A week ago, popular Substacker @HC_Richardson reiterated the widely held—but factually flawed—view of most on the left that wealthy Americans don't pay their "fair share" of taxes, and that we can fix this problem by adopting European tax policies. (1/x) @HC_Richardson (2/x) It's true that OECD countries generally have higher tax burdens than the U.S. does. But they don't do it by taxing the rich more—but by taxing the *middle class* more through payroll & consumption taxes. U.S. depends much *more* on progressive income taxes.

THREAD: I'm honored to announce today the publication of the Freedom Conservatism Statement of Principles, signed by over 80 leaders of the liberty movement. Its core idea is this: the thing that has made America great is *freedom*. freedomconservatism.org/p/freedom-cons… As you know, more and more people on the left and the right reject the importance of liberty. Some of these people call themselves "national conservatives" even though they reject the American political tradition in favor of...Hungary's? Forget that.

(1/x) Natcons claim to speak for The People™, and not the "cocktail-party class," on all issues but especially immigration. Strangely, however, the views expressed by natcons at cocktail parties don't reflect those of the American public, especially wrt legal immigration. (2/x) Natcons are not only critics of illegal immigration, but of *legal* immigration, seeking "much more restrictive policies" and even a "moratorium." But only 33% of *Rs* support reducing legal immigration. 61% say it should stay the same or increase. pewresearch.org/politics/2018/…

Climate & energy policy debates in the U.S. & elsewhere focus a lot on how to reduce & constrict U.S. energy use (because wind & solar can't meet current U.S. energy needs; in 2022, renewable capacity is 311 GW out of 1145 GW total). But almost no one talks about how renewables alone are going to meet *future* U.S. energy demand. @EIAGov projects that by 2050, U.S. generating capacity will have to increase by 57% just to meet demand from population & economic growth, electric cars, etc.

According to my sources, the SEC/DOJ "investigation" of @ElonMusk is timed to thwart his bid for @Twitter. Normally, in the absence of a better offer, Twitter's board is effectively obligated by its fiduciary duty to shareholders to accept Musk's offer. If true, it's scandalous.

https://twitter.com/CGasparino/status/1514560918000185347

@elonmusk @Twitter (By "if true" I mean, if true that the investigation is an effort to thwart the acquisition.)

This @bgmasters campaign ad pretty much crystallizes @FREOPP scholars' work on the rising cost of living: housing, healthcare, education are the biggest drivers.

https://twitter.com/KaraLynneJones/status/1489269876569124874

@bgmasters @FREOPP All sorts of regulations—federal, state, and local—conspire to constrict the supply of housing. freopp.org/housing/home

Dems have announced an agreement on drug pricing reform for their multi-trillion dollar reconciliation package. The pharma lobby will holler that "innovation will grind to a halt and we're all gonna die." Here's a massive new @FREOPP study on that topic. freopp.org/high-drug-pric… @FREOPP In the new study, we analyzed from several angles the question: if Congress limits the power of drug monopolies to raise prices whenever they want, does pharmaceutical innovation suffer? The short answer is no. High up front R&D costs stall innovation, not slightly lower prices.

“CBDC” may be an obscure acronym to most—it stands for “central bank digital currency”—but it is the single biggest threat to Americans’ personal and economic freedom being seriously considered by the U.S. government. My latest in @NRO: nationalreview.com/2021/10/bidens… Biden’s nominee to run the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Saule Omarova, understands this well. In a 2020 paper, she writes about how CBDCs enable the Fed to see all of your transactions, and add and subtract from your bank accounts at will. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Anti-vaxxers claim that COVID vaccines are "experimental." But there's more data vouching for the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine's safety than there has been for any other vaccine approved by the FDA: wsj.com/articles/the-f… I'm seeing a lot of misinformation in my timeline related to the reporting of adverse events after receiving a COVID vaccine. Here is the link to the CDC's compilation of reported adverse events. cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

$143 billion in improper Medicaid payments over two years is an incredibly high number, even for Washington, representing >18% of all Medicaid spending over that period.

https://twitter.com/DeanClancy/status/1420758477736058882

States have no incentive to fight Medicaid waste, because the dollars go to hospitals and businesses in their state, mostly funded by taxpayers in other states.

An unhinged @WSJOpinion op-ed by Steve Hanke and Manuel Hinds recently compared @nayibbukele's El Salvador #Bitcoin Law to laws of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. I responded in today's Wall Street Journal letters section. wsj.com/articles/bitco…

https://twitter.com/chrisbair/status/1409994058588622853

I get that ideological libertarians loathe mandates of any kind, and that some in that school strongly oppose requiring merchants to accept bitcoin. I see it differently, because the utility of money is a function of the size of its network.

"The Fed has monetized more than half of the Treasury issuance during the pandemic with its bond purchases, which is distorting price signals and capital allocation." @WSJOpinion: wsj.com/articles/a-mad… @WSJopinion Why is the Fed buying so many T bills (a highly untraditional and risky practice)? Because foreign buyers and financial institutions don't find our debt attractive enough. When you hear someone say "monetizing the federal debt by printing dollars out of thin air," this is it.

Describing taxes paid as a share of wealth as a "true tax rate" is...untrue, given that the U.S. doesn't have a wealth tax. I appreciate that @ProPublica may support a wealth tax, but this framing is deceptive. As a share of income, the percentages would look much different.

https://twitter.com/propublica/status/1402222692019982340

The U.S. actually has the most progressive tax code in the developed world, because we don't have a national sales or consumption tax (i.e., a VAT). freopp.org/6-problems-wit…

President of El Salvador announced at @TheBitcoinConf that he is introducing a bill to make #bitcoin legal tender in the country. This is a major development in the history of monetary policy.
via @YouTube There are many reasons why this is significant. 1/ in the US, #bitcoin is treated by the IRS as property, which means that every time you try to spend it it’s a taxable event. If $BTC is now a currency, it can be spent in a non-taxable way just like Euros or British pounds.

Why are millions of Americans in Texas without power and heat for days amid extreme winter weather? Blame bad energy policy. wsj.com/articles/the-p… via @WSJOpinion Great follow-up editorial from @WSJOpinion explaining why the unreliability of wind power is a big contributor to the Texas power outages. wsj.com/articles/texas…

A terrific development. CMS is allowing Tennessee to choose not to include certain drugs on its formularies. This is a simple and obvious market-based reform. I'll explain why. statnews.com/pharmalot/2021… via @statnews If you follow health policy, you've heard of "essential health benefits," the Obamacare mandate that every insurer cover a certain set of federally-prescribed benefits. Medicaid is even worse—it mandates coverage of *every* FDA-approved drug, irrespective of its price or utility.

We'll see if Republicans can dig themselves out of the hole. But @JoeNBC is right on the central point: the 2020 electoral college map looks exactly the way you would expect based on demography: GA, NC, & AZ as the new bluish states; OH & TX next. FL the exception due to Cubans.

https://twitter.com/JoeNBC/status/1326836543944843265

To those who roll their eyes at TX ever going blue: In 2000, GWB won Texas by 21%. 2004, 23%. 2008, McCain won TX by 12%. 2012, Romney by 16%. In 2016, Trump won it by 9%. In 2020, he won it by only 5%. We are only a couple cycles away, unless something changes.

This is 21st century McCarthyism, pure and simple.

https://twitter.com/HariSevugan/status/1324781491214340097

I have no problem holding specific people accountable for their actions. But for a Democratic Party official to say that anyone who was appointed to a role in the Trump administration should be blacklisted from employment—that's banana republic level stuff.

Please wear masks, friends, especially when you're around others indoors. Masks *do* work. Masks, distancing, and hand-washing are the most important things we can do to limit #COVID19 transmission. This @Nature article is a useful primer/response to the anti-mask arguments out there: nature.com/articles/d4158…

So ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩ is announcing his “America First Healthcare Plan” today in a spacious airplane hangar. Chairs spaced out to six feet. A lot of doctors in white coats in the room. I’ll tweet out some comments as POTUS makes his remarks. Senior officials who are also appearing: @SecAzar, @SeemaCMS, @MarkMeadows.

So @YouTube just took down a June 23 interview that Scott Atlas (@SWAtlasHoover) did with his employer, Stanford's @HooverInst, because it "contradicts the World Health Organization or local health authorities' medical information about COVID-19." hoover.org/research/docto… Antitrust jurisprudence and regulation in the U.S. needs to be modernized on many fronts, especially to tackle the problem of multinational technology companies that attempt to impose a monopoly on information.