With a nod to Bill Engvall, let’s honestly discuss three complete holes in America where suicide by legislative fiat and executive stupidity has produced catastrophic failure. Let me be perfectly honest, if either of these states were a business, they would have been forced into receivership, broken up, sold for parts, and their leaders jailed for incompetency and felonious charges of malfeasance long ago! The charades have ended, the rose-tinted glasses are off, and frankly, the party is over, all the taxpayers are fleeing, and the businesses are closing shop and fleeing for healthier climates.
California this week passed another job-killing piece of legislation. The bill is targeted at Amazon and is built on hogwash, acrimony, lies, and allegations so thin you could read Apple’s User Agreement through them. Not the first time California’s legislative body has targeted a specific business for job-killing legislation, not the first time the legislation is built on sand, and the forecast is for torrential rain, not the last time this idiocy is going to happen. The fact that California keeps killing itself is depressing!
New Jersey and California hold an interesting title, and 32 other states are 100% insolvent in their Unemployment Compensation Trust Funds. Business owners, this fact alone should scare the living daylights out of you and every one of your workers right now! Now, some of you get it; some are scratching your heads and going; why is this important. For those who got it, feel free to skip the following explanation.
The unemployment trust fund is akin to the social security trust fund managed by, raided, and depleted by the Federal Government. No money means that the debts in those trust funds cannot be paid, and all the funds being collected right now are not being used for future calamities. For all you economists out there, yes, this is a very simplified explanation. Insurance trust funds are expected to be the funds of last resort to ensure payments to investors; those paying premiums for coverage can receive protection. Not having these trust funds means the state unemployment insurance fund is in deep trouble, and there is only one direction to point the blame, the legislators and executives in government.
Now, some are claiming these funds were only depleted due to the COVID pandemic. Do not believe the hype. These funds were in trouble long before COVID hit, and the fact that there are funds to replenish these trust funds and government leaders are refusing to invest money in the trust funds should be major red flags for everyone in the state! State and local governments are spending money like it’s Christmas, and the New Year will never come with the bills from the holidays. Think drunken-sailor on 7-day liberty here if you prefer that analogy. Either way, financial troubles are brewing above and beyond the current inflation woes, and the media is deftly NOT reporting this crisis. Does anyone want to venture why this topic is not being discussed?
The Article from the Tax Foundation lays out the data nicely, and you are left to draw your own conclusions from the data. But tell me, what happens when you call GEICO, Farmers, All-State, etc., with a claim and the claim is denied because the insurance company has no money? Now multiply that by every wage-earner and business in your state and tell me if maybe, just maybe, the unemployment insurance trust fund being insolvent should be a more significant issue of discussion.
If your state is insolvent, and your next paycheck is a LOT lighter, remember this tidbit about unemployment tax insurance trust funds.
“Unemployment insurance tax rates on businesses rise automatically when trust fund balances are low.”
Do you see the trouble now? First, the government maliciously raids and spends the funds, then a hidden tax kicks in, depleting your paycheck, and the government does not have to tell you why your paycheck is lighter. Especially since those in legislative bodies traditionally exempt themselves from having to pay these taxes. Now add in the other hidden taxes; inflation goes up because when taxes climb, inflation climbs, prices go up to cover the hidden taxes of higher costs to operating a business, and wages stagnate, which crimps your budget even further.
The states mentioned are not the states that did not need Federal Intervention, and they are not counted among the states spending money wisely, as discussed by Governing.com. Please tell me that nobody is surprised by this revelation. I find it alarming that Governing.com, in their analysis, was able to conclude the following:
“Despite predictions that COVID-19 would crush state tax revenues, most of them didn’t need mega-billions in pandemic aid to balance their budgets. But for the most part, they seem to be spending the money wisely.”
Leading me to ask, why did the Federal Government invest our tax dollars, venture into such incredible debts, and shut down a booming economy? COVID has proven NOT to be worthy of the title “Pandemic.” Yet, COVID remains an excuse for emergency measures, emergency spending, and emergency police actions. Will any media representative ask a politician why? I didn’t like the book, but I read Albert Camus’ book “The Plague” for light reading. That is a book about a public health crisis, a pandemic worthy of the title pandemic, and several times in world history, the title pandemic has been warranted when survivors are burning corpses in the street. COVID fits none of the definitions or situations for a Pandemic, except for the politically connected to laugh at the politically abused populations.
Look at Washington, New York, New Jersey, California, and Oregon across the COVID-19 political mania. Tell me why COVID is not an exercise in malicious government and politics gone horribly wrong. Sure, we can add New Mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, and a couple of other states into the mix for fun. These core states are where politicians made vast sums of money on COVID-Hysteria, and I would like to keep the focus small for the current article.
The House Ways and Means Subcommittee is reporting 32 states are intentionally withholding money from rural governments as a political move. When you take the top 20 receivers of COVID-Relief money and the 32 states withholding COVID-Relief money, you find some lines of congruence with states with the harshest COVID restrictions, ridiculous COVID mandates, and no correlating data to infection risk avoidance. Now, why isn’t COVID reported as a political and social experiment gone horribly wrong? Worse, why was the money borrowed by the Federal Government at extortionate rates and given pell-mell to the states when the majority of those states do not need the money and the states that did need the money have sufficient if their politicians reigned in spending?
The five states mentioned are not poor states by any stretch. They have resources, both human and natural; they have riches galore, they have potential, they used to have favorable business climates, they are committing suicide. Why should the rest of America bail them out? Why not break them up into parts, sell assets to cover debts, place them into receivership, and force them on a diet of sanity and logic until the bills are paid?
I close with a word of warning. Texas, you’re headed to California status faster than you would like to admit! Your COVID restrictions are particularly heinous and represent the infection found in Austin spreading like fast-moving cancer to steal your state and liberty. Arizona, Idaho, Wisconsin, Iowa, you are all on a similar track, the speed might not be as noticeable right now, but the infection is there and growing. Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, both Dakotas, you are all at various places in being terminally sick with the same cancer. If soft words and political expediency can conquer the Western US, the entire United States is lost. New Mexico has been lost since it was given statehood in a political move that robbed Arizona and Texas of land!
The time to awake and arise is now! The fight for liberty and freedom will be fought and won or lost in the American West. Sure, the coasts of America are well and truly infected. But, the fight for independence is not on the shores; it is right outside your doors. The media and politicians like to hyperventilate about the coasts, but the rural communities in the “Fly-Over” states are more important to liberty and freedom surviving than any other local in America. Awake and Arise!
© 2021 M. Dave Salisbury
All Rights Reserved
The images used herein were obtained in the public domain; this author holds no copyright to the images displayed.
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