Tales from the Mark Side: The Conservative Voice of Manatee County

By Mark Young
mark.young@manateeherald.com

Democrats coming to the rescue doesn’t happen often, so when it does, let’s give credit where credit is due.

Moderate Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin are saving the day by resisting Joe Biden’s wasteful spending spree. I’m sure they are under enormous political pressure within their party to support Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion build back better plan, but have, thus far, dug in deep to resist.

It’s full of progressive wish-list items that are labeled “free,” when every reasonable person knows that nothing is free. Someone is paying for it and despite what democrats like to say about taxing the wealthy to pay for things, it’s always the middle class that takes the brunt of Democratic economic policies. It’s a trickle-down effect that impacts hard working families and we’ve seen it so many times in Democratic administrations that we already know it doesn’t work, and almost always leads to inflation. We are already seeing that inflation at the gas pump and grocery stores because of Biden’s insane energy policies that stripped away America’s first venture into energy independence under President Trump.

Einstein once said to keep doing the same thing while expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

The so-called wealthy already pay the majority of the taxes in this country. Democrats like to tell you differently, but they only point to specific areas of tax returns when making their argument and it’s just not legitimate. Americans making more than $540,000 a year are considered the top 1% and pay 40% of all income taxes. The top 10% of America’s wage earners pay 71%. Those are the facts and they are not disputable.

The problem even with that, is a lot of small business owners net an income that is taxed in a higher bracket while in reality, their gross income leaves them struggling as they fall into a category of “wealthy” and subsequently get targeted by Democrats.

When tax-and-spend Democrats take office targeting the wealthy, the big business owners are only willing to absorb so much before passing costs onto the consumer, which hurts the rest of the us. It’s happened over and over again. Einstein was right.

Yes, the wealthy can afford expensive accountants and tax lawyers to find ways to lower the multitude of other taxes the federal government tries to take from them, but wouldn’t you? Liberals like to say that people like President Trump pay less taxes than a teacher does.

That’s absolute hogwash.

That might be the first time I ever used the word hogwash by the way, but I digress.

Yes, the wealthy use existing tax codes to their own advantage, but is that their fault? And don’t we all do it on a smaller scale to avoid having to pay more than we need to?

And isn’t that especially true when you know how wasteful the government is with your money?

No one has an issue paying taxes for infrastructure, ensuring the survival of Social Security, maintaining a strong military, etc. However, when you dig deep into these spending bills and look at the waste, who wouldn’t want to limit the amount of money you give to the government?

Most of us try to find every deduction we can during tax time so it’s just another hypocritical, and baseless lefist argument to claim the wealthy don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Except the Rev. Al Sharpton who doesn’t pay any taxes and doesn’t get into any trouble for it.

Too bad for Roger Stone that he isn’t a Democrat, but I digress again.

It’s also interesting how the media is handling Biden’s $3.5 trillion monstrosity. Left wing media outlets are only reporting on the things within the bill that are somehow popular with the left. They aren’t even trying to tell you the rest of the story. They happily report the $108 billion earmarked for “free” community college for illegal immigrants. Don’t even get me started on that subject. At least, not yet. Or how about the $450 billion for “free” child care and $150 billion for “clean electricity performance program.”

There’s a doozy.

It sounds good, but all it does is reward utility companies for increasing renewable energies by 4% every year. It also financially punishes them if they don’t reach that mark. Remember when we got to do what we wanted to do without the government punishing us? Yeah, me too. Good times, good times.

And then there’s the $13.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure, but the funds are largely earmarked for “underserved communities.” Yeah, we know how much of a priority buying a brand new electric vehicle is for struggling families who are just trying to put food on the table. I’m sure they’ll enjoy all those plug-in sites in their neighborhoods as opposed to actual economic redevelopment opportunities.

The government also wants to vastly expand a Medicare system that is already wrought with fraud because, again, everyone knows government dollars are magic and unlimited. So why not charge the taxpayer and then charge them again. It’s only money, right? Just ask the Manatee County School District.

And during a time where there are more jobs than employees, Biden’s plan offers $80 billion for a workforce development program because why not? Ah, $80 billion is nothing but chump change for the almighty federal government who you pay to exist.

Biden also is offering $82 billion for school infrastructure and $198 million for a “school leadership program.”

I think we’ve covered how school districts waste money. Reminder: vote no on Nov. 2 and tell the district to start acting responsibly with your money.

What CNN doesn’t tell you in their reporting is that the “school leadership program,” offers no guidance, explanation or further information. It’s just $198 million to give to principals to figure out I guess. Who knows anymore.

More fiscally conservative business media tells the rest of the spending story.

For example, Biden proposes to give $7 billion to the IRS for stricter tax enforcement and another $410 million for IRS oversight. What does that even mean? Who’s conducting oversight on the IRS and why do they need $410 million to do it? Isn’t someone already supposed to be doing that? Geez, where do I apply for that gig?

Sure wish the bill explained some of this spending but it doesn’t.

And part of the new and improved IRS will be the requirement of you to report any purchase over $600 because the federal government is the new Alexa. Big Brother wants to know exactly what you are buying, where you bought it and if you are paying taxes on it.

Biden’s plan includes $3 billion for a “tree equity program,” and another $4 billion in grants to identify cities who need “climate benefits.” I’m going to jump out on the proverbial tree branch here and assume “climate benefits” means oxygen? I’m all for planting trees, especially in urban areas, but I don’t trust the government to throw $7 billion at it. There is another $7.5 billion for the creation of the “Civilian Climate Corps.” This new agency will hire “thousands of young people to carry out conservation and climate change-related projects on public lands.”

Pretty sure the government already has an agency called the Bureau of Land Management that is responsible for public lands. And does that money even include whatever schemes this new agency packed with “young people” comes up with to implement “climate change-related projects?”

Maybe it’s the $5 billion for “climate justice block grants,” whatever that means, and $1.4 billion in climate change research. We already know climate change research is a multi-billion industry as long as the “scientists” keep saying it’s a thing and the government keeps giving them our money to say it’s a thing. If liberals are so solid in their climate-change beliefs, why are we still paying scientists to keep telling us that it’s real?

There’s a difference between the climate change debate and global warming and we’ll talk about that at some point.

In the meantime, Biden wants to invest $12 billion into buying new electric government vehicles, to include $7 billion for a new U.S. Post Office fleet. Because we all know how financially efficient the post office is, right? Unions are getting some pay-to-play boosts in this bill, as well. Union members will be able to deduct a $250 tax credit for their dues and oh by the way, the taxpayer will pay them $5 million for a fancy new electronic voting system.

Could this be because Trump woke the unions up as to who is really for the working class? Are Democrats trying to buy back their loyalty by throwing the unions a few million bones? Of course they are.

Biden also proposes $25 million for anti-discrimination and bias training for the health care sector. I did not know that was such a problem. Shame on all the lovely, hard-working nurses I know. Clearly you are all a bunch of racists.

Seriously though, why are our dollars going for training in health care of all industries? Do we not already pay a ridiculous amount of money for insurance? What about when you go to the doctor and they diagnose you wrong and you still have to pay them? That’s fun.

And the $500 you get charged every time a doctor you’ve never met sticks their head in the door of your hospital room to mumble something about your chart and leaves. That’s fun, too.

But never fear, there is another $15 million being devoted for a national resources center program for the elderly who are considered underserved due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. What does that even mean and who decides who is underserved for those reasons and what do they get? The bill doesn’t explain it but by God, it’s going to get $15 million in funding. No one knows what for, but it’s going to be there just in case.

There is a plethora of pork in this bill but as much as liberals hate the wealthy, including the liberal wealthy who hate themselves, there are some interesting things for the rich.

For example, anyone who makes more than $400,000 a year who buys an electric vehicle will get a $24,000 tax deduction. It won’t be those underserved families who get the break, mind you. No, those struggling families will only get to enjoy looking at all those new plug-in devices in their neighborhoods. I mean good Lord. Even if those families bought an electric vehicle to plug into the $13.5 billion in new electric vehicle infrastructure in their underserved community, they don’t get the tax break. But the “rich” do? Government thinking at its finest, or in this case, liberal logic.

Democrats are boasting that this $3.5 trillion build back better plan will “transform” the American economy. You bet it will. It will destroy it.

So thank you Republicans, but most of all thank you Joe Manchin who rightly called the bill “fiscal insanity.”

Equal thanks to Sinema. The two of you may have very well saved this country, but we’ll see how it all plays out. Both are still willing to spend $1.5 trillion and God help us, Biden still has more than three years to keep trying to kill our Republic.

I can’t leave you today without a special shout out to our very own esteemed Congressman Greg Steube who became the first player in the annual Republican vs. Democrat baseball game to hit one out of the park at a MLB stadium. The homer is a great analogy for all the fine work you are doing for the American people and your constituents here at home. Keep up the great work and keep hitting them out of the park.

I can tell you for a fact, that the work you do is intentionally ignored by our local liberal media but those of us who pay attention, appreciate it.