Back in 1896 & 1929 people didn't need a detailed multi-decade, multi-country analysis of Horse & Sparrow to know it was bad news: the Great Panic & the Republican Great Depression convinced everybody.

Kevin McCarthy's House Republicans, in their demand that Democrats gut Social Security and education monies to give more trillions in tax breaks to billionaires, are once again trying the Reaganomics hustle. Only this time with a twist.

Boomers and many Gen Xers remember how the media swooned for Art Laffer's napkin in the 1980s, and then President Reagan turned it into a movement to cut taxes on billionaires because, he lied, it would make average working-class people richer.

What most don't remember — because none of us were alive back in the 1920s or 1890s — is that Laffer and Reagan hadn't come up with anything novel.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

"A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar".

—Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac


Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

The Best of the Rest of the News

— Budgets reflect policy priorities, and the GOP is now telling us what they're really all about: hunger for poor people, low taxes for billionaires, and to hell with students in debt.
— If you agree that "God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society" then you're in alignment with 54 percent of all Republicans, according to a new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute in association with the Brookings Institution.
— First they came for American history, now they're coming for science.
— Should the new GOP "Fair Tax" should be renamed the "Billionaire Wel-Fair Tax?"
— Railroad companies paid off Republican politicians for the Trump administration to block safety rules before the Ohio 150-car train derailment and fireball explosion.
— Saudis sentence an American to 19 years in a hellhole prison over a tweet.
— In Good News — The Church of England is considering the question: must God be a man?

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Monday's Daily Stack

Poem: "Super Bowl" by Mary Ruefle.

Article: "Super Bowl" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Valentine's Day" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Boxing Day" by Wikipedia.

Poem: "Horatius at the Bridge" by Thomas Babington Macaulay.

Article: "Counting the Population Has Always Been Political" by Alexandra Jacobs.

Article: "Why marijuana retailers can't use banks" by B.S.

Article: "Several States Considering Legal Recreational Marijuana" by Ulrik Boesen.

Article: "‘He Gets Us' Super Bowl Ads for Jesus Flagged by Fans Criticizing Company Funding Them" by Devon Forward.

Article: "Prosperity theology" (prosperity gospel, health and wealth gospel) by Wikipedia.

Article: "'Next Level Chef's post-Super Bowl showdown: Gordon Ramsay talks pan blazes, cutting down on curses" by Bryan Alexander.

Article: "Who Is ALICE?" (A sset L imited, I ncome C onstrained, E mployed.) by United Way of Pennsylvania.

Article: "impugn" by Merriam-Webster.

Article: "oppugn" by Merriam-Webster.

Article: "Elon Musk Spotted With Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch Just Hours After Tweeting About Not Trusting 'The Press' " by Emily Rella.

Video: Richard Wilkinson: How economic inequality harms societies.

Article: "Kansas City Chiefs name controversy" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Average home price in the U.S. is rising: $348K in 2022" by Susan Meyer.

Article: "Average House Price by State in 2022" by Jack Caporal, Lyle Daly.

Article: "Presidents ranked from worst to best" by Elisha Fieldstadt.

Homelessness can be cured...
- Tess Fields, Executive Director - Home Share Oregon

Tuesday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be talking with Cole Stangler, French-American journalist based in Marseille, France covering labor & politics and correspondent for the international news network France 24, about the nearly 1 Million March Against 'Unjust and Brutal' Plan to Raise French Pension Age.

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

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