"Taxpayers are racing to submit their 1040s and beat the IRS's Tuesday tax deadline.

"Yet their payments -- which are contributing to the highest sustained tax burden in American history -- cannot keep pace with Washington's spending spree.

"This year, Washington will collect $36,313 per household in tax revenues (this includes all federal taxes, as even business taxes are eventually passed on to individuals).

"Washington will spend $46,834 per household.

"The resulting budget deficit of $10,521 per household brings the per-household national debt held by the public to a staggering $194,063.

"Are you getting your money's worth?"

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"Major retailers in the US have been forced to shut down stores due to millions of dollars in losses as rampant theft plagues big box stores across the country.

"This week, Walmart announced it will shut down four of its stores in Chicago just weeks after America's biggest employer shuttered its only stores in Portland.

"It comes as shoplifting reaches alarming levels and other large retailers, including Target, Macy's and Best Buy, are now making good on threats to shutter outlets if petty crime was not lowered.

"In 2021 retailers lost a combined $94.5 billion to shrink, a term used to describe theft and other types of inventory loss. And organized retail crime incidents soared by 26.5 per cent in the same year, according to the 2022 National Retail Security Survey. ...

"Progressive district attorneys in cities like Chicago, New York, Portland and California have also been blamed for effectively legalizing shoplifing with either not prosecuting thefts under $950, or letting criminals off with a slap on the wrist."

Read the entire aritcle here.

"While the federal government ran up $1 trillion worth of debt in the last six months, 28 states across the country are considering tax cuts as they tout budget surpluses.

"'People, business and capital will flock to where they're treated best,' Florida resident and investment adviser Gary Kaltbaum said on 'Varney & Co.' Thursday. 'I have friends in California, and we compare numbers. It is stunning. It's a gargantuan spread as far as tax is concerned.'

"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his intention in February to pass the largest tax relief proposal in the state's history, according to a press release. Florida families will allegedly save $2 billion during the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year.

"Other states like Idaho and Colorado are looking to cut property taxes, while Arkansas and Mississippi may eliminate individual income tax altogether. Nebraska and Virginia, for example, are both exploring reducing income tax rates."

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"Between higher costs and a possible recession on the horizon, families feel increasingly strained financially.

More than half, or 58%, of all Americans are now living paycheck to paycheck, according to the CNBC Your Money Financial Confidence Survey, conducted in partnership with Momentive.

And even more -- roughly 70% -- said they feel stressed about their finances, mostly due to inflation, economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, the survey found.

'Whether or not you have significant wealth, everyone is feeling squeezed,' said Misi Simms, portfolio manager at TIAA, a Fortune 100 financial services company."

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"When liberals look back on the Biden presidency, they may hail its greatest accomplishment as ushering in a new era of corporate government dependency. Without fail, and no matter the industry, the administration has hooked businesses on Washington handouts while attaching conditions that put taxpayers and consumers on the hook for leftist policy preferences.

"Government help is never free, as semiconductor companies are learning. Chip makers lobbied Congress for enormous subsidies to build plants in the U.S., which they claimed would shore up supply chains and protect national security. ... Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo then conditioned the grants on companies implementing the administration's social policy.

"Perhaps no industry has become as dependent on government in the Biden years as auto makers. A Goldman Sachs report last week estimated that the Inflation Reduction Act's electric-vehicle consumer and battery-production tax credits alone could cost taxpayers $523 billion over 10 years -- nearly seven times as much as the 2008-2009 auto bailout.

"Auto makers are losing billions of dollars on electric vehicles, but the administration is making the industry too big to fail. How long before they ask government to backstop their losses?"

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"The nation's fiscal outlook is rapidly deteriorating following a two-year avalanche of new spending that added more than $6 trillion to our national debt and triggered painful, historic levels of inflation.

Our unprecedented, almost incomprehensible $31-trillion-plus national debt has eclipsed the size of our economy -- the largest in the world.

Over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, our annual deficits will double, our interest payments will triple, and for every dollar we borrow, 50 cents will go just to paying interest on this debt.

In just 10 years, interest payments alone will exceed what we spend on our entire national defense."

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"The scene on the floor of the Tennessee House perfectly captured our 'age of rage.' Protesters filled the capitol building to protest the failure to pass gun-control legislation. However, they were in the minority in both the state and its legislature. Three Democratic state representatives -- Justin Jones from Nashville, Justin Pearson from Memphis, and Gloria Johnson of Knoxville -- were unwilling to yield to the majority. They disrupted the floor proceedings with a bullhorn and screaming at their colleagues.

It is a scene familiar to many of us in academia, where events are regularly canceled by those who shout down others. The three members yelled 'No action, no peace' and 'Power to the people' as their colleagues objected to their stopping the legislative process. Undeterred, the three refused to allow 'business as usual' to continue.

Nothing says deliberative debate like a bullhorn. American politics, it seems, has become a matter of simple amplification."

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"In its budget last month, the White House claimed that 'the Administration is committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security.' But the recently released annual report from that program's trustees portrays a different story.

The report demonstrates how the slower economic growth and higher inflation of the Biden years have undermined Social Security's foundation and accelerated its insolvency. If ever a document illustrated the failures of the Biden administration's economic policies, and how those failures will harm seniors, this report does it.

The annual report, compiled by the Social Security actuary and approved by the program's trustees -- all of them appointed by Biden -- projected that insolvency for the retirement trust fund would occur in 2033, one year earlier than estimated in last year's report. The biggest cause for that change? A lowering of estimates for future GDP and productivity growth 'by about three percent by 2026 and for all years thereafter.'

The trustees' move came 'in response to recent economic developments, including higher-than-expected inflation rates and lower-than-expected output growth.' In other words, members of Biden's own administration admitted that the economy has permanently shifted into a lower gear on his watch."

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"There is no justice system anymore. There is only a legal system. And it's corrupt.

That is the tempting conclusion to be drawn from the unsealed indictment of Donald Trump on Tuesday by a Manhattan grand jury. District Attorney Alvin Bragg seeks to bend statutes beyond their limits and stretch alleged facts beyond reason. This constitutes prosecutorial abuse in a brazen attempt to weaponize the law and criminalize politics.

The law is not a rubber band that can be manipulated at will. There are restraints and boundaries. Fidelity to established rules of fairness and equity necessitates restraint. Bragg ignores all that."

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"Small business owners, contract workers, freelancers and franchisees have kicked off a nationwide push to derail President Biden's nominee to head the Labor Department, beginning with a six-figure ad campaign in states where vulnerable Democratic senators are up for re-election in 2024.

"The 'Stand Against Su' is a coalition launched on Monday as the Senate prepares to consider Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su's potential appointment to formally lead the department. Her critics cite her support for tightening employment regulations in California when she ran the state's main labor agency, which they say makes her an enemy of both companies and employees.

"'Simply put, Julie Su is anti-worker,' the coalition said in a letter being circulated in an effort to drum up opposition to the nomination. 'Her promotion to Secretary of Labor would cripple small business and eliminate job opportunities for millions of hard-working Americans.'"

Read the entire article here.