Want a recession? Kill this business deduction and wait



When President Donald Trump returned to office in January, nearly everyone in his circle agreed on the top priority: renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Without action, a crushing 22% tax hike looms, threatening to undo the economic gains of the past decade.

Extending the tax reform would also give businesses and investors the long-term stability they need to plan, expand, and hire.

Repealing the C-SALT deduction would hammer small businesses — the backbone of the American economy.

Instead, the administration has sent mixed signals. Daily shifts in tariff policy have rattled markets and injected uncertainty into every sector of the economy. Investors are jittery. Business leaders are holding back. And analysts are already warning of a potential recession.

These mistakes make it even more important to switch the focus to the tax package. The Trump administration should stop talking about tariffs and focus, along with Congress, on stabilizing markets and laying the foundation for economic growth by getting taxes down.

C-SALT: A conservative’s dream

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act delivered everything conservatives had long demanded: 100% expensing for business property, a 21% corporate income tax rate, and a child tax credit that rewarded work. It stood as the defining achievement of Trump’s first term. Making it permanent could help revive the pre-COVID economic boom.

But lawmakers must resist the temptation to gut the law’s pro-growth provisions to fund unrelated priorities. That includes rejecting the misguided push to repeal or limit the corporate state and local tax deduction, known as C-SALT.

Debates about the individual SALT deduction cap have dominated headlines in Washington. Some reforms to that cap may make sense. But individual SALT and C-SALT are not the same issue, and they shouldn’t be treated as interchangeable.

C-SALT promotes growth by preventing double taxation on businesses. It lets employers reinvest earnings, stay competitive, and create jobs. Rolling it back would hit business owners hard, slow hiring, and weaken America’s edge in the global economy.

Policy groups like Americans for Tax Reform and the Tax Foundation agree: Gutting C-SALT would put long-term growth at risk — and betray the core economic agenda that fueled Trump’s first-term success.

For businesses, state and local taxes are an operating expense. If businesses lose the ability to deduct these taxes, they will be paying taxes on taxes.

Small businesses pay the price

Repealing the C-SALT deduction would hammer small businesses — the backbone of the American economy. Many already struggle under heavy corporate, state, and local tax burdens, especially in rural and Republican-leaning states. Removing this deduction would force them to shoulder a disproportionate share of the pain.

No serious conservative case exists for eliminating or capping the C-SALT deduction. Some Republicans seem confused, conflating C-SALT with the personal SALT deduction, which overwhelmingly benefits wealthy taxpayers in high-tax blue states. But they are not the same. As the Tax Foundation notes, capping C-SALT won’t “reduce distortive tax benefits or enhance state competition” the way a cap on the personal SALT deduction might — because corporate and individual tax systems function differently.

In 2023, American businesses paid nearly $1.1 trillion in state and local taxes. Stripping away their ability to deduct those taxes from federal corporate income tax amounts to a massive tax hike — potentially hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade.

That kind of tax increase would erase much of the economic progress since the 2017 tax law was passed. It would punish the very job creators conservatives claim to champion.

Lawmakers in Congress — especially Republicans who support free enterprise and pro-growth tax reform that spurs economic growth — should focus on restoring and making permanent the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s tax cuts without jeopardizing the benefits that the C-SALT deduction provides for American businesses of all sizes.

Trump's tariffs unleash chaos in China with workers' revolt over unpaid wages, layoffs: Report



President Donald Trump's tariffs have reportedly unleashed chaos in China, with workers protesting over unpaid wages and layoffs.

A Radio Free Asia report claims that workers' protests are spreading across China, prompted by Trump's 145% tariff on the nation's imports. It states that hundreds of employees have taken to the streets to demand back pay and challenge layoffs following the abrupt shutdown of some Chinese factories.

'Their economy is collapsing.'

Workers from one electronic factory reportedly contend that the company has not paid their wages since the beginning of 2025 and that they have not received social security benefits since June 2023.

Those previously employed at other Chinese factories have reported similar issues regarding abrupt layoffs, as well as unpaid wages and benefits.

Shan Hui, chief China economist at Goldman Sachs, estimated that 16 million jobs are involved in producing goods sold in the U.S.

"Prices will need to fall for domestic and other foreign buyers to help absorb the excess supply left behind by U.S. importers," Shan stated.

Before Trump's tariffs took effect, China saw strong economic gains in the first few months of the year.

Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics, stated, "The national economy had a steady and good start, continuing the upward trend."

"However, we must also see that the current external environment is becoming more complex and severe, and the effective domestic demand growth momentum is insufficient," Sheng added.

Goldman Sachs predicted that Trump's tariffs would "significantly weigh" on China's economy.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) recently praised Trump for his actions against China to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.

Mullin told Fox News this week, "President Trump is the first president that we've had that actually has a backbone strong enough to stand up and say we've got to right this wrong, start manufacturing goods here."

"China has got rich off our country," he continued. "Forty percent of all their goods they manufacture are sold back here in the United States. And they rip us off all the time."

In an NBC News interview released over the weekend, Trump confirmed his plans to keep the steep tariffs against China in place — for now.

When asked whether he would drop the tariffs, Trump responded, "Why would I do that?"

"Would you lower them?" he was asked.

"At some point, I'm going to lower them because otherwise, you could never do business with them — and they want to do business very much," Trump said. "Their economy is really doing badly. Their economy is collapsing."

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AI is coming for your job, your voice ... and your worldview



Suddenly, artificial intelligence is everywhere — generating art, writing essays, analyzing medical data. It’s flooding newsfeeds, powering apps, and slipping into everyday life. And yet, despite all the buzz, far too many Americans — especially conservatives — still treat AI like a novelty, a passing tech fad, or a toy for Silicon Valley elites.

Treating AI like the latest pet rock tech trend is not only naïve — it’s dangerous.

The AI shift is happening now, and it’s coming for white-collar jobs that once seemed untouchable.

AI isn’t just another innovation like email, smartphones, or social media. It has the potential to restructure society itself — including how we work, what we believe, and even who gets to speak — and it’s doing it at a speed we’ve never seen before.

The stakes are enormous. The pace is breakneck. And still, far too many people are asleep at the wheel.

AI isn’t just ‘another tool’

We’ve heard it a hundred times: “Every generation freaks out about new technology.” The Luddites smashed looms. People said cars would ruin cities. Parents panicked over television and video games. These remarks are intended to dismiss genuine concerns of emerging technology as irrational fears.

But AI is not just a faster loom or a fancier phone — it’s something entirely different. It’s not just doing tasks faster; it’s replacing the need for human thought in critical areas. AI systems can now write news articles, craft legal briefs, diagnose medical issues, and generate code — simultaneously, at scale, around the clock.

And unlike past tech milestones, AI is advancing at an exponential speed. Just compare ChatGPT’s leap from version 3 to 4 in less than a year — or how DeepSeek and Claude now outperform humans on elite exams. The regulatory, cultural, and ethical guardrails simply can’t keep up. We’re not riding the wave of progress — we’re getting swept underneath it.

AI is shockingly intelligent already

Skeptics like to say AI is just a glorified autocomplete engine — a chatbot guessing the next word in a sentence. But that’s like calling a rocket “just a fuel tank with fire.” It misses the point.

The truth is, modern AI already rivals — and often exceeds — human performance in several specific domains. Systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic's Claude, and Google's Gemini demonstrate IQs that place them well above average human intelligence, according to ongoing tests from organizations like Tracking AI. And these systems improve with every iteration, often learning faster than we can predict or regulate.

Even if AI never becomes “sentient,” it doesn’t have to. Its current form is already capable of replacing jobs, overseeing supply chain logistics, and even shaping culture.

AI will disrupt society — fast

Some compare the unfolding age of AI as just another society-improving invention and innovation: Jobs will be lost, others will be created — and we’ll all adapt. But those previous transformations took decades to unfold. The car took nearly 50 years to become ubiquitous. The internet needed about 25 years to transform communication and commerce. These shifts, though massive, were gradual enough to give society time to adapt and respond.

AI is not affording us that luxury. The AI shift is happening now, and it’s coming for white-collar jobs that once seemed untouchable.

Reports published by the World Economic Forum and Goldman Sachs suggest job disruption to hundreds of millions globally in the next several years. Not factory jobs — rather, knowledge work. AI already edits videos, writes advertising copy, designs graphics, and manages customer service.

This isn’t about horses and buggies. This is about entire industries shedding their human workforces in months, not years. Journalism, education, finance, and law are all in the crosshairs. And if we don’t confront this disruption now, we’ll be left scrambling when the disruption hits our own communities.

AI will become inescapable

You may think AI doesn’t affect you. Maybe you never plan on using it to write emails or generate art. But you won’t stay disconnected from it for long. AI will soon be baked into everything.

Your phone, your bank, your doctor, your child’s education — all will rely on AI. Personal AI assistants will become standard, just like Google Maps and Siri. Policymakers will use AI to draft and analyze legislation. Doctors will use AI to diagnose ailments and prescribe treatment. Teachers will use AI to develop lesson plans (if all these examples aren't happening already). Algorithms will increasingly dictate what media you consume, what news stories you see, even what products you buy.

We went from dial-up to internet dependency in less than 15 years. We’ll be just as dependent on AI in less than half that time. And once that dependency sets in, turning back becomes nearly impossible.

AI will be manipulated

Some still think of AI as a neutral calculator. Just give it the data, and it’ll give you the truth. But AI doesn’t run on math alone — it runs on values, and programmers, corporations, and governments set those values.

Google’s Gemini model was caught rewriting history to fit progressive narratives — generating images of black Nazis and erasing white historical figures in an overcorrection for the sake of “diversity.” China’s DeepSeek AI refuses to acknowledge the Tiananmen Square massacre or the Uyghur genocide, parroting Chinese Communist Party talking points by design.

Imagine AI tools with political bias embedded in your child’s tutor, your news aggregator, or your doctor’s medical assistant. Imagine relying on a system that subtly steers you toward certain beliefs — not by banning ideas but by never letting you see them in the first place.

We’ve seen what happened when environmental social governance and diversity, equity, and inclusion transformed how corporations operated — prioritizing subjective political agendas over the demands of consumers. Now, imagine those same ideological filters hardcoded into the very infrastructure that powers our society of the near future. Our society could become dependent on a system designed to coerce each of us without knowing it’s happening.

Our liberty problem

AI is not just a technological challenge. It’s a cultural, economic, and moral one. It’s about who controls what you see, what you’re allowed to say, and how you live your life. If conservatives don’t get serious about AI now — before it becomes genuinely ubiquitous — we may lose the ability to shape the future at all.

This is not about banning AI or halting progress. It’s about ensuring that as this technology transforms the world, it doesn’t quietly erase our freedom along the way. Conservatives cannot afford to sit back and dismiss these technological developments. We need to be active participants in shaping AI’s ethical and political boundaries, ensuring that liberty, transparency, and individual autonomy are protected at every stage of this transformation.

The stakes are clear. The timeline is short. And the time to make our voices heard is right now.

Exclusive: Republicans relish Trump's 100-day winning streak: 'We have momentum building'



President Donald Trump is officially 100 days into his second term, and many of his allies have celebrated the milestone as a roaring success.

Despite criticism from his political and media adversaries, Trump takes pride in his 100-day sprint, and Republican lawmakers are riding the momentum.

'He took the bull by the horns.'

"Well, I think either we've done everything, or it's in the process of being done," Trump told reporters Tuesday.

House Republicans are messaging in lockstep with the administration, sharing the president's enthusiasm in exclusive interviews with Blaze News.

"The first 100 days of President Trump can be summed up in one slogan: promises made and promises kept," Republican Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina told Blaze News. "It’s like a veil has been lifted from this country.”

"I think it’s been the best presidency that I’ve seen in my lifetime," Republican Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri told Blaze News. "We’ve had four years to kind of plan and strategize what he would do when he returns, and we’re seeing the fruits of that."

One frequently referenced victory has been the southern border, which has seen record-low encounters with illegal aliens under the Trump administration. Between the inauguration and April 1, only nine illegal aliens were released back into the country, compared to the 184,000 illegal aliens released under former President Joe Biden during the same time frame last year, according to press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

'President Trump is fulfilling his promises, but the accomplishment to me is the rate he’s doing it.'

“The border security is incredible," Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia told Blaze News. "It’s historic. And we have a lot of thanks that goes to President Trump, as well as Tom Homan."

“To do that in these first 100 days has been absolutely phenomenal," Republican Rep. Mark Harris of North Carolina told Blaze News. “He took the bull by the horns."

The numbers paint a very clear, indisputable picture on immigration. However, other areas like the economy have been swirling with controversy in recent weeks with ongoing trade wars and market uncertainty. Many critics, particularly in the media, have rushed to call the economy a failure. Despite their doom and gloom, the Trump administration and his supporters on the Hill remain confident.

'We have a long way to go, but he’s only been in office 100 days.'

"We were losing billions and billions of dollars a day with trade, and now I have that down to a very low level, and soon we're going to be making a lot of money," Trump told reporters Tuesday.

The consensus among Republicans was that Trump's presidency was not only a success but also impressively efficient.

"President Trump is fulfilling his promises, but the accomplishment to me is the rate he’s doing it," Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois told Blaze News. "He was working on his transition team before he was even elected so he could hit the ground running, and that's what he’s done."

"He came in with the best Cabinet that I think we’ve ever seen," Burlison added. "He came in, and he got them appointed quickly, and he came in with a ton of executive orders."

While Republicans enjoy the successes of the first 100 days, lawmakers are tasked with maintaining the winning streak. The House and Senate are officially back in session after a two-week recess, and reconciliation talks are resuming.

“We have a long way to go, but he’s only been in office 100 days," Norman told Blaze News.

"I’m very excited about it," Miller said. "I think we have momentum building to pass this one big, beautiful bill."

While lawmakers in the House and Senate continue to iron out reconciliation talks, Republicans have maintained that Trump policies, such as no tax on tips, are a non-negotiable.

'Congress is not on page with President Trump, and I think that's a serious problem.'

“No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax on social security," Greene told Blaze News. "These were President Trump’s campaign promises that he said over and over again, promising the American people, and these are the promises that Congress has to deliver.”

Spending cuts have also remained a top priority despite the negative press from the legacy media surrounding Elon Musk and DOGE's efforts.

"It’s not going to be easy, but it’s like the cancer patient who’s taking the medicine that’s bitter," Norman told Blaze News. "I’m sorry, but if it will help you and cure the cancer, then we do it. And the cancer in this country has been overspending, and we’re going to fix it.”

"We’re at $37 trillion in debt," Burlison added. "We have a $2-trillion-a-year annual deficit. If we grow that, I can’t live with myself."

'We’ve gotta make sure we do government differently.'

Although some Republicans say we are on track, others are not confident that Congress will stay on course.

"Congress is not on page with President Trump, and I think that's a serious problem," Greene told Blaze News.

“If Congress does not deliver on these important campaign promises of President Trump, we’re gonna lose the midterms," Greene added. “It would be such a failure of a Republican-controlled Congress not to deliver on the mandate, the historic mandate, that was given in November.”

Although there are some concerns that Congress will return to old spending habits, Trump remains optimistic about reconciliation.

"If we get that done, that's the biggest thing. ... And I think we're going to get it done," Trump told reporters Tuesday. "We have great Republican support."

"We’ve gotta make sure we do government differently," Harris said. “We’ve gotta stay the course that we’ve started.”

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Even If The Polls Are Accurate, I Don’t Care. I Want My Country Back

If we're serious about saving America, we need a leader who's willing to be hated by the pundits, pollsters, and even some short-term-minded Americans to do what's right.

Consumer prices are down — why can’t Democrats admit it?



The latest inflation report is in — and for the first time in nearly five years, the Consumer Price Index has dropped.

According to data released April 10, gas prices led the decline, falling 6.3% from February to March and nearly 10% year over year. That’s real relief for working families.

It’s easy to claim every success as earned and every failure as someone else’s fault. But that’s not leadership — it’s childishness.

But don’t expect Joe Biden to credit Donald Trump. That would mean acknowledging the obvious: These results aren’t from Biden’s policies — they’re from Trump’s.

Psychologists call it the “locus of control.” People with an internal locus believe they shape their own destiny. People with an external one think they’re at the mercy of circumstance.

Most people pick one or the other. But Democrats? They flip depending on who happens to sit in the Oval Office.

When inflation stayed low under Trump, they called it luck. When inflation hit a 40-year high under Biden, they blamed Vladimir Putin. And landlords. And grocery stores. And payment processors. Anyone but Biden.

That spin didn’t pay the bills — especially in minority communities hit hardest by inflation.

Federal Reserve data shows that black and Hispanic households spend a higher share of income on gas, groceries, and rent than white households. In cities like Atlanta, Detroit, and Charlotte, black renters saw double-digit rent hikes between 2021 and 2023.

What did we hear from the White House? Excuses. Deflection. “We’re building back better” — but for whom?

Trump gave us the answer. On day one, he signed executive orders to fast-track energy permits, cut red tape, reopen federal lands for drilling, and establish a new National Energy Council.

The results are clear. Energy prices are dropping. Inflation is cooling. And Americans — at long last — are catching a break.

Biden took the opposite approach. He vowed to “end fossil fuel,” killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, blocked offshore drilling, and even sold oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — to China.

When energy prices surged, he pointed fingers. Biden blamed the war in Ukraine. But by January 2022 — before the invasion — gas prices were already up 40% year over year, and inflation had hit 7.5%.

The “Putin price hike” was a convenient distraction from Biden’s failed energy agenda.

And the scapegoating didn’t stop there.

When inflation hit every corner of the economy, Attorney General Merrick Garland pointed at Visa, accusing debit card fees of fueling the crisis. The fees in question? Fourteen cents on a $60 purchase.

Never mind that businesses willingly pay those standard fees. If they had a real problem with them, they could easily switch to any number of alternative companies or payment methods.

If Garland wanted real answers, he should have looked at Biden’s regulatory agenda. One study estimates those rules will cost the average family $47,000 over a lifetime.

When rents spiked, Biden and the Justice Department pointed fingers at landlords and pricing algorithms. They ignored the real drivers: millions of illegal immigrants increasing demand and federal mandates that jacked up compliance costs for builders. And the algorithms they blame? Those same tools recommend lower prices when inflation and demand cool down.

As grocery bills climbed, Biden blamed “shrinkflation” and greedy grocers and meatpackers. He ignored the real culprits: trillions in wasteful spending from the American Rescue Plan and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

This is the pattern: Jack up costs, then blame someone else. Spin doesn’t fill a gas tank in Jackson or put groceries on the table in Memphis. A press release won’t pay the electric bill in Columbia.

It’s easy to claim every success as earned and every failure as someone else’s fault. But that’s not leadership — it’s childishness. No kindergarten teacher would tolerate it. Voters shouldn’t either.

And they aren’t. Democrats are polling at 29% for a reason.

While the media tracks the stock market, Main Street is what matters. When gas prices jump 60%, hedge fund managers don’t suffer. It’s the single mom in Detroit, the delivery driver in Atlanta, and the grandmother in Baltimore stretching her Social Security check.

This isn’t academic. It’s survival.

Americans are done with excuses. They want results — and President Trump is delivering.

He didn’t just talk tough. He cut gas prices, cooled inflation, and restored energy independence. For communities crushed by elite policy failures, those results aren’t just political. They’re life-changing.

Tariff Critics Have No Answer To Trump’s National Security Arguments About Chinese Manufacturing

The onus is on those whose favored policies have left us imperiled to present a better plan than Trump’s to defend America’s interests.