(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: What you need to know this Thursday

Here’s what you need to know today, Thursday – February 9, 2023.

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Biden Keeps Making Claims About Economy That Just Aren’t True – President Joe Biden has gotten into a revisionist history habit.

He has repeatedly claimed that he inherited an economic disaster. It was his policies, he alleges, which brought us back from the brink. – READ MORE

Welcome To The Global Recession, It Began In December Last Year – Consumer spending hit a brick wall in the US, EU, UK and Australia. Guess what that means… – READ MORE

The US Has The Most Expensive Healthcare In The World – How much more expensive is the U.S. healthcare system compared to other developed countries?

There are many ways of approaching that question, but when comparing per-capita healthcare spending in different OECD nations, the answer is: a lot more expensive. – READ MORE

Biden’s IRS pushes new scheme to crack down on restaurant tips – The Biden administration’s Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has proposed a program for service industry employers to report their workers’ tips to the IRS in order to improve tip reporting compliance, according to a Monday announcement.

The Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program would be optional, and the IRS would monitor the compliance of employers who opt in through annual reports, according to the announcement. Participating employers would be granted liability protection and flexibility in how they implement tip reporting policies. – READ MORE

How Equifax Became A Private IRS – Late last year, the CEO of Equifax Mark Begor presented at a Goldman Sachs conference for investors, and openly told the investors how much market power his firm has in the business of selling income verification services to creditors. “We have meaningful pricing power,” he said, because “only Equifax has that income and employment data.” Equifax aggressively raises prices on the Work Number product line annually, and has, according to Begor, “already got our January 1, 2023 price increases in the market.” Long term, he says, “we have an ability to grow price well in excess of GDP.” This is fairly shocking stuff from a CEO, who should know better than to confess to monopolization. Only, it seems as if Begor wasn’t confessing, he was bragging. – READ MORE

Report: California’s BART Spent $350K on Program That Helped One Homeless Person – California’s Bay Area Rapid Transit Agency (BART) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a homeless outreach program that reportedly helped one person.

The program was run by the Salvation Army, the Mercury News said Friday, citing a report from the inspector general. – READ MORE

Does The FBI Have Spies In Congress? – House Republicans vow to pull no punches when investigating the FBI this session of Congress. The bureau may be monitoring them in return.

This is according to attorney Jesse Trentadue, who about a decade ago uncovered the FBI’s “sensitive informant program.” He said the bureau uses it to embed informants in the media, congressional offices, churches, defense teams and other “sensitive” institutions. – READ MORE

Not Just Spy Balloons: The CCP’s Expansive Spy Campaign Against America – News that the Pentagon was tracking a Chinese communist spy balloon hovering over the United States this week is raising concerns about the extent of China’s espionage efforts against America and its citizens.

But just how far is the regime willing to go in order to spy on and undermine the United States? – READ MORE