1) Is Virginia’s New Governor Spanberger or Scam-Berger?

Well, that didn’t take long. Nearly every news story last year about Abigail Spanberger, who was just sworn in to office a few days ago as Governor of Virginia, described her as “a moderate Democrat.” But now in office, she and the Democrats who now control all the rungs of power in Richmond are already off to the races with a flurry of tax increases. It’s hard to find a tax the Democrats DON’T want to raise.

Our friends at Americans for Tax Reform have been keeping tabs.  

• HB 188 - Creates a new income tax bracket for income above $1 million, raising the state's top personal income tax rate from 5.75% to 10%.

• HB 378 – Imposes a 3.8% net investment income tax on individuals, trusts, and estates beginning in taxable year 2027. If enacted, HB 378 would raise VA’s top marginal income tax rate on portfolio and passive income to 9.55%.

• HB 900 – A new sales tax on Internet services - Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, UPS, and others.

• HB 919 – A 11% gross receipt tax on guns and ammunition.

• HB 978 – Extend the retail sales and use tax to dry cleaning, landscaping, and other previously exempt services.

Spanberger has already announced Virginia will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap and trade scheme that acts as a backdoor carbon dioxide tax.

Virtually every other southern state is cutting taxes. Virginia is looking to enact its largest tax increase ever. Did we mention that Spanberger ran as a centrist, pro-business Democrat?

2) Another Sign We Are Winning  

As regular HOTLINE readers know, we at UP and a handful of other conservative groups have been advising corporate America to steer away from climate change craziness. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but our campaign must be working, given this mournful New York Times headline from this past weekend. As you read the story, notice the snotty line that businesses now “have ambitions to use capitalism as a tool to save the planet.” Well, what else will???

The story of how Wall Street turned its back on climate change -- how a bold attempt to transform finance collapsed -- began almost as soon as [BlackRock CEO Larry] Fink and his allies announced their ambitions to use capitalism as a tool to save the planet.

Republican politicians joined conservative activists, including groups funded by the fossil fuel industry, to engineer a sweeping pushback at what they saw as corporate America's attempt to advance liberal policies.

Their tactics involved filing lawsuits, passing laws, pulling funds out of Wall Street accounts and using social media to tarnish the reputation of individual executives, including Mr. Fink.

In short order, their efforts succeeded in beating back an environmental movement on Wall Street, which from its inception was defined more by idealistic rhetoric than substantive changes to business practices.

3) American Kids Aren't the World's Worst in Math, But Getting Close

This rating has America third worst among industrialized countries. We know that many nations routinely cheat on these country surveys to inflate their scores, but shouldn’t America be at or near the top, not the bottom?

4) Speaking of a Place That Desperately Needs More Capitalism…

Most media coverage of Zohran Mamdani, New York City's new mayor, has focused on his socialist agenda to raise taxes on high earners and corporations. Many millionaires are already plotting escape routes out of the city.

But it turns out that small businesses are already bleeding from New York's oppressive taxes and regulations and many of their owners fear it will now only get worse. Last year, the Big Apple saw the sharpest decline in business growth since COVID brought the local economy to a standstill in 2020.

The city reports that more than 8,400 businesses shut down in the second quarter of 2025 –

the most recent period for which data is available – while only 3,500 opened their doors. The 3-month decline wiped out nearly all of the city's start-up gains since 2022.

Mamdani realizes he's already facing a business recession, so he's offering proposals to cut fines and fees for small businesses in half.

But any relief that would bring would be dwarfed by Mamdani's plan to raise the minimum wage for entry-level workers to $30-per-hour by 2030.

The more Mamdani implements his radical agenda, the more New Yorkers in every income bracket will accelerate flight from the city - which has lost some 430,000 people since 2020.  

5) Chart of the Day

The other day, we highlighted a piece by Jeff Yass and Steve Moore in the Wall Street Journal, urging Trump to index the 23.8% capital gains tax for inflation. We noted this would RAISE revenue for the government and free up housing for young people to buy homes at affordable prices. As evidence, we noted that every time the capital gains tax has been cut, there has been an “unlocking effect” where investors sell their assets to take advantage of the lower tax penalty.

We were attacked for this claim, so we wish to provide the evidence below from Laffer Associates: When the rate goes down, capital is freed up, there are more asset sales, and federal revenues go up.  See for yourself.  

6) Sorry, Mr. President: The Dodgers Already Bought Greenland

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