"In an effort to boost its policies and chart a path to the future ahead of the November midterm elections, the White House released the Biden-Harris Economic Blueprint. The 58-page document showcases a five-part plan that will build on 'historic legislative successes' and 'executive actions' that the administration claims have rebuilt the economy 'now and for years ahead.'

But a close reading of the self-promotional Sept. 9, 2022, blueprint reveals that, like the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, the policies promoted in the Economic Blueprint will increase spending and regulation, make the government larger and more intrusive, and consolidate power in the hands of federal bureaucrats at the expense of state autonomy.

Onerous conditions and requirements attached to federal funds distributed to the states have been a hallmark of the Biden administration's approach to spending. All three of Biden's agenda items have given federal agencies significant powers to set guidelines and requirements that usurp federalist principles. If enacted, the policies proposed in the Economic Blueprint promise to be no different.

For example, the first pillar of the Blueprint, 'Empowering Workers,' highlights the need for 'greater worker power to unionize.' In practice, this means federal agencies may require state and local governments to prioritize union workers, regardless of the potential for added costs and limited availability in certain locales. Likewise, the Blueprint calls for an expansion of Green New Deal policies included in the IRA that will compel states to pay for progressive priorities instead of focusing on taxpayer needs."

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"The world is waking up to the fact the climate-policy goal of achieving 'net-zero' CO2 emissions brings crippling economic pain.

"Fossil-fuel prices shot up 26% across industrialized economies last year and will rise globally by another 50% this year. Politicians blame Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but the long-term trend stems mostly from governments demonizing fossil fuels while their societies remain dependent on them. Since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, global fossil-fuel investment has halved, inevitably driving up prices.

"As fossil-fuel prices climb, activists believe people will shift painlessly to renewable energy sources. But they've made a major miscalculation: Renewables are far from ready to power the world.

"Solar and wind can only work with massive amounts of backup power, mostly fossil fuels, to keep the world running when the wind dies down, the sky clouds over or night falls. And renewables mostly generate electricity, which is just one-fifth of our total energy use -- the vast majority is non-electric like transport, industrial processes and heat."

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"On December 15, 2021, President Biden released an Executive Order related to global drug trade and stated, 'I find that international drug trafficking -- including the illicit production, global sale, and widespread distribution of illegal drugs; the rise of extremely potent drugs such as fentanyl and other synthetic opioids -- constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.'

"If that's true, then why is Biden leaving the border wide open? ...

"As the Border Patrol is conducting migrant processing on an unimaginable scale, the cartels are taking complete advantage of the vulnerabilities and are blitzing the country with people and drugs. ...

"Biden's policies not only are killing Americans, they are directly enriching the cartels. ... The Drug Enforcement Administration seized enough fentanyl last year to kill every American."

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"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent over $1.1 billion in child tax credit payments to incorrect recipients during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an audit by the Department of the Treasury's Inspector General (IG) for Tax Administration on Tuesday.

"The IRS sent the payments to 1.5 million people between July and November of 2021 during the pandemic, according to the audit. Additionally, the IG noted that 4.1 million taxpayers did not receive payments they should have, amounting to $3.7 billion withheld. ...

"Additionally, the report noted that the IRS incorrectly sent out 6,829 reconciliation letters to taxpayers who received the credit, a document required to prepare their 2021 tax returns. ...

"The report further noted that the IRS erroneously changed 1,610 taxpayers' bank account information used to receive direct deposits of the credit.

"The payments were made under provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act, President Joe Biden's main legislative response to the pandemic. ...

"'We have cataloged numerous examples of ridiculous waste of federal tax dollars from the American Rescue Plan,' said Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, during a hearing in June."

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"Now they tell us. We're referring to the Congressional Budget Office, which finally rolled in Monday with its cost estimate for President Biden's unilateral student-loan write-down: $420 billion. ...

The cost of Mr. Biden's unilateral extension of the moratorium on student loan payments for another three months through December will be $20 billion. But that's a bargain compared to the $400 billion cost of canceling up to $10,000 in debt issued by June 30 this year, plus another $10,000 for recipients of Pell grants.

CBO says that doesn't even count the cost of Mr. Biden's steps to ease the terms on federal income-based repayment plans that are on top of the $10,000-$20,000 loan forgiveness. Independent analysts have estimated that cost at $150 billion or more, which would take the cost to $570 billion.

This is an unprecedented act of peacetime fiscal recklessness."

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"A coalition of 18 Republican states wrote a letter to Senate leadership Monday, announcing their opposition to Democrats' permitting reform legislation.

"The states' attorneys general, led by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, argued in the letter that the Energy Independence and Security Act -- which Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., unveiled last week -- would strip states of the authority to regulate their own power grids. The states also ripped the deal for being rushed, not allowing the public to understand its provisions or costs.

"'The undersigned attorneys general write with strong opposition to the misnamed Energy Independence and Security Act of 2022,' Landry and the other attorneys general wrote in the letter first obtained by FOX Business.

"'The Act contains assorted provisions that would effectively create a backdoor Clean Power Plan, allow the restricting of the electric grid by abrogating states' traditional authority to set their own resource and utility policies, and upset the careful balance of state and federal authority that has been a cornerstone of the Federal Power Act for nearly a century,' they added."

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"Voters largely support policies allowing police to detain suspects charged with violent crimes, a new poll shows.

"Convention of States Action, along with Trafalgar Group, released the poll, which found that the vast majority of surveyed Americans do not support policies that keep law enforcement from detaining those accused of violent crimes.

"The poll found that 95.6% of those surveyed 'say they are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports policies which prevent police from detaining criminals charged with violent crimes, such as kidnapping and armed robbery.'

"'Crime is the beneath-the-iceberg issue for voters in 2022, it's absolutely clear in these numbers,' said Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States. 'Ameicans of all political backgrounds have a strong belief in protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty.'"

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"Protests in Iran over the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody have spread even further across the country as the Iranian regime has ramped up efforts to crack down on the demonstrations.

"Protests have spread to 100 Iranian cities and 30 provinces, leaving dozens dead and resulting in widespread arrests. Protesters have set fire to police and government buildings, while a government enforcer was killed in a stabbing by protesters during attempts to impose order.

"The increasingly violent protests broke out over the death of Amini, who was arrested by Iranian morality police for not wearing a head covering in public. The demonstrations have become especially violent in Iran's Kurdish minority region in the northeast, where police fired on protesters, killing five. Amini was a Kurd. ...

"The demonstrations, which have produced scenes reminiscent of the Arab Spring that spread across the Middle East just over a decade ago, come at a critical time for the Biden administration, which has been working to resurrect the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran and made at least some strides toward an agreement in recent months."

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"Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is seemingly walking away from the promise of a soft economic landing as the U.S. central bank tries to wrestle inflation under control with the most aggressive interest rate hikes in decades.

"For months, Powell has argued that a soft landing -- the sweet spot between curbing inflation without crushing growth -- is possible, but he seemed to abandon that stance on Wednesday.

"Speaking to reporters in Washington after the Fed voted to lift the benchmark federal funds rate by 75 basis points for the third straight month, Powell conceded that a recession is possible and that securing a soft landing will be 'very challenging,' though he cautioned that no one knows if the tightening campaign will lead to a downturn, and if so how significant it will be."

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"Echoing conflicts from Sri Lanka to Canada to the Netherlands, tensions between farmers and green-minded government policymakers are building in the United States, where producers are squaring off against a costly proposed federal mandate for greenhouse-gas reporting from corporate supply chains.

"The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in March proposed requiring large corporations, including agribusinesses and food companies, to report greenhouse gas emissions down to the lowest rungs of their supply chains as a means of combatting climate change, which environmental campaigners contend imperils the planet and life on it.

"Reporting such indirect, 'scope 3' emissions would require corporations to demand data on the use of fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, and other chemicals from small-scale farmers who say they lack the personnel and resources to comply. The challenge has been led by the powerful American Farm Bureau Federation and its state affiliates, whose representatives have met with SEC officials and organized their lobbyists in Washington.

'"The farmers we represent are already heavily regulated at the state, local, and federal level but have never been subject to things concerned with Wall Street,' said Lauren Lurkins, director of environmental policy at the Illinois Farm Bureau. Our farmers do not have a team of compliance officers or attorneys, and they don't have a network of people to help them understand this. They really want to make sure they are growing crops and raising livestock and that [they] take care of the food supply.'"

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