Whenever I’m presented with new information, I do a check for reasonableness, or a ‘Sniff Test”.
Like what you would do with milk or creamer. Open it up, take a whiff, and if it smells OK, then it’s into your cup of joe.
I do exactly the same thing with information.
For example, there was an advertisement on the radio that stated that the average driver is spending $5,000 per year on fuel. That just didn’t sit right. So, I took that number, divided it by $3.00 per gallon which resulted in 1,666 gallons.
That’s a lot of fuel.
Then I multiplied that by 25 miles per gallon, and the result pegged my cow pie meter – I don’t think the “average” driver is clocking over 41,000 miles annually.
In short, if failed the “Sniff Test”.
That monumental fail tainted the rest of the information that was trying to be conveyed. If they can’t get the basic facts right, why would I listen to the rest of it?
So much of what we hear coming out of Washington DC flatly fails the “Sniff Test”.
For example, the “Affordable Care Act” – which is far from affordable – has caused health care expenses to skyrocket. Who’s it more affordable for? Certainly not the taxpayers.
Another “Sniff Test fail.
Biden’s signature “American Rescue Plan” was another one. I think the only one it rescued was the politicians who needed a handout to keep the leftist voters in their tent. They spent $1.9 trillion dollars. That’s a big piece of our GDP of $23.7 Trillion in 2021. So much so that it triggered an inflationary event that our economy has yet to fully recover from.
When you look at what was in his “emergency aid package,” your bullshit meter will register a reading that if won’t likely recover from. An epic “Sniff Test” fail. The Wall Street Journal editorial board estimated that only $825 billion was directly related to Covid-19 relief and $1 trillion was “expansions of progressive programs, pork, and unrelated policy changes.”
And we get to pay for it ALL.
One of the champions of the “Sniff Test” is Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana. He’s plain spoken and direct. He’s also expert at ferreting out and exposing wasteful spending, as well as things that just don’t make sense.
Now the very same Democrats want to burden us with a $1.5 trillion pork package under the illusion that it will preserve the enhanced “Affordable Care Act” that they foisted upon us back in 2021 without a single Republican vote.
The Democrats have held our federal budget hostage for a record 40 days because they want to repeat the same insanity that they did with the “Rescue” boondoggle. Not because it was good for the American people, but because it will result in something that only the government can create – inflation. They need to have bad things to say about the Republicans, and this would hand it to them on a silver platter.
It’s why their proposal to end the government shutdown stinks.
To end the shutdown, Republicans will increase spending, but it will be far from the levels that the Democrats’ mouthpiece has been demanding. Schumer taking this on the chin will be glorious – he will demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt that he’s ineffective and not a negotiator.
The American public is supporting the Republicans’ stance to curb government spending, because nothing else passes, well, “Sniff Test”.
There is a balance being struck between giveaways and fiscal responsibility. I’m happy to see that the Republicans understand this and are taking considered action by refusing the insane spending levels demanded by the Democrats.
What the Democrats are doing fails the “Sniff Test”.
