party politics, has cast a pall over the integrity of activities related to what has become falsely labeled as Election Day.

Elias’ name became mainstream during the 2020 presidential campaign and subsequent post-election legal battles in a host of states but especially in those states where the victory margins for Joseph Biden could potentially be wiped out if the legal challenges by and in behalf of Donald Trump had seen the light of day as opposed to being “canceled” (aka dismissed) in some 40-plus instances solely on the issue of plaintiffs’ legal standing.  

According to Wikipedia, “Elias supervised the response to dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign seeking to overturn Biden’s win. Out of 65 such court cases, Elias prevailed in 64.”

Master of Ephemeral Ethics

For those uninitiated in the true politics of Elias, deception is the order of the day. To those under his spell, he appears to be a sweet talker.

But then there is a revelation that suggests something fundamentally undemocratic lurks under his 100% pure façade. “If we don’t use the tools we have to save democracy today, then we may have a wonderful museum of unused tools in the future, but we won’t have a democracy to use them in the future,” he recently told Sue Halpern, a writer for The New Yorker.

This from the same guy who played a prominent role in the events that led to the probe of the recently elected 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump.

As described by political reporter Mollie Hemingway in “Rigged,” in 2016, Elias, on behalf of the “Hillary for America” campaign and the Democratic National Committee, hired a firm called Fusion GPS to do opposition research on Trump. Fusion then retained Christopher Steele who produced the salacious and fictional “Steele dossier” which was instrumental in the creation of the Robert Mueller probe of Trump.

The funding for Steele came from part of the $5.6 million in legal fees paid by the Clinton campaign and the DNC to the firm of Perkins Coie where Elias headed its political law practice. This was a closely guarded secret hidden behind alleged attorney-client privilege. On Oct. 24, 2017, the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, a darling of progressive Democrats, posted a tweet: “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and sanctimoniously, for a year.”

And here is another insight into the ethical conduct of Elias.

Commenting on Elias’ efforts to boost campaign finance limits on political parties, Prof. Rick Hasen, University of California, Irvine School of Law, a highly respected legal scholar who writes the popular Election Law Blog, stated in a Jan. 30, 2022, post: “One election lawyer wrote to me, ‘And did you notice that Elias was paid $20 million by dark money groups to fund his rogue, scattershot legal work in 2020?’”  

If the claim cited by the anonymous source of Pro. Hasen holds up to scrutiny, coupled with his actions in the case of the Steele dossier, what should people think about the legal ethics presumably taught at the Duke University School of Law, Elias’ alma mater?

Legal Targets and Political Accusations

Besides his legal practice which he now plies at the Elias Law Group, a firm he founded after leaving his long sojourn at Perkins Coie, Elias heads a feel-good, Democratic-oriented outfit called Democracy Docket. It is not a law firm but rather a convenient platform through which he spouts his brand of democracy and his version of voting as it should be in the United States.

Some of the generalized voting-related issues prominent on Democracy Docket’s website include election administration, voting by mail, voter registration, in-person voting and redistricting litigation.

In turn, delving into these broad areas will reveal a host of issues ripe for Elias-style litigation, including but not limited to: drop boxes for ballots; ballot counting procedures; voter assistance; ballot harvesting; photo identification; signature matching; ballot counting deadlines; polling locations; voting machines; recounts; ballot curing; absentee voting; and purging of voter rolls.

So, at first blush the Elias mindset sounds good until taking a closer look at the content of his writing and his choice words about the Republican Party and its adherents:

  • The Republican Party “wants our electoral system to break.”
  • The Republican Party has “abandoned decency and respect.”
  • Republican “election deniers, vote suppressors, ‘Big Lie’ advocates.”
  • Republicans “seek to fence racial minorities and young voters out of the political process.”
  • So-called “dog whistles … have been replaced by [Republicans] blaring sirens of authoritarianism.”
  • Republicans seeks to benefit “from damaging our democratic system of elections.”

What Lies Ahead?

An Oct. 28 article by the Supreme Court reporter for the Washington Examiner carried the banner “More than 100 election lawsuits threaten to plague 2022 midterm elections and beyond.”

It seems that there is fertile ground ahead for the likes of Marc Elias and other Democratic lawyers to ply their trade. According to the article, “many of the GOP-led challenges seek to challenge new rules for mail-in voting, early voting, vote counting and voter registration.”

One can imagine a smug look on Elias’ face when he pronounced to The New Yorker staff writer, “I really believe that when the history books are written, what they write about our generation will be whether or not we were able to preserve democracy.”

Presumably he meant only his version of democracy!

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Featured

Student Loan Political Bombshell Revealed Thanks to Congressional Budget Office

By: Jeffrey Winograd

What’s up with President Biden’s student loan bailout for the well-to-do?

The “game changer” policy, using the president’s own words, has been on the backburner for several weeks with nary a White House nod in its direction.

Perplexed by the pervasive silence about the subject, a Real Clear Politics reporter took a closer look at numerous prepared presidential remarks. “From August 25 until now, [RCP] found that Biden referenced his debt amnesty program just three times during some two dozen speeches,” wrote Philip Wegmann on September 23.

After an initial flurry of White House and Democratic propaganda, silence seems to be the order of the day. When queried on the matter, the president’s minions “did not return RCP’s request for comment when asked why Biden wasn’t taking more credit for student debt relief while he travels around the country, or if he has plans to do so in the future,” reported Wegmann.

It’s The Deficit, Stupid

The problem for Democrats is whether CBO will report a final FY 2022 federal budget deficit of $1 trillion or $1.43 trillion in early October.

When Biden, with much fanfare, unveiled his proposal on August 24, concerns about constitutionality and expected Republican opposition were likely considered the only obstacles to smooth sailing.

The president and his team never expected the Congressional Budget Office would gum up the works.

In its regular periodic report on budgetary matters, CBO signaled on September 9 that it is not just the cost of whatever plan eventually emerges from the White House but what will happen when that cost is officially reported.

Simply put, there is a huge and totally unexpected political risk in actually granting debt write offs until after Election Day. Reporting those write offs this week would dramatically affect CBO’s current estimate that the FY 2022 federal budget deficit would be in the immediate neighborhood of $1 trillion. However, that figure could skyrocket if debt relief is actually reported before FY 2022 ends at midnight on September 30.

The explanation for this was described in the agency’s Monthly Budget Review: August 2022:

“CBO’s budget estimates through August do not include outlays related to those actions because the Administration had not recorded any related costs. Ordinarily, with just one month left in the fiscal year, projecting the annual deficit would be relatively straightforward. This year, however, the announced changes to the student loan program add significant uncertainty because they may lead to the recording of substantial outlays in September. Under the Federal Credit Reform Act, the estimated long-term effects of such changes to the terms of outstanding loans are recorded as an increase in outlays in the month when those terms are changed. This year, both the timing and the amounts of the changes to the student loan program are uncertain. Without the changes to student loans, CBO’s projection of the 2022 budget deficit would be about $1.0 trillion. If significant numbers of student loans are modified in September, the 2022 deficit could be considerably larger than CBO has estimated.”

CBO Now Hints at Cost Estimates

On September 26, CBO provided more political fireworks with the release of a letter (Re: Costs of Suspending Student Loan Payments and Cancelling Debt) to the ranking GOP members of the Senate and House of Representatives education committees.  

“As of June 30, 2022, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans,” the letter stated, adding that “about $430 billion of that debt will be cancelled, CBO estimates.” The agency acknowledged that its estimates “are highly uncertain.”

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Featured

Democrats’ Impeachment Hoax: ‘Fight’ Is Now Banned Political Rhetoric … For Some

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Read President Donald Trump’s speech delivered at the “Save America” rally on January 6 and try to find any instance of the constitutional requirement of the commission of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” in order to impeach a sitting president.

You won’t find any.

But the House of Representatives impeachment resolution, H. Res. 24, claims there were such impeachable offenses, citing Trump’s following utterances during his 74-minute barn burner speech:

“We won this election, and we won it by a landslide.”

“If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

In addition, the impeachment resolution, which was crafted by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), a political hack from that shining city of dishonest politicians called Providence, included the following patently false and misleading assertions:

Insinuating Trump “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S.

Claiming Trump was “inciting violence against” the U.S. government.

Calling Trump’s speech a continuation of “his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification” of election results.

Accusing Trump of “threaten[ing] the integrity of the democratic system.”

Belittling Trump for “repeatedly issu[ing] false statements asserting that the Presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud….”

Trump’s Warmup

Four minutes into his January 6 remarks, Trump stated that “our election victory [was] stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats… We will never concede, it doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved.”

Take careful notice of what he said next and compare it to the glaring omission in Cicilline’s impeachment resolution: “Today I will lay out just some of the evidence proving that we won this election, and we won it by a landslide.”

Trump went on to say that he garnered 75 million votes, 12 million more votes than he won in 2016. “By the way, does anybody believe that Joe had 80 million votes? Does anybody believe that?”

The president then let loose a backhanded slap to the face of the so-called “cancel culture” which has been targeting venerated D.C. monuments honoring George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

At about the 11-minute mark, Trump declared: “We’re gathered together in the heart of our nation’s capital for one very, very basic and simple reason, to save our democracy.”

He then elaborated on “weak Republicans,” meaning those who legislate on Capitol Hill. “Unbelievable, what we have to go through … and you have to get your people to fight. If they don’t fight, we have to primary the hell our of the ones that don’t fight. You primary them. We’re going to let you know who they are.” Clearly, this was about domestic political party politics.

Near the 18-minute point in his speech, the president said: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women.”

Trump quickly followed-up this remark, by stating loud and clear:

“I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

The president then ticked-off some of the key accomplishments of his administration:

  • The pre-COVID-19 economy
  • A rebuilt military
  • Slashing of regulations
  • Veterans Administration Accountability Act
  • Creation of U.S. Space Force
  • Troop withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq

The subject of voter fraud was Trump’s next theme.

Democratic Big Lie

If the Democrats continuously repeat an unsubstantiated and easy-to-debunk claim about no election fraud and the major news media fail to professionally investigate credible accusations and report the unbiased results, the party now led by the likes of Biden, Schumer and Pelosi can, without shame, publish the following statement in the impeachment resolution:

“In the months proceeding the Joint Session, President Trump repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the Presidential election results were the product of widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by State or Federal officials.”

Trump’s Fraud Allegations

Trump then spent 30 minutes to debunk Democratic claims that there was no election fraud by citing a laundry list of allegations that have yet to be disproved by Democrats.

  • Changes to federal election law by judges and officials (Pennsylvania)
  • Lack of signature verification (PA)
  • Names and birth dates of voters’ matching those of individuals who died prior to the election. (PA)
  • Out-of-state voters (PA)
  • Ballots recorded as received on date prior to the date they were recorded as mailed by election officials (PA)
  • Illegal ballot harvesting among nursing home residents (PA)
  • Illegal ballot drop-boxes (Wisconsin)
  • Absentee ballots counted without a valid absentee ballot application (WI)
  • Unsecured ballots placed in duffel bags on park benches for delivery (WI)
  • Postal workers instructed to illegally backdate ballots (WI)
  • No signature verification (Georgia)
  • Record low absentee ballot rejection (GA)
  • No post-election signature audit (GA)
  • Possible votes with use of identification of convicted felons (GA)
  • No voter identification or proof of citizenship (GA)
  • Ballots by individuals who do not appear on voter rolls (GA)
  • Ballots by individuals registered to vote using address listed as vacant (GA)
  • Ballots cast by individuals whose registrations were illegally backdated (GA)
  • Underage voters (GA)
  • Votes by individuals who moved out-of-state before November 3 (GA)
  • Ballots cast by non-citizens (Arizona)
  • Ballots returned prior to recorded date they were mailed (AZ)
  • Registration after deadline (AZ)
  • Ballots returned with no address (AZ)
  • Accuracy settings lowered on signature verification machines (Nevada)
  • Double votes (NV)
  • Ballots cast in names of deceased voters (NV)
  • Votes cast by individuals without address (NV)
  • Unsolicited mail-in ballots sent to every individual on election rolls (Michigan)
  • Ballots cast by deceased voters (MI)
  • Ballots cast by unregistered voters (MI)
  • Rescanned batches of ballots (MI)
  • Detroit turnout was 139% of registered voters (MI)
  • Backdating receipt of ballots (MI)
  • Ballots arriving without required envelopes (MI)
  • Gigantic one-sided vote drops with 94% of 147,000 votes going to Biden (MI)
  • Manipulation of Dominion voting machines (MI)

Democrats Sow GOP Discord

Trump went for the jugular at several points in his speech, telling it like it really is.

First, he called out “weak Republicans, pathetic Republicans” who have turned a blind eye while “for years, Democrats have gotten away with election fraud.”  

Second, Trump included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the cadre of weak and ungrateful Republican legislators. “If this happened to the Democrats, there’d be hell all over the country going on,” he said.   

Third, the president aptly criticized the media for what it has become. Not free, Not fair. “It suppresses thought, it suppresses speech, and it’s become the enemy of the people,” he said. “Republicans, who want to be so nice, are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back,” he added.

Fourth, he praised 13 senators who were in the forefront of the Electoral College vote certification battle. However, citing McConnell’s stubborn opposition to $2,000 economic impact payments to the people, he warned the senators: “You better start looking at your leadership because the leadership has led you down the tubes.”

Fifth, he pointed out that despite appointing three Supreme Court justices, the reality is not how it has been portrayed in many quarters. “They rule against me so much. You know why? The story is that they’re my puppets. And now the only way they can get out of that, because they hate that, it’s not good on the social circuit. So, let’s rule against Trump, and they do that.”

Sixth, he lamented that the media and Democrats were unrelenting in describing former Attorney General William Barr as the president’s personal attorney willing to do anything for him. “I like Bill Barr, but he changed because he didn’t want to be considered my personal attorney.”

It is clear that Trump has evolved into a very astute participant in the political process while putting to shame more than a few Republican professional politicians on Capitol Hill.  

Some Final Observations

The Democrats, the media, Big Tech and the Deep State all fear Donald Trump and the political movement that coalesced behind him.

That fear is so deep-rooted that impeachment, trial and removal from office is not enough, and is heralded by the final phrase in the impeachment resolution:

“and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.”

Furthermore, Rep. Cicilline was seemingly out of control as he penned the impeachment resolution and couldn’t resist his impulse to distort the president’s remarks which were mentioned at the top of this article.

At the tail end of his speech, Trump was talking about his earliest reactions to the apparent election fraud which was revealed on November 4. Here is the full passage from the president’s speech:

“And again, most people would stand there at 9:00 in the evening and say, ‘I want to thank you very much’ and they go to some other life, but I said, ‘Something’s wrong here. Something’s really wrong. Can’t have happened.’ And we fight. We fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

There is also the matter of the reputation of the Supreme Court which refused to step into the fray and whici mystifies most Americans who are not anointed with a legal degree.

When the State of Texas, supported by 17 other states, sought to file a bill of complaint challenging the conduct of election officials in various battleground states, it was rebuffed by seven justices with this decision published on its docket: 

“The State of Texas’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint is denied for lack of standing under Article III of the Constitution. Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.

In addition, should there actually be an impeachment trial of a president who is no longer the president, it could easily backfire on Democrats.

Such a trial can prove to be the mechanism to bring before the court of public opinion all of the allegations of election fraud, testimony of witnesses and related evidence.   

Meanwhile, on January 13, President Trump issued this statement:

“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind. That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for. I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers. Thank You.”

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Featured

Democrats Are Strangling The Constitution

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Events over that past month or so have cast a dark shadow over American democracy and history will eventually place the blame squarely on the Democrats, albeit with help from some Republicans.

What took place on Capitol Hill on January 6 was a totally transparent view of American citizens clearly exercising their lawful rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution which states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Those happenings are clearly separate and distinct from what occurred inside the Capitol.

It was the unfortunate invasion of the Capitol itself, which with just a modicum of proper security measures would never have happened, that has been distorted beyond recognition to suit what is likely to play out as an un-American, unprecedented and naked political stranglehold.

Here are some occurrences that cannot be distorted to fit a Democratic narrative and have the potential to topple the constitutional order carefully crafted by our Founding Fathers.

Override of Trump Veto

In his veto message to the House of Representatives for H.R. 6395, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, President Trump cited the failure of Congress to either repeal or “even make any meaningful changes” to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

While stressing the national security aspects of Section 230, Trump certainly had another issue in mind.

As generally understood, with this provision intact, Big Tech – Twitter, Facebook, Google and Apple – can exercise unfettered power to censor and even ban the use of their services without any legal consequences.

Events over the past 72 hours make clear the implications to the First Amendment rights of free speech and a free press.

Twitter and Facebook ban the president of the United States! Amazon is about to deny its computer services to Parler, which is a growing alternative to Twitter now favored by conservatives! Apple and Google has suddenly denied access to the Parler app which was still available to this reporter on the afternoon of January 10! (Here is an informative article).

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override the presidential veto, an act which required bipartisan support of at least two-thirds of both bodies.

Pelosi Plays Nuclear Football

On January 7, the octogenarian Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), speaker of the House of Representatives, expressed her outrage over the invasion of the “temple of our democracy.”

In a written message to fellow House Democrats, Pelosi, Washington’s top unpaid lobbyist for the plastic surgery industry, called on Vice President Pence “to remove the President by immediately invoking the 25th Amendment” to the Constitution.

Pelosi also threatened impeachment of President Trump which “is the overwhelming sentiment of my caucus, and the American people, by the way.”

She went on to accuse Trump of “inciting sedition” and “incitement of insurrection.”

Yes, this is the same Pelosi who, behind the president’s back and in full view of a prime-time national television audience, tore up Trump’s State of the Union message.

Her finale was this:

“Preventing an Unhinged President From Using the Nuclear Codes: This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike. The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy.”

Perhaps Pelosi should remember the principle of civilian control over the military and the words of Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution:

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.”

Latest Version of Book Burning

“Simon & Schuster has canceled its planned June publication of ‘The Tyranny of Big Tech’ by Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the main drivers in the Republican effort to challenge the Electoral College results that led to the attack on the Capitol on Wednesday,” Publishers Weekly reported on June 8.

Simon & Schuster said it took the action “after witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place in Washington, D.C.”

The company added that it had to balance its responsibility as a major publisher to offer a platform for a variety of opinions against its “public responsibility as citizens.”

Translation – Hawley (R-MO) should be silenced because he chose to exercise his constitutional responsibility as a senator pursuant to Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution.

No shrinking violet, Hawley responded via Twitter:

“This could not be more Orwellian. Simon & Shuster is cancelling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition. Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment. Only approved speech can now be published. This is the Left looking to cancel everyone they don’t approve of. I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have. We’ll see you in court.”

Privatizing Elections

It is widely acknowledged that private funding flowed into public election agencies

Is this actually possible or even legal?

Well, if you are head honcho of Facebook, namely Mark Zuckerberg, you can apparently get away with it.

Zuckerberg and his wife, jointly, contributed some $400 million to election agencies.

And now, Facebook cancels or bans those who question the integrity of the 2020 presidential elections.

Creating A New State

Since Election Day, Democrats have been licking their lips but otherwise keeping close-mouthed about negating a provision in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution in order to expand the Electoral College and gain three more votes.

This provision states that Congress shall have the power:

“To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States ….”

In other words, transform the District of Columbia into a new state, with two senators and one representative.

Who will stand in their way?

Utter Silence From Democrats

During a recent interview, Joe Biden had a chance to steer the ship of state back to a constitutional course but chose, in his own inimitable style, to compare Senator Hawley and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) to the likes of Nazi propaganda guru Joseph Goebbels.

If Hawley and Cruz keep preaching the “big lie” often enough, people will begin to believe them, Biden said.

Just as Goebbels convinced even the American press that 25,00 or 250,000 German civilians died during the World War II allied firebombing of Dresden in 1945, the senators want to keep promoting the big lie of election fraud, he added.

Biden, the soon-to-be leader of the free world, suggested the real number was 250 or 2,500 fatalities but he likely lowballed that figure by at least 15,000.

And, throughout this entire period, not one Democratic senator or congressman publicly acknowledged that there were any possible election-tilting illegalities or irregularities in such states as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As they say, you can’t make it up!

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Featured

Democratic False Flag Operation Unfurled

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Democrats and the Democratic Party apparatus have appropriated the playbook of espionage tactics to cement their theft of the presidency of the United States.

To compound the electoral catastrophe, the news media and Deep State operatives have joined in the back-stabbing of American democracy.

These joint forces have been waging a nonstop campaign blaming Soviet-style apparatchiks for any irregularities and illegalities in the 2020 presidential election results while casting a blind eye toward the mountain of facts that show Americans are doing this to other Americans.  

Only fools – one might say ignorant adherents of Democratic party – buy into the blame-the-Russkis ploy.

An Actual Conspiracy

The commonly accepted meaning of a false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party.

In the current woke climate, the mere suggestion by supporters of Donald Trump of a domestic election conspiracy is mocked as a fabrication of the far-right.

However, a close examination of the allegations regarding widespread election fraud should not be dismissed in the same cavalier manner as a host of courts, from the county level all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, have chosen to do.

Court of Last Resort

In normal federal jurisprudence, the “court of last resort” in the United States would be the Supreme Court – the court of final appeal in the federal scheme.

At the state level, the court of last resort would be the highest court whatever its name may be.

To date, the highest courts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions where election results are in dispute have side-stepped the factual issues involved.

Those courts have all too often relied on the tried-and-true opinion that the complaining parties lack standing to bring the lawsuit.

The Supreme Court recently took the same stance in the lawsuit brought before it by 18 state attorneys general.

And almost lost in memory is the failure of the Supremes to haul into its chamber the Pennsylvania secretary of state who blatantly ignored orders issued by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to separate mail-in ballots during the vote tabulations.

Standard of Duty

The term duty has a specific legal meaning:

“An obligation imposed by law to conduct oneself in conformance with a certain standard or to act in a particular way.”

With this in mind, it would seem that local and state election officials have a legal duty to ensure the entire election process within their respective jurisdictions is conducted in a scrupulously honest and transparent manner.

At this point, the Constitution must come into play or else it becomes an emasculated document:

“Article I, Section 4 – The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof….”

What this means is that a state legislature, not elected officials or bureaucrats at any level, makes the rules that must be followed.

In a number of key battleground states – such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan – the rules were changed without legislative approval.

Remember, the Supreme Court had a pre-Election Day opportunity to address such an issue in Pennsylvania but chose to punt.

Blame The Russians Again

As Hillary Clinton, the Democrats, the news media and the Intelligence Community did in the months leading up to Election Day in 2016, stories began to appear casting a dark shadow over the efforts of Russia to tip the 2020 election to Donald Trump.

According to an Oct. 26, 2020, article on the CNN website by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, among the newest Russian methods of election interference was:

“using high-ranking Republican senators and Trump associates like Rudy Giuliani to push Kremlin-created storylines.”

There are numerous such articles but here is the kicker, in an article published in The New York Times on Oct. 22, 2020, without naming any sources:

“American officials expect that if the presidential race is not called on election night, Russian groups could use their knowledge of local computer systems to deface websites, release nonpublic information or take similar steps that could sow chaos and doubts about the integrity of the results, according to American officials briefed on the intelligence.”

A New Day of Infamy – January 6, 2021

The time of reckoning is now upon the American people.

As each state’s electors gather on Capitol Hill for a joint session of Congress, there will be a sufficient number of representatives and senators, but unfortunately only Republicans, to object to electors from several states and force a debate in their respective chambers.

Will this tip the scales in favor of Donald Trump? Unlikely.

What it will do is place before the American public, perhaps on television and newspaper websites, but most importantly in the Congressional Record which lives on in perpetuity, a complete record of the illegalities, irregularities and dark money that frustrated the will of a majority of eligible legal American voters.

Wake up Americans, Democrats and spineless Republicans are waving a false flag and are willing to inflict far greater damage to our country than the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor, which FDR called “a day of infamy.”

For more in-depth details, visit:

As Congress certifies election, evidence of these voting irregularities looms large | Just The News

Featured

Marc Elias – A 21st Century Democratic Carpetbagger

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Post-American Civil War history teaches us that carpetbaggers were northerners who came to the devastated south to reap private gain under reconstruction governments.

Marc Elias is the 21st century version of a carpetbagger who, instead of being vilified, is being touted by the adoring news media and lapdog Democrats as one of America’s foremost election law attorneys.

Make no mistake, Elias fits the dictionary definition of a carpetbagger as an outsider, especially a nonresident who seeks private gain from an area by meddling in its politics.

For those who need reminding, Marc Elias also was the paymaster behind the “Steele dossier” and the architect of the “Vote By Mail” corruption of American electoral values and law. He knows how to bring the big Democratic bucks into a law firm.

Elias Says Facts Don’t Count

Earlier this month, Elias hit the airways via CNN to lambast President Trump for saying the election results were still not final.

“No, [Trump’s] comment is not true and it’s important for the American public to understand this,” Elias said, adding that it is “well past time for Republican leaders to tell the president and the public” that it is over.

“There is no dispute,” declared Elias, who boasted that the Trump campaign has already lost more than 50 lawsuits.

He then lambasted 18 state attorneys general of the Republican persuasion who have been supportive of Trump’s court battles. “This is shameful in a way we have just not seen in our history in recent years,” pronounced Elias.

“There is only one factual side … [and to say otherwise] is a lie through and through,” he said.

However, the very next day a Wisconsin court boldly stated that there are important facts Elias denies exist.

Wisconsin High Court Sets The Record Straight

The Wisconsin Supreme Court in a December 14 ruling on a lawsuit (Mark Jefferson and the Republican Party of Wisconsin v. Dane County, Wisconsin and Scott McDonell, Dane County Clerk) challenging the legal authority of officials in Dane county (home of the city of Madison) and Gov. Tony Evers to allow voters to declare themselves homebound and “indefinitely confined,” thereby evading the statutory requirement of providing photo identification to receive an absentee ballot.

The lawsuit was filed on March 27 and oral argument was held on September 29.

The court concluded that Wisconsin election law holds that only an individual elector – not a municipal, county or state official – can declare himself “indefinitely confined.” In addition, the governor’s Emergency Order #12, which was a response to COVID-19, did not render all Wisconsin electors as “indefinitely confined.”

The respondents in the case, Dane county and the Dane county clerk, argued that the issue presented was moot, in part because the election occurred and Emergency Order #12 had expired.

The court rejected this, stating:

However, even in cases where an issue is moot, we may nevertheless reach the merits of the dispute. We may do so when “(1) the issue is of great public importance; (2) the situation occurs so frequently that a definitive decision is necessary to guide circuit courts; (3) the issue is likely to arise again and a decision of the court would alleviate uncertainty; or (4) the issue will likely be repeated, but evades appellate review because the appellate review process cannot be completed or even undertaken in time to have a practical effect on the parties.”

It should be noted that there were no outright dissents among the seven justices, only two dissents in part. The court majority prevailed.

Judicial Finaglers

So, having clearly stated that what occurred in the state was outside the bounds of lawful conduct, the Wisconsin Supreme Court, also on December 14, ruled in another lawsuit that the results of the vote tabulation cannot be changed.

In a 4-3 ruling, the court turned thumbs down on Trump’s attempt to toss out some 220,000 absentee ballots cast in Milwaukee and Dane counties, the state’s most Democratic strongholds. Declared the majority of justices:

The challenges raised by the Campaign in this case, however, come long after the last play or even the last game; the Campaign is challenging the rulebook adopted before the season began. Election claims of this type must be brought expeditiously. The Campaign waited until after the election to raise selective challenges that could have been raised long before the election.

The chief justice, who dissented, voiced his frustration, stating:

“[The majority] does not bother addressing what the boards of canvassers did or should have done, and instead, four members of this court throw the cloak of (timing) over numerous problems that will be repeated again and again, until this court has the courage to correct them.”

It would seem that in the Jefferson v. Dane County lawsuit, the initial filing was back in March and with oral arguments in the Wisconsin Supreme Court held on September 29, an expeditious ruling would have overcome the claim that the Trump campaign did not file expeditiously.

Facts See Light Of Day

The Epoch Times, a conservative-leaning, staunchly anti-Chinese Communist Party publication, has been doing yeoman’s work in covering the election dispute,

In early December, the newspaper published an “Election Fraud Allegations: Infographic” which contained a litany of allegations that have never seen the light of day in any courtroom, a situation which has immeasurably tarnished the American judiciary at every level.

Extremely disturbing allegations cited in the infographic ranged from batches of pristine ballots in Georgia that were 98% for Biden to ballots counted multiple times in Michigan to backdating of ballots in Detroit.

However, the infographic was just a primer on electoral abuses compared to a document that was recently released.

The Navarro Report

On December 17, Peter Navarro, director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, published a report titled “The Immaculate Deception: Six Key Dimensions of Election Irregularities.”

The report examined six dimensions of alleged election irregularities in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

As described by Navarro, “Evidence used to conduct [the] assessment includes more than 50 lawsuits and judicial rulings, thousands of affidavits and declarations, testimony in a variety of state venues, published analyses by think tanks and legal centers, videos and photos, public comments, and extensive press coverage.”

A matrix outlining the six allegations as they relate to the six battleground states “indicates that significant irregularities occurred across all six battleground states and across all six dimensions of election irregularities,” the report said.  

Elias Unleashes Unprecedented Nationwide Legal Onslaught

As previously reported, Elias, acting under the guise of a lawyerly do-gooder, is the person behind an operation called Democracy Docket.

The website provides a roadmap to its activities, which appear to be funded by the Democratic National Committee and various unidentified deep pockets,   

Elias’s name appears on numerous motions to intervene in lawsuits involving 2020 elections in battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Among the names of law firms appearing along with Elias as an intervenor in various state court cases is Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP. Rather impressive as is one of the leading names frequently cited as an intervenor – Seth Waxman, former solicitor general of the United States under President Clinton. There are no indications that he and various associates are participating pro bono. How much do these guys get per hour?  

Quite striking is the appearance of an article on the Democracy Docket website titled “How Georgia Went Blue” and authored by none other than the infamous Stacy Abrams, the failed candidate for Georgia governor in 2018. Wrote Abrams:

Legislation and litigation, including lawsuits by the indefatigable Marc Elias, began to chip away at the superstructure of suppression. Consent decrees created cure options for voters who sought to vote by mail. Legislative changes neutered “exact match” and slowed the purges for the time being. Other suits improved voter access and education.

Community investment led to drop boxes in 80% of Georgia counties—a direct rebuke to the weaponization of the U.S. Postal Service. Organizations heralded the best practice of making a plan to vote and then helped Georgians make those plans real.

Chutzpah To An Extreme

Bearing in mind that Marc Elias was the paymaster for the Steele dossier, which he has admitted under oath that he could have stopped in its tracks, he probably didn’t even blush when, on December 21, he published an article titled “Profiles in Cowardice.”

Playing off JFK’s “Profiles in Courage,” Elias mocked 17 of the state attorneys general who participated in the lawsuit brought to the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as 126 GOP members of Congress who supported the lawsuit, labeling them, in Yiddish, “schlimazel” (meaning extremely unlucky or inept).

“[They] were like court jesters, just there to bow and scrape in front of Dear Leader for his amusement,” he wrote.   

This comes from a guy who prostrated himself at the feet of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the failed Democratic candidate for president in 2016, and who was a key provider of the funding for the Steele dossier.

Among those who have displayed political courage, wrote Elias, were local election workers and officials “who took pride in the work they did and the elections they ran. They are the real heroes of this election.”

How blessed American democracy would be if Marc Elias were to take his carpetbag full of dirty political and legal trickery and head off into the sunset.

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House Republicans on Oversight Panel Take a Step Too Short with UNRWA Probe – GAO Awaiting Their Call

By: Jeffrey Winograd

Image by travis1776 from Pixabay

Key Points:

  • Comer bypasses availability of GAO.
  • Contents of letter to Blinken.
  • Suggestions for request to GAO.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee majority on February 16 took a long overdue swing at Secretary of State Antony Blinken for greenlighting the Biden administration’s restoration of funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in 2021.

Against the backdrop of revelations in the Gaza Strip about Hamas operatives consorting with employees of the UN agency, Republicans on the House panel led by Rep. James Comer (R-KY) informed Blinken it has initiated a probe of the decision-making that resulted in renewing the UNRWA funding that was cancelled during the Trump administration.

The reason the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – the premier, non-partisan watchdog agency which is readily available to respond to a congressional request to conduct an investigation – has not been called on is unclear but assumptions can be made. Politics.

This reporter recently queried the GAO about its availability for preparing a report regarding UNRWA. “We have not so far received any new Congressional requests to examine the issues, though the latest media reports are very recent developments,” replied Latesha Love-Grayer, director, International Affairs and Trade, at GAO on February 13. “But we will monitor the situation and stand ready to support the Congress as needed.”

The Letter to Blinken

“The deeply concerning allegations surrounding UNRWA staff [prior to, during and after the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks] include participation in the kidnapping of Israeli and foreign nationals visiting or residing in Israel, procuring weapons or coordinating logistics for Hamas, and participating in the murder of civilians at a kibbutz,” was cited by the Oversight Committee majority’s letter    to justify its probe.

“All of [the related] allegations, many of which predate the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, call into question whether the Biden Administration adequately reviewed its decision to renew funding to UNRWA. The latest revelations of UNRWA’s ties to terror groups warrant greater scrutiny of the Biden Administration’s decision in April 2021 to partner with the agency,” continued the lawmakers in their letter to Blinken.

The legislators have asked Blinken to provide:

  • Documents and communications between or among any State Department official and the White House relating to the decision to resume funding.
  • Documents and communications demonstrating the safeguards in place to present U.S. aid designated for UNRWA from funding or providing material support for terrorists or terrorist organizations.
  • Documents and communications related to or discussing the diversion of UNRWA funds or resources by Hamas or any other foreign terrorist organization.

However, these requests fall far short of what is essential to know and what the GAO is well-equipped to provide.

Politics Versus Policy

Critics of the Republican move have been quick to jump into the fray with accusations that the probe reeks of politics and has nothing to do with policy.

There is a proper response to such complaints coming from Democratic quarters. Craft a well-thought-out request to the GAO to undertake an in-depth study of the entire issue of funding UNWRA and possible alternatives.

Here are some suggestions for issues the GAO should be asked to address:

  • What constitutes comprehensive vetting of UNWRA personnel, recipients and contractors.
  • The content and adequacy of the “Framework for Cooperation Between UNRWA and the U.S.A. 2023-24.”
  • The definition of “all possible measures,” as used in Section 301(c), that UNWRA must take to prevent misuse of U.S. financial aid. If not defined, why not?
  • The adequacy of UNRWA checks of “neutrality” of its staff/personnel, beneficiaries, installations, and contractors/vendors/non-state donors.
  • The reasons for the State Department accepting the “neutrality” checks against the Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List and not up-to-date U.S. lists. The last update on the Security Council List was on February 4, 2024. The only names to appear are ISIL (Da’esh) and Al Qaida.
  • The adequacy of required UNRWA self-reporting pursuant to the “Framework.”

Why are Rep. Comer and his colleagues waiting to call on the GAO while also conducting their own investigation?

This article was originally published on February 19 on Substack.

Biden Resorts to Lies and Distortions to Coverup Truth About Student Loan Forgiveness Delay

By: Jeffrey Winograd

President Joseph Biden, speaking at a Sept. 27 Rose Garden event, inadvertently confirmed this reporter’s analysis of why he and his administration have remained silent these past few weeks regarding the official kick-off date for his $400 billion-plus student loan forgiveness program.

In the midst of a speech addressing Medicare and inflation, the following words passed the president’s lips.

“And even with some student loan forgiveness and [other costs], we’re still – we’re on track to reduce the deficit this year – fiscal year – by more than $1 trillion,” the president stated.

So, in one fell swoop, Biden took credit for a major reduction (compared to the previous fiscal year) in the fiscal year 2022 federal budget deficit and simply lied by omission about the cost of student loan forgiveness

Thanks to a recent Congressional Budget Office report, we learned that through the first 11 months of FY 2022, the federal budget deficit was $944 billion compared to the total FY 2021 budget shortfall of $2.8 trillion.

What Biden left unsaid in the Rose Garden were the reasons for such a dramatic reduction in the deficit. As CBO explained, “spending related to the coronavirus pandemic declined, particularly for the recovery rebates (also known as economic impact payments), unemployment compensation, pandemic relief through the Small Business Administration, and relief to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments.”

Biden also ignored mentioning a Sept. 26 CBO letter to the ranking GOP members of the Senate and House of Representatives education committees which cited an estimated price tag for the loan forgiveness program of $430 billion. As of June 30, 43 million borrowers held $1.6 trillion in federal student loans.

With Election Day nearly upon us and Democratic prospects appearing to be rather shaky, neither Biden nor his party’s Senate and House candidates are ready to acknowledge the unwelcome appearance of another skyrocketing federal budget deficit.    

Buried in the minutiae of CBO’s latest monthly budget review was a stark warning for the Democrats.

Without changes to student loans, CBO’s projection of the FY 2022 budget deficit would be about $1 trillion.

However, as described by CBO: “Under the Federal Credit Reform Act, the estimated long-term effects of such changes to the terms of outstanding loans are recorded as an increase in outlays in the month when those terms are changed. If significant numbers of student loans are modified in September, the 2022 deficit could be considerably larger than CBO has estimated.”

At this point in time, it is likely that the Biden administration will not risk recording any such increase in outlays during September.

The key question is whether Biden will try to buy votes by modifying significant number of student loans in October and gamble that an explosion of the federal deficit will remain unreported until after all the votes are counted. 

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