Last week the headline was “Don’t Blame a Horse in Texas.” This week it could be “Don’t Blame a Democrat Senator from West Virginia.”

The $3,500,000,000,000.00 bill is still up in the air. Sen. Manchin of West Virginia has opposed it all along, reminding the liberal members of his party that Congress already spent more than $5,000,000,000,000.00 since March 2020 on Covid relief. This week he said he could possibly support $1,500,000,000,000.00 but what he really wanted was $0.00. Ironically, $0.00 is exactly what President Biden and Speaker Pelosi said the $3,500,000,000,000.00 bill would cost us. See, in the version of math and economics practiced in this White House and Washington, (abbreviated as “WhiteWash” math), $3,500,000,000,000.00 = $0.00. And they whitewashed details of what all is stuck into the bill, too.

The House Democrats, led by AOC, and the Senate Democrats, led by Bernie Sanders, decry any reduction at all. Actually Sen. Sanders insists it ought to be $6,000,000,000,000.00 in new spending, which he would claim costs $0.00.

I did not abbreviate “$3.5T” or “$3.5 trillion.” I wrote it out: $3,500,000,000,000.00. If every newspaper report and TV message at the bottom of the screen wrote it as $3,500,000,000,000.00, the public would be outraged.

A few of my regular readers have pointed out that “Weekly Comments” often leans more to the conservative side than Will Rogers did in the early 1930s. Will Rogers was a Democrat, even though he joked, “I don’t belong to any organized political party… I’m a Democrat.” Will supported Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 and liked his decisions in the first year or two. However, Will decided FDR was going too far, making it too easy for people to get government handouts.

I bet you are shocked to learn the Federal government collected a record amount of money last year. (Didn’t Trump cut tax rates?) With extra cash you might expect them to pay off some debt.

But the federal government does not operate like you. Suppose you had a productive year and received a $20,000 bonus. If you had $100,000 credit card debt you would wisely use it to reduce that debt. You would not foolishly buy a $40,000 vehicle, adding $20,000 to your credit card. Of course, you are not Bernie Sanders. He would buy a $60,000 vehicle and put it all on the credit card. With $20,000 cash in his pocket, he would complain to his boss about his low wages.

Two weeks ago, I asked for your opinion on the amount of income taxes that should be paid by three different income levels. Here are the current amounts: The Top 1% pay 40% of federal income taxes. The Top 10% pay about 65%. The Bottom 50% pay 0 to 3% depending on who you ask. Consider these percentages when you hear President Biden say the top income levels don’t pay “their fair share” (which he copied from FDR, below) You will notice he refuses to say what percent they should pay. He knows it would sound foolish to claim, for example, the Top 1% should pay 50% or 60% of total income taxes collected. But that’s his goal.

Meanwhile at the Texas border, where the horses have been put out to pasture, the “campground” at Del Rio emptied out quickly (12,000 released freely into the U.S.). Bulldozers and dump trucks arrived to clear out the trash because VP Harris wants it to look inviting and pastoral. The next bunch of 100,000 immigrants, mostly Haitians, recently crossed the Panama Canal ready to go 2000 miles more to Del Rio. These Haitians deserve credit; they heard President Biden tell ‘em the border is open and illegal immigration is not illegal anymore. They are determined and creative people who will rebuild that “tent city” within 24 hours.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“The crime of taxation is not in the taking it, it’s in the way that it’s spent.” DT #1764, March 20, 1932

“It costs ten times more to govern us than it used to, and we are not governed one‑tenth as good.” DT #1770, March 27, 1932

 “Here is rather an amazing statement. It was made by the President (Roosevelt), who has access to the records and must know: “Fifty-eight of the richest people in the U. S. paid no Federal tax on 37 per cent of their incomes.”  This soaking the rich has got two sides to it. Roosevelt gets him a pack of humorously called ‘brain trusters’ to help him devise ways and means of trying to get at this extra 37 per cent and the rich get them some lawyers that are just as smart as Roosevelt’s tribe, and their job is to cook up an antidote.” DT #2805, Aug. 1, 1935