BASEDPolitics Brad Polumbo writes, “Right-of-center Americans are understandably frustrated with the various social media platforms, given their ham-handed censorship and obvious political biases. But too many are falling for false solutions… that would give the government more control over the internet.

This is a terrible idea, for the reasons Rogan laid out on Friday.

‘You trust the government to regulate the internet?’ the host asked after his guest, Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner, who said he ‘absolutely’ trusted the government to regulate what we say online. ‘You trust the people who got us into the Iraq War under false pretenses to regulate the internet?’

This first point is spot-on. Trusting the government to regulate so-called ‘misinformation’ online naively presumes that politicians and bureaucrats have some divine insight into what’s true and what’s false. In reality, the government itself often pushes dis or misinformation, about everything from nutrition to health policy to the economy.

Furthermore, this naive approach also assumes that government actors will actor benevolently, in the public interest. But we shouldn’t make that assumption, Rogan explains.

‘They’re going to regulate the internet in a way that suits their best interests,’ he said. ‘The same way they do with the environment, with energy, with everything.”

Read the entire column.

The post Joe Rogan just perfectly explained the problem with regulating Big Tech appeared first on Liberty Tree.

As soon as interest rates seriously rise, it may just blow up in our face.

Maybe then America will start taking fiscal responsibility seriously again.

But that’ll be too little, too late.https://t.co/BEdpSMvzLE

— Brad Polumbo (@brad_polumbo) February 5, 2022

BASEDPolitics’ Brad Polumbo writes, “The national debt is back in the news after the federal government crossed a depressing threshold this week: $30 trillion in debt. This figure does rely on some weird logic, but the true debt is at least $23.4 trillion. So, it’s worth pointing out that if one small change happens, the growing national debt bomb could blow up in our face.

The debt always crowds out private sector investment and drags down economic growth. But right now, we aren’t feeling the pain of our mounting debt burden too much, because interest rates are at historic lows…

Some people think that today’s low interest rates mean it’s a great time for the federal government to borrow and spend massive amounts of money. But this is woefully misguided. The rates on the debt actually recalculate over time, so when interests rates go up in the future, all our past debt will soon become much more expensive and costly to manage.

American taxpayers are already spending $900 million every day just covering the interest payments on our existing debt.”

Read the entire column.

The post Why the $30 trillion national debt could soon blow up in our face appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Guns are used more times in self-defense annually than in violent crimes. No one pushing for gun control cares about your safety.@brad_polumbo for BASEDPolitics: https://t.co/D14g5BAHAw

— Hannah Cox (@HannahDCox) February 3, 2022

BASEDPolitics’ Brad Polumbo writes, “On Thursday, President Biden gave public remarks where he renewed his calls to ban ‘assault weapons.’ (A vague term that generally refers to scary-looking guns.) To justify this ban, Biden argued that the Second Amendment isn’t absolute—and in doing so, the president falsely claimed that the Second Amendment banned cannons in early American history.

‘[Banning assault weapons] doesn’t violate anybody’s Second Amendment rights,’ he said. ‘There is no amendment that is absolute.’

Then Biden got into historical analysis that was… interesting.

‘When the amendment was passed it didn’t say anybody can own a gun and any kind of weapon,’ Biden claimed. ‘You couldn’t buy a cannon when this amendment was passed, so there’s no reason you should be able to buy certain assault weapons.’

This bizarre aside is more than a non sequitur. It’s actually false. As Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler noted in September 2021:

‘You do not have to look far in the Constitution to see that private individuals could own cannons.”

Read the entire column.

The post Biden repeats false attack on the Second Amendment that even WaPo debunked appeared first on Liberty Tree.

Johns Hopkins University researchers just confirmed what many of us having been saying for 18 months.

The lockdowns were a massive failure. https://t.co/Y9fN9JawpC

— Jon Miltimore (@miltimore79) February 2, 2022

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “We’re into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. From mask mandates to vaccine passports, government restrictions on our liberties remain in place. But, thankfully, at least in the US, the era of lockdown orders confining Americans’ to their homes to ‘slow the spread’ is over.

Unfortunately, a new meta-analysis of studies shows that all the pain and sacrifice we endured from those orders achieved little—despite their tremendous costs.”

Read the entire column.

The post Study: ‘Lockdowns had little to no effect on COVID mortality’ appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “President Biden campaigned on moderation and a ‘return to normal.’ Yet, on the regulatory front, the Biden administration has been far more aggressive than previous administrations—both Republican and Democratic. At least, that’s the finding of a new report from the center-right American Action Forum (AAF).

Biden Administration Quietly Burdened Americans with $201 Billion in Hidden Taxes Last Year, Report Finds@brad_polumbo explains:https://t.co/bs7HNlZuM3

— FEE (@feeonline) January 25, 2022

Analysts Dan Goldbeck and Dan Bosch reviewed President Biden’s first year in charge. They found that through regulatory actions and executive orders, this administration imposed more than $201 billion in regulatory costs—and 131 million hours of new annual paperwork on Americans.

That’s nearly 40 times more costs imposed than during President Trump’s first year. Yet in perhaps a more apt comparison of presidents from the same party, the report finds that Biden’s regulatory expenses are even three times greater than those incurred during Obama’s first year.”

Read the entire column.

The post Biden administration quietly burdened Americans with $201 billion in hidden taxes last year appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “The federal government has spent an astounding $42,000 per federal taxpayer on so-called ‘stimulus’ efforts since the pandemic began. Where did all that money go? Well, as it turns out, one of the biggest stimulus programs, the Paycheck Protection Program, failed miserably.

$800 Billion Stimulus Program Failed Terribly and Mostly Benefited the Wealthy, MIT Economist Finds.@brad_polumbo has the story: https://t.co/y5rItRw7KH

— FEE (@feeonline) January 18, 2022

At least, that’s the finding of a new study from MIT economist David Autor and nine coauthors. They examined the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which gave ‘loans,’ most of which won’t have to be paid back, to businesses. It was created by Republicans and Democrats in Congress alike in hopes of helping businesses preserve their employees’ jobs for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.

The study tracks the money to see where it ended up and what it achieved. The results… aren’t pretty.”

Read the entire column.

The post $800 billion stimulus program failed terribly and mostly benefited the wealthy appeared first on Liberty Tree.

A lot of people claim to be for limiting the size of the government.

Few back it up.@brad_polumbo has the stats:https://t.co/BxHqIJ9Gm9

— Hannah Cox (@HannahDCox) January 17, 2022

Based Politics’ Brad Polumbo writes, “GOP politicians talk a big game about fiscal conservatism and balancing the budget—especially with a $29.8-trillion-and-counting national debt and runaway inflation. But which elected Republicans actually practice what they preach?”

Read the entire column.

The post Here are the 10 most fiscally conservative Republicans in the Senate appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “For many people, the start of a new year is an opportunity for genuine self-reflection. If Democratic lawmakers take an honest look at 2021, the inescapable conclusion is that voters chose with their feet — and rejected high taxes.

A new analysis from the right-leaning Tax Foundation reaches this conclusion. Analyst Jared Walczak broke down U.S. Census Bureau data and reports that while the United States overall saw only minor population growth in 2021, there were very significant shifts in state populations as people relocated.

Taxes Matter…..Blue states are committing slow suicide.https://t.co/Ezug0O4VtS

— Grover Norquist (@GroverNorquist) January 9, 2022

The five states (counting Washington, D.C., for analysis purposes) that lost the most residents on net were Washington, D.C., New York, Illinois, Hawaii, and California. Meanwhile, the states that saw the biggest net gains in population were Idaho, Utah, Montana, Arizona, South Carolina, Delaware, Texas, Nevada, Florida, and North Carolina.

Notice a pattern? The states with population losses tend to be higher-tax states, while those that saw an influx of new residents tend to be lower-tax states.”

Read the entire column.

The post Americans fled high-tax states in 2021 appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “I spoke with Senator Rand Paul, a libertarian-leaning Kentucky Republican, about why this alarming uptick in Big Tech censorship is so concerning—and why the free market, not Big Government, is the best response.

‘I think they have the right as private property owners to ban me, censor me, do whatever they want,’ the senator said. ‘But I don’t agree with it ideologically; I don’t like the idea of associating with small-minded people who are so close-minded that they want to censor what I have to say.’

Everybody on the Right is complaining about #BigTech but nobodys doing anything about it. They just complain, complain, complain. Their next response is oh the government should break up Big Tech or regulate it. I don’t want to do any of that @SenRandPaul
https://t.co/DS6P3HNt8G

— XIMENA (@RepublicanChick) January 5, 2022

Paul explained why the idea of banning ‘misinformation’ is actually antithetical to the scientific method properly understood.

‘We only arrive at the truth through disputation, by hearing [more] voices,’ he said. ‘It’s easy enough to say something is ‘misinformation.’ But really, a lot of things are debatable…’

‘The impulse to censor people’s speech is actually illiberal.’

‘They’re coming to this Platonic idea that, basically, it’s too dangerous to let the rabble know things, we need to protect them from certain ideas that might be unsettling,’ he continued. ‘But that’s not a step forward; I think that’s a couple-thousand-year-old step backwards.”

Read the entire column.

The post Rand Paul: ‘The impulse to censor people’s speech is actually illiberal’ appeared first on Liberty Tree.

FEE’s Brad Polumbo writes, “Last Friday, I tested positive for COVID-19. I’m fully vaccinated, young, and healthy, so thankfully, the case was very mild, and I’m now feeling much better. Yet, like millions during the COVID-19 surge who would like to know if they’re contagious ahead of holiday gatherings, I’m unable to find an at-home COVID antigen test at any of the pharmacies near me.

There’s a national shortage of these at-home tests, which are far more useful because they offer results in 15 minutes rather than the days it takes for lab results to come in on some other testing options. And the Biden administration is partly to blame…

“I may literally still have COVID right now… I’ve been trying to get my hands on an anti-home COVID antigen test, and all the pharmacies are out. Why is that? One reason is the Biden administration’s fault…”

Clip from last night on @KennedyNation @FoxBusiness: pic.twitter.com/wNe28rVyPJ

— Brad Polumbo ?? ?‍? (@brad_polumbo) December 22, 2021

In one absurd example of the U.S.’s red tape, the FDA only accepts data from trials done in the U.S., according to Kaiser Health News. So, if a company has perfectly valid, scientifically sound clinical data demonstrating the safety and efficacy of its product from a trial that was done in another country, it has to go back to square one and do it all over again before the FDA will let people access its potentially lifesaving technology. Yes, seriously. And this is just one piece in the mountain of red tape facing would-be test providers here in the U.S.

This is an unacceptable failure by the federal government. And, ultimately, it traces back to Biden administration officials whom the president appointed and oversees. So, the public can and should hold President Joe Biden accountable.”

Read the entire column.

The post I had COVID and can’t get an at-home test before Christmas—and Team Biden is (partly) to blame appeared first on Liberty Tree.