MAW

[Washington Post Opinions @PostOpinions]

"The District’s problem is that it spends too much, not that taxes are too low," the Editorial Board writes. https://t.co/n5fZfS5ziM

[Austin Campbell @austincampbell]

I am watching the left propose increasingly bad (rent freeze, minimum wage hikes, huge tax increases) proposals that will wreck the economy.

This is driven by anger from young voters, who are priced out of housing, can't get jobs, and feel like the system is rigged against them.

And you know what? They are right. It is.

What I'm not seeing is any politician, Democrat or Republican, courageous enough to point out the real issue:

Boomers voted themselves huge future benefits but did not fund them, so now we are running huge deficits to pay for them while talking about raising taxes on people who weren't even born yet when those things were decided to pay the olds.

The reality is this: young people in the US, to save yourselves, you're going to have to tear down the programs for the Boomers, rationalize immigration laws to ensure you get first look at American jobs and companies have the incentive to put them here, force housing to be built, and massively cut federal (and in many cases, state) spending and the size of the government.

Any politician who is not willing to tell you the truth about this is fucking you. Trump? Fucking you. Mamdani? Also fucking you.

If you can't figure this out, things will get worse from here.

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

3/3 We cannot have a system where govt has the ability to essentially starve out a capital asset by limiting income, mandate costs and then be in a position to buy at a depressed value bc the asset is insolvent. Property rights are meaningless if this is a valid power of govt.

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

1/3 Here is a defensible standard for SCOTUS that wouldn’t touch Lochner: Private excludable housing is not a public utility, public franchise, or non-excludable public resource. Government may regulate housing conditions and fund affordability through public mechanisms…

[The New York Times @nytimes]

A New York City panel voted to freeze rents for nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments, fulfilling a promise of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. https://t.co/NiyTOPxBRz

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

2/3 It may not impose maximum rents on private occupancy or deny timely recovery of possession after legal entitlement is established. Govt can regulate it to death, it can mandate ROFR, succession rights, etc. but it must allow price to float to reflect true value.

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

@JHWeissmann It's just harder to explain the consequences without people experiencing them. And if the past is prologue, people just leave rather than burning their free time doing campaign volunteer stuff. Life is too short to fight a neverending battle on this.

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

I love how every DSA candidate is always an "organizer" or already has some NGO or govt sinecure. And DC is the mothership for these groups. I'm very bearish on it capturing real private industry from NoVA like tech, engineering, finance, or construction.

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

These movements are sustained bc it's a social outlet for adherents and also bc they get money controlling, providing or receiving the benefits. It's also an easy sell. They only fall apart once the city tanks. We're basically just repeating the 70s.

[Jordan Weissmann @JHWeissmann]

I'm quoted in this Vox piece about DSA's winning streak. The left basically has a permanent campaign, while we libs have none. That may have been tenable for us in cities when demographics and the national mood were in our favor, but it isn't anymore.

https://t.co/aBortRWLwG

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

@jaymart222 How is this not a gigantic loophole to the takings clause. I'm not familiar with the cases working their way through to SCOTUS but if they don't take a hammer to price controls generally I don't see how this isn't a pretty easy way to essentially expropriate property.

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

@john102414 There's really 2 axes in politics I've seen: there is an old / young divide and a socialist / liberal divide. Old people don't want anything built generally (houses, infra, etc.). The socialists only want things built if it conforms to their (long and specific) list of demands

[MAW @MikeAWheeler]

Hell yeah 🇺🇸

[Andrew Leyden @PenguinSix]

A tentative flyover schedule was shown to the press for the tonight's Great State Fair event. All times are estimates.

7:30 F-16s
7:35 B-2
8:05 F-35s
8:25 B-2 & F-35s
9:00 F-35s

The flyovers will alternate directions, first W->E and then S->N, etc.

[Washington Nationals @Nationals]

VIVAS LOS NACIONALES

[Washington Nationals @Nationals]

who invited phil

[Rini Sampath @RiniSampath]

I published my first Substack post on what it really takes to make the ballot for D.C. mayor: money, strategy, litigation, and political machinery.

One of my biggest lessons as a first-time candidate: good ideas are not enough. Political power belongs to those who organize.

Here is a small preview of what I wrote about. Check out the full post here: https://t.co/5P1AqVk3Q4

[Rini Sampath @RiniSampath]

1/ 🚨 I need your help today.

Tomorrow, @councilofdc votes on whether to fund semi-open primaries and finally let independent voters participate.

Please contact your ward and at-large councilmembers today. Ask the full Council to fund Initiative 83 and let independents vote. 🧵

[Washington Nationals @Nationals]

put the curly w in the bag

[MLB @MLB]

CJ Abrams leads all NL shortstops with 16 home runs!

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

What about all the entrepreneurs that risked everything and failed ?

Or the ones that are grinding it out, trying to build a business ? You know, the ones that create more than 60 pct of the new jobs in this country.

The more successful they are, the more you hate them?

Take their money so they can't invest in other founders? Or invest in causes they believe in ?

And the ones that fail and get to deduct 3k a year of their losses ? Or went for it and are broke and might never see enough income to offset those losses ? You don't care if they go broke ?

10 pct of the people in this country are entrepreneurs that have started a business.

You ever try to help them ?

There are plenty of discussions to be had about income inequality. About helping people who are struggling economically.

I've talked about a lot of them in my timeline.

But in reality, saying "Eat the rich" will end up helping no one except maybe politicians trying to raise money. And probably hurt those in need, as more money is spent playing politics then helping

Wealth tax. Unearned income tax. Show me the multi year behavioral analysis, as opposed to simple models, that show more jobs, higher wages and personal wealth will be created for those who need it. I'd love to read them

Ideology is not a strategy. Nor is it a plan that has lasting impact on people who need help

And so you know.
I'm not a believer in trickle down. It's a joke.

I am a believer in trickle up. Where we do all we can get to get appreciable assets and higher wages into the hands of people who have to live paycheck to paycheck. I've said before I think raising the federal minimum wage to $20 is smart. When I heard people who worked for a company I invested in (but didn't run) needed government assistance, I made sure they all got raises. It was embarrassing to me that we didn't pay enough. I've made, or helped make, at least a thousand millionaires. And I'll keep working to increase that number

And that's the point.

The best path to help more people is to work with the people that can help more people.

If you demonize business people , you just make it harder for them to help anyone.

I'm not saying there aren't greedy, blood sucking business people that will do anything for a dollar.

But they are a small minority. Most entrepreneurs realize they are blessed. They want to find ways to help. They think they can use the same skills that built their business to help people.

And they can. They can hire more. They can give raises. They can educate. And they do all these things to help.

I've sat with Democrats and Republicans, incumbents and candidates,and asked them why they aren't meeting with businesses that make and sell the products that have become unaffordable, and asking them what can be done to reduce prices.

I do this continuously regarding healthcare. It's easy to see where the friction and increased pricing is coming from. Why (the politicians ) aren't you meeting with them and asking them to change ? Offering to support those that do raise wages, lower prices , improve benefits. Politicians just won't do it. They prefer the donations.

I did shark tank for 15 years purely to show people they can start small, grow their businesses, and help not only themselves, but their employees and their communities as well. And thats exactly what has happened.

Demonizing those that have success is counterproductive to every benefit you want to help bring to people.

[Martin Austermuhle @maustermuhle]

Interesting: In a letter to the D.C. Council ahead of next week’s final budget vote, @MayorBowser warns that some of the decisions the council is making to restore funding for social services could leave @Janeese4DC with a $800 million budget gap to address in her first year.