Everything you've heard about the debt limit is wrong

 

May 10, 2023

James D. Agresti: 'If there is a default, it will only be because the Biden administration breaks the law'

Contrary to widespread claims that the U.S. government will default on its debt if Congress doesn’t raise the debt limit, federal law and the Constitution require the Treasury to pay the debt, and it has ample tax revenues to do this.

Nor would Social Security benefits be affected by a debt limit stalemate unless President Biden illegally diverts Social Security revenues to other programs.

The debt limit is a valuable tool for transparency, accountability, and giving voters an ongoing say in how their money is spent.

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Senators feast on taxpayer-funded earmarks for pricey projects

 

May 9, 2023

Through largely hidden budget earmarks, S.C. senators have proposed a total of more than $314 million for projects next fiscal year mainly in their respective legislative districts – including dozens of $1 million-plus requests, a review by The Nerve found.

The 46-member Senate two years ago changed its rules purportedly to require more disclosure of historically secret taxpayer-funded earmarks, but the chamber hasn’t posted online its latest earmark list, though it passed a $38-billion, fiscal year 2023-24 state budget version on April 19.

The Nerve recently obtained the Senate earmark list under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act. A separate request under the open-records law was made for any House earmarks; House Clerk Charles Reid in a written response said the 124-member chamber has “no document(s) responsive to your request.”

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Trump Can Win

 

May 9, 2023

Odds are that 2024 will look a lot more like 2016 than 2020.

The final RealClearPolitics polling average for the 2016 race showed Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by 3.2 points. As of May 1, 2023, the same polling average shows Trump ahead of Joe Biden by 1 point.

Of course, Trump can’t win. Any Republican would do better. Every pundit says so. And when have they ever been wrong?

Trump didn’t enter the 2016 race until June 2015, so a direct comparison between his current polling numbers and those of the last cycle isn’t possible. But those who remember the 2016 race will remember that for most of the cycle, Trump trailed Clinton by rather more than the 3.2 points—as shown in the final RCP average. And of course, Trump won. The press underestimated his appeal.

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‘Bear The Brunt’: Dems Rip Biden’s Plan To Handle Migrant Surge After Trump-Era Border Policy’s End

 

May 9, 2023

Several Democrats are lashing out against the Biden administration for not preparing sufficiently for a migrant surge expected when the Trump-era border order Title 42 ends May 11.

Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego criticized the Biden administration for not doing enough to prepare for the migration wave when Title 42 ends. The Biden administration has put forward a plan it hopes will address the surge that consists of erecting migrant processing facilities in Latin America and increasing legal pathways to entry.

Hobbs said Friday that her state is prepping for the expected migrant influx “largely without support from the federal government,” according to The Washington Post.

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American Maoism

 

May 9, 2023

Rage meets self-pity as the permanently offended root out false thought.

Those of us who care about the survival of ordered liberty are daily faced with a conundrum: Do we painstakingly chronicle the constant assaults on the life of the mind and civilized norms and risk the charge of being one-note Johnnies? Or do we turn to other, more noble concerns and preoccupations, doing the right and the good? The latter path might seem more high-minded, rooted in a refusal to have our intellectual and political agendas determined by the rage of others. Why should our concerns be determined by the transparently false agendas of those who tear down and repudiate, and who offer nothing constructive in place of our civic and civilized inheritance? Let them pursue the thankless path of total critique, while we teach, build, construct, and sustain a civilized order worthy of human beings.

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Equal Justice Under the Law?

 

May 9, 2023

When it comes to riots, that may depend on which side you're on.

Many J6 protestors have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms without evidence that they engaged in violence. The “QAnon shaman” Jacob Chansley, for example, was sentenced to four years imprisonment for obstructing an official proceeding, though it was subsequently reported that he had been escorted to the Senate floor by Capitol police. Another protestor, Kevin Seefried, got three years for marching into the Capitol carrying a Confederate flag (less than the seven-year sentence prosecutors had requested).

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Border Patrol clears way for more migrant releases to city streets, sources say: 'The dam is about to break'

 

May 9, 2023

Tens of thousands of migrants are expected to surge into the United States as Title 42 expires on May 11

The Biden administration's top border officials in Washington, D.C., have decided to authorize all Border Patrol sectors to begin "safe" mass releases of migrants to city streets if non-governmental organizations don't have the capacity to hold them, multiple sources tell Fox News.

The consequence of this decision is that migrants will be mass released at bus stops, gas stations, supermarkets and in towns and cities across the border as Customs and Border Protection facilities are already over capacity in multiple sectors, according to CBP sources who were not authorized to speak publicly. 

NGOs are quickly approaching their limits to house migrants and tens of thousands more migrants are expected to surge into the United States once the Title 42 public health order is lifted on May 11. The city of El Paso, Texas has already seen thousands of migrants camped out on the sidewalks.

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Catholic hospitals' attorney reacts to win against Biden admin's 'shocking' threats to force closures

 

May 9, 2023

'I've been doing religious liberty work for a long time and I was shocked,' the attorney for St. Francis' hospital system said

The Catholic hospital system the Biden administration had nearly forced to lose its accreditation over an eternal flame in its chapels is relieved that, after it threatened litigation, the federal government backed off, its counsel told Fox News Digital Monday.

The federal government had attempted to force the St. Francis Catholic hospital system Oklahoma to choose between losing its accreditation for Medicaid and Medicare or removing eternal flames from its chapels, which is central to their faith. The hospital system refused, citing their First Amendment rights and religious beliefs. 

"St. Francis is relieved they've always served God and serve their community. Those two things go hand in hand, and they're happy to continue doing it," said Lori Windham, the Vice President and Senior Counsel The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

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Americans Lack Confidence in Major Economic Leaders

 

May 9, 2023

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With the U.S. facing a deadline to increase the nation’s debt limit and the threat of an economic recession looming, Americans lack confidence in a variety of key U.S. leaders on economic matters. Gallup finds between 34% and 38% of U.S. adults expressing a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in President Joe Biden, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and congressional leaders in both major parties to do or recommend the right thing for the economy.

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Robert Kennedy’s Movement

 

May 9, 2023

A broad new coalition won’t let COVID crimes be forgotten.

Up until a week ago, the 2024 presidential election campaign was by and large an uninteresting slog. The arrest of President Trump had shown some promise of injecting life into the race, but just a few short weeks later it is all but forgotten. Events that used to carry great significance which would be etched into the public memory for decades—like the investigation, prosecution, or impeachment of a president—have now been reduced to farcical shadow-play, gone in a moment. To generate lasting outrage or even attention, a story needs some element of surprise or departure from normalcy. But the new norm in politics is to destroy all norms. And since mainstream press catastrophizing has been dialed up to 11 since at least 2016, it rings hollower with every passing cycle. To anyone who has been paying attention, not even the most breathless histrionics on the part of professional observers makes a mark.

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Dems Pull Out All the Stops Ahead of Debt Limit Talk

 

May 9, 2023

Pass a clean debt limit increase, no strings attached. We will not negotiate! That was the line parroted by the president and Democrat lawmakers alike as time ticked away toward the disastrous default they say is coming sometime in early June. But then House Republicans passed a debt limit bill of their own – one with considerable budget cuts and a limit to spending hikes in the future – and the Democrats started singing a slightly different tune.

Nonnegotiating Negotiating?

After months of refusing to discuss the borrowing cap at all short of simply repeating his “clean bill” demand, President Joe Biden on Monday, May 1, called Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) with an invitation to meet up and talk on Tuesday, May 9. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre clarified the next day that the talk was not a sign that Biden would negotiate on the debt limit, and that it was the duty of Congress to raise the cap in order to pay the nation’s debts.

But if there’s nothing to discuss, why ask McCarthy for a meeting?

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Government-Funded Censors Violated Congress’s Mandate To Target Only Foreign ‘Disinformation’

 

May 9, 2023

‘None of the funds … shall be used for purposes other than countering foreign propaganda and misinformation,’ Congress mandated. But the State Department didn’t care

The State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) served as one cornerstone of the Censorship-Industrial Complex, colluding with nongovernmental organizations and tech giants to silence disfavored speech during the 2020 election cycle. An investigation by The Federalist now indicates GEC violated its congressional mandate by financing activities and organizations that targeted the speech of Americans.

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Worries linger about financial stability following bank rescue, Fed report shows

 

May 9, 2023

• The Federal Reserve issued its periodic report on the nation’s financial and economic health, a survey showing the biggest fears about current conditions.
• Respondents cited “persistent inflation and tighter monetary policy, banking-sector stress, commercial and residential real estate and geopolitical tensions.”
• Several sectors were identified as having elevated potential for trouble. They include money market funds, stablecoins and hedge funds, particularly larger firms.
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Federal government under Biden runs $928,000,000,000 deficit in just 7 months

 

May 9, 2023

That is from September 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023. That's $132.57 Billion per month.  With five months left in the fiscal year, which will add approximately another $662.85 billion to the National Debt. A total debt for this fiscal year of $1.591 Trillion. Who needs a debt ceiling?

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed the federal government under President Biden has run a near-$1 trillion federal deficit in the "first seven months of fiscal year 2023."

CBO’s report dropped on Monday, giving lawmakers insight into the current state of the federal deficit.

The nonpartisan agency found that in the first seven months of FY2023 alone, the federal government has racked up $928,000,000,000.

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Biden Admin Pushed Out $182 Billion Worth Of Regulations In A Single Week

 

May 8, 2023

The Biden administration last week proposed or finalized regulations totaling $182 billion in compliance costs while adding 1.8 million yearly paperwork hours, according to a report by the American Action Forum (AAF).

The most expensive rule for consumers was the Environmental Protection Agency ‘s (EPA) strict new tailpipe emissions limits for passenger cars, which would cost businesses roughly $180 billion in “vehicle technology costs” through 2055, the AAF calculated, citing the government’s own publicly available cost-benefit analyses of each regulation. The proposed regulation — which the EPA hopes will push two-thirds of all passenger car sales after 2032 to be all-electric — was initially announced in April alongside comparable regulation for heavy-duty vehicles and was formally proposed on May 5.

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Overcommitment to NATO turns Uncle Sam into Uncle Sucker in Europe

 May 8, 2023

America has long been the biggest military spender of any of its allies, but other nations aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. It’s time to rethink NATO burden sharing, says Justin Logan of the Cato Institute, a Washington D.C. think tank that studies many public policy issues, including a more restrained foreign policy that keeps the U.S. strong for future generations.  

As of last year, the U.S. can include 50 of the world’s countries as formal allies, plus dozens of other informal partnerships. The U.S. shoulders a vastly disproportionate amount of the economic burden: While U.S. allies account for about 36% of world economic output, they contribute just 24% of global military spending. 

This imbalance allows allies to spend money on domestic priorities while U.S. taxpayers pick up the tab for their national security. Every U.S. president since Eisenhower has called this out, but the solution is far from simple. It likely involves reevaluating our alliances, pulling back from firm commitments, and following a three-pronged approach to spurring allies to take on more economic responsibility involving institutions, military deployments, and diplomatic signals. 

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See-no-evil on border insecurity will get us killed

 

May 8, 2023

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared last week: “The border is not open. It has not been open, and it will not be open subsequent to May 11th.” His statement calls to mind the famous Marx Brothers line, “Who gonna believe, me or your own eyes?” 

Better go with what you are seeing. Joe Biden has let in some five million illegal aliens and countless more expect to join them when pandemic-related restrictions end on the 11th. 

Look closer and you’ll see among them large numbers of unaccompanied, military age men. War correspondent Michael Yon reports that many are Chinese nationals equipped with identical “kits.”

That sure appears to be a covert invasion by elements of the People’s Liberation Army on the eve of a shooting war with Communist China. Team Biden’s facilitating – and lying about – it amounts to treason.

This is Frank Gaffney.

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Abbott: We don’t need 1,500 soldiers at the border, we need 15,000 or 150,000

 

May 8, 2023

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) slammed the Biden administration’s move to send 1,500 troops to the southern border, arguing the president was sending the soldiers to “do paperwork” and not “secure the border.”

“President Biden is sending 1,500, quote, soldiers to do paperwork, and he’s not going to secure the border,” Abbott said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

The national focus on the southern border has increased as the federal government’s Title 42 policy, a federal rule that has allowed the government to strictly regulate border entries, gets set to expire this month.

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Dem, GOP House Intel leaders: Israel, Jordan, Egypt want 'stronger' US role in region as China makes inroads

 

May 7, 2023

China recently brokered a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia

House Intelligence Committee Republican Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and ranking Democrat Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., revealed that Israel, Jordan and Egypt are pushing for a greater U.S. presence in the Middle East amid growing concerns of a nuclear Iran and an increased Chinese footprint. 

"[Israel, Jordan and Eqypt] were all very much encouraging the United States on a policy basis to have a stronger role, thinking that there are real opportunities to increase the security situation here, but at the same time, painting a picture that there are serious threats in the area and the United States should be playing a role," Turner said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday. 

Turner and Himes both recently met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shortly after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's visit to Israel in May. Himes said Netanyahu is "very focused on Iran," saying "it was intolerable for him to imagine an Iran with a nuclear weapon."

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What are you searching for? ‘Resign Or Be Impeached’: House Republicans Are Taking Action To Hold The 51 Intel Officials Accountable For Russia Disinformation Letter

 

May7, 2023

It has been established that the 51 former national security officials who signed the infamous October 2020 letter decrying the Hunter Biden laptop expose as Russian disinformation was done in the words of the drafter of that document to help Biden “win the election.” The fact that the letter‘s statement that the contents of the expose “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” was proven to be egregiously wrong and the security officials who signed it have not expressed regrets about the letter. Now several Republicans are looking to impose penalties on the organizers of the letter and its signatories, according to Just the News.

The penalties that are being discussed range from revoking security clearances and federal contracts with those associated with the letter to impeachment. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Just the News in an interview that “Exposing the truth is certainly the first step in accountability, pretty powerful accountability. But the House can impeach those individuals who are currently serving in government. And a number of those individuals … are now serving in the Biden administration. They also ought to either resign or be impeached.”

The Wisconsin Republican added that “And then we should do everything we can to revoke security clearances of every one of those individuals that sign that letter. All of them should be barred from either current or future employment with the federal government.”

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