Before I get into this, check out the first installment in my new series over at Glibertarians – this time it’s a story about a famous painter in Europe in the 1920s, so go read!

Now then:  As I’ve been saying for some time, the best matchup against whoever the Dems run for the Imperial Mansion in 2024 is inarguably Florida’s own Ron DeSantis.  Now here is some polling that bears that out.  Excerpt:

The American electorate is, shall we say, less than enthused by the prospect of a Trump-Biden rematch, with Democrats decidedly cool on the idea of re-nominating the sitting President of the United States.  Amid the dissatisfaction reflected in the survey, Trump narrowly leads Biden, within the margin of error.  In quite a few polls, DeSantis performs better in hypothetical match-ups.  Here’s one recent example:

2024 National General Election Poll:

DeSantis 45% (+7)
Biden 38%
.
Biden 40%
Trump 40%@MULawPoll ~ 790 RV ~ 1/9-1/20https://t.co/n7prPcYuBK

— PollTracker (@PollTrackerUSA) February 2, 2023

Here’s the pro-DeSantis money shot:

A thriving state operating in the black, reinforcing its reserves and emergency funds, and cutting taxes. Imagine that.  This is quite the contrast from, say, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s new plan, which proposes huge new tax increases in the fiscal basket case of New York.  It’s no great mystery why people are bleeding away from blue states.  For the first time ever, Florida’s workforce was larger than New York’s last year.  Cause and effect.

Target – fire for effect!

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads these virtual pages that I’m on Team DeSantis, and have been for some time.  If Donald Trump does win the nomination I’ll vote for him, as he’d be vastly preferable to anyone that the Dems could offer.  But in that case I’d be voting against the Dam candidate.  DeSantis is the guy I could enthusiastically vote for.

His governorship of Florida has been an unalloyed success.  He goes from legislative triumph to triumph.  He deals with the legacy media adroitly, slapping their attempted “gotcha” questions back in their faces and making sure his own message goes out, cleanly and clearly.

Some folks are advocating for a Trump/DeSantis ticket for 2024, which would set DeSantis up as the heir apparent, but I’d rather not see that.  Not only is it historically difficult for a VP to move to the top seat, not only would DeSantis be out of the Governor’s role for four years, not only would we see another four years of hysterical rheee from the Left that would try to tar DeSantis with the Trump brush – not only all of that, but Trump is yesterday’s news.  The time for a Ron DeSantis campaign is now.

I honestly think Ron DeSantis could be the most consequential President since Ronald Reagan.  He’s the best man for the job right now.  I hope he runs; I’ll support him with enthusiasm, and there are a vanishingly small number of pols I can say that about.

The political gamesmanship over a debt ceiling increase has begun.  Excerpt:

Ahead of debt ceiling negotiations at the White House Wednesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy received a memo from Biden administration officials. 

The memo, sent to “interested parties” by Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young and Economic Council Director Brian Deese, details the demands President Joe Biden plans to present to McCarthy during their meeting.

“Will the Speaker commit to the bedrock principle that the United States will never default on its financial obligations, as Leaders Schumer, McConnell, and Jeffries have already done – and does he agree with former presidents, including Presidents Trump and Reagan, that it is critical to avoid debt limit brinksmanship?” the first demand states. 

To his credit, McCarthy responded thus:

Mr. President: I received your staff’s memo.

I’m not interested in political games.

I’m coming to negotiate for the American people.

However, he concluded:

President Biden: I accept your invitation to sit down and discuss a responsible debt ceiling increase to address irresponsible government spending.

I look forward to our meeting.

I would maintain that there is no such damn thing as a responsible debt ceiling increase.  And let’s be honest, no significant spending cuts – or even decreases in the rate of increase – will be on the table, from either side.  And there can be no fiscal sanity in the Imperial City without discussing entitlement spending; indeed, without cutting entitlement spending.

As of 2020, the most recent year for which we have solid numbers, entitlement spending was almost half the budget; 21% for Social Security, 25% for Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace health insurance subsidies.  “Economic security programs” – that is, welfare – comprises another 11% of Imperial spending.

Oh, and 7% goes to servicing the debt.  Not reducing the debt; just paying the interest, on Imperial debt that has been ever-increasing for decades now.  The debt was rising through most of the post-WW2 period.  Barack Obama stomped on the gas, and Donald Trump kept his foot on the accelerator.  President Biden(‘s handlers) have very little idea what’s going on, but they sure know how to keep that spending throttle slammed to the floor.

Whatever negotiating goes on between the Speaker and whoever is actually pulling the strings in the administration, it will be nothing more than window-dressing.  We’re past the point of  no return on the Imperial debt, on Imperial spending, and none of the pols in the Imperial City will be doing anything about that.

Before we get into this, check out the final chapter of The River over at Glibertarians.

Now then:  California Assemblyman Alex Lee has proposed something truly stupid, even by the standards of the California government.  Excerpt:

The proposal is, as a matter of economics, foolish beyond belief. In brief, the Democrats who have taken over the state now propose a “wealth tax” on the richest Californians, who are already fleeing the increasingly socialist state in alarming numbers.

A news story pretty much sums the coming disaster up:

Assemblyman Alex Lee, a progressive Democrat from San Jose, filed legislation that would tax an extra 1.5% on Californians with a worldwide net worth of more than $1 billion starting January of 2024, and 1% for those making more than $5o million starting in 2026.

Lee’s proposal aims to tax assets such as stocks and bonds that can skyrocket in value without incurring taxes until they’re sold. He said the tax would apply to the top 0.1% of California earners and could generate about $22 billion.

‘For far too long, we’ve allowed income inequality to deepen and fester in this state and this country while the rich get richer and the middle class shrinks behind,’ Lee said Monday.

The plan is both laughable and tragic because Californians have been fooled into thinking that having billionaires in your state is a bad thing. They do not understand that taxing wealth is taxing investment, and investment means jobs and incomes.

Here’s the onion:

But, as legal scholar Jonathan Turley notes, the proposed tax law is also deceptive, since it’s not really a “billionaire tax” at all.

“The law has a cynical bait-and-switch provision,” Turley writes. “The billionaire tax is just meant for the initial packaging and passage. It can therefore be sold as a ‘billionaire’s tax.’ However, in two years, the threshold drops to a worldwide net worth exceeding $50 million. While billionaires would stay at 1.5%, those in the lower tax bracket would be hit by a 1% added rate on worldwide assets.”

This is just staggeringly idiotic.  Never mind the fact that this will cause a 1849 Gold Rush in reverse, as the last few productive people still living in the once-Golden state move their bank accounts offshore and flee the state for greener pastures.  Never mind that California is sucking wind on the state budget, with unfunded liabilities totaling $1.6 trillion – yes, you read that right, a state that is in the hole for a bit over a trillion and a half dollars.  Never mind that the state Assembly is already rheee-ing about the possibility of cutting spending.

What California is considering doing is quite literally killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, and they’ve been building up to this for decades.  This isn’t the kind of stupid one just pops up with – this level of lunacy has to be nurtured over the course of a couple of generations.

There used to be a saying, “as goes California, so goes the nation.”  Let’s hope the nation has retained a little more sanity than this – although, given the last few years, I won’t bet anything on it.