News Story of the Day: With the United States in the final year of the Obama presidency, it seems the Commander in Chief wants to impose some really bad policies on the American people.
It was reported by Politico that the U.S. president will soon outline a proposal to adopt a $10 per barrel tax on oil to pay for the country’s public transportation projects. This means consumers could pay as much as 25 cents on a gallon of gasoline, in addition to all of the taxes and fees motorists are forced to pay.
The proposal will be inserted in to the president’s final budget request next week.
As the oil and gas sector crumbles with falling prices, the industry likely couldn’t afford such a tax. What does Obama care? He’s leaving the Oval Office within the next year. This should certainly satisfy those who wanted to raise the gas tax, including former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who said:
“Since then we’ve just been bumping along, doing short-term fixes, and I give them a lot of credit for laying out this kind of long-term investment,” said Rendell. “I also give them credit for having the guts to say how they would pay for it all. That’s very unusual in this area.”
Chart of the Day: Americans will eat approximately 1.3 billion wings during Super Bowl weekend. They’ll also be spending quite a chunk of change. U.S. wholesale prices of chicken wings has climbed in the last eight weeks, which is the longest rally in two years. The cost is $1.705 per pound. Bloomberg News has the chart below:
Illustration of the Day: There is so much hypocrisy when discussing the issue of race. The biggest racists are those who promote affirmative action and want to be awarded based on the color of their skin, which is contradictory to what Martin Luther King once said in a speech. The following venn diagram comes from the American Enterprise Institute:
Quote of the Day: Today’s quote comes from Henry Hazlitt’s magnum opus “Economics in One Lesson”:
“Practically all government attempts to redistribute wealth and income tend to smother productive incentives and lead toward general impoverishment. It is the proper sphere of government to create and enforce a framework of law that prohibits force and fraud. But it must refrain from specific economic interventions. Government’s main economic function is to encourage and preserve a free market. When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: “Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun.” It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government.”
Video of the Day: Donald Trump has made it to the list of nominees for a Nobel Peace Prize, which doesn’t mean much anymore: Obama won one by bombing Muslim nations, Al Gore won one by being a hypocrite and Paul Krugman won one (no explanation needed). Here is Trump’s “campaign” for winning a Nobel prize.
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