Tag Archives: The Daily Signal

President Trump And The Deep State

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On Tuesday, The Daily Signal posted an article detailing four steps President Trump has taken since he took office in 2025 to dismantle the deep state.

The article reports:

1. Reinstating ‘Schedule F’

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to reinstate Schedule F, which makes it easier for the president to fire bureaucrats. 

2. DOGE

The Department of Government Efficiency reportedly reduced federal employment by about 271,000 jobs. 

3. Shutdown Cuts

During the recent government shutdown, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought cut $8 billion of blue state energy projects. 

4. Investigating ‘Deep State’ Abuses

In July, a CIA report found that John Brennan, the agency’s director in the Obama administration, overrode internal concerns to claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

The deep state is still with us. Congress has codified very little of what President Trump has done, making it very easy to undo. The 2026 midterm elections are so critical because if the Democrats win either branch of Congress, all of the economic progress we made in the last year will end. Instead we will have non-stop impeachment hearings and a return to the tax and spend agenda that has nearly bankrupted our country. The easiest way to prevent the Democrats from taking over Congress is to insure an honest election. A bill to do that is currently in Congress.

Meanwhile, where are the orange jumpsuits that should be the result of all of the investigations we are hearing about?

This Is How The System Works

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As the fraud in Minnesota unfolds, one of the questions I have is who wrote the grants, who signed the grants, and who approved the grants. Well, I think we now have a clue as to how all of this was allowed to happen.

On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:

A new report in Minnesota highlights how a former bureaucrat involved in granting a church millions of dollars later went to work as a consultant for the church.

The audit also says that the church failed to provide necessary reporting for hundreds of thousands of dollars of state funding.

Both the church and the former bureaucrat deny any wrongdoing, and gave their side of the story to The Daily Signal.

According to the report, issued by the Office of the Legislative Auditor last week, a grantee—later identified as Zion Baptist Church in North Minneapolis—”could not provide us detailed invoices or program participant data to support a payment of $672,647.78″ from the Department of Human Services’ Bureau of Health Administration “for a single month of work.”

Zion Baptist Church contracted with 14 subcontractors, two of which the legislative auditor visited. The church reportedly paid $40,000 to each of the subcontractors, without specifying rates per service unit.

Those subcontractors failed to show who they served with the money they received. One of them said “the grantee told them they did not need to keep detailed participant records.”

Finally, the grant manager “who approved the $672,647.78 payment left DHS a few days after approving it and later started to provide consulting services to the grantee,” the report stated.

The article notes:

Department of Human Services staff raised serious concerns about subcontractors during the grant period, but supervisors directed them “not to pursue further questioning,” and approved a grant extension.

The whistleblower said key questions remain, such as the justification for avoiding a competitive process for the grant, whether DHS performed due diligence on the subcontractors, whether subcontractors were for-profit entities, and why staff concerns were not pursued.

The whistleblower also listed four grants that Zion Baptist Church received, two of which were sole source (without competition) and together totaled more than $3 million.

“Is Zion some great place?” the whistleblower asked, noting the multi-million-dollar sole-source grants. One one contract of more than $1.4 million, the church “did just a bad job performance” and the state “cancelled it early.”

This smells more than a little fishy to me!

Trying To Get Back To Where We Started

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Up until 2008, there was a definite process for funding our government. It involved separate spending bills for each department. Up until that time, there were still government shutdowns, but they were rare. The current House of Representatives is trying to bring us back to the regular order of passing budgets.

On Saturday, The Daily Signal reported:

The House of Representatives took a major step toward averting another government shutdown when it passed a funding package Thursday. 

But perhaps more importantly, House Freedom Caucus members influenced the process around the bill’s consideration in ways they say could help government spending in the future.

The House’s “minibus” package covers three of the 12 funding areas for the federal government: Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, and Commerce-Justice-Science. Appropriators have attempted to reconcile both chambers’ priorities, and the package will be considered in the Senate next week.

The article concludes:

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told The Daily Signal after the vote on Thursday that he views the outcome as a victory for his caucus, which has long called for separate votes on individual appropriations bills.

“We’ve already done away with what we call the ‘Christmas omnibus’ [where] you pile all 12 bills together, you work them out in a smoke-filled room, nobody has any chance to say anything about them,” Harris said.

“What we did today for the first time ever is say, ‘oh, and by the way, we’re going to have a separate vote on some of the bills,’” he added.

Harris also praised the stripping of the “very offensive million-dollar earmark to a Somali led organization where the brother of the organizer was arrested as a terrorist.”

In Harris’ view, the process this process should be replicated in the future.

“The framework we’ve laid out, especially this past week, allows us to… return to… what we call regular order: Each bill considered separately, amendments allowed on the floor—you know, the way it was when I first came here, and the way we should return to.”

The legislation could still face headwinds in the Senate, though, where Paul is complaining of “billions in refugee money” in the bills.

There is too much pork in the bills. However, until we elect people who actually have a sense of fiscal responsibility, we have to consider what will actually pass Congress.

Positive Changes In Healthcare Costs

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about solving the rapidly rising cost of healthcare in America.

The article reports:

Americans grappling with affordability just got a helpful boost from the Trump administration, which on Friday announced a new push to reduce health care costs. 

The move helps patients get health care prices upfront rather than astronomically high surprise bills later.

The new Transparency in Coverage (TiC) proposed rule will improve data structure, reduce unnecessary file size and increase usability. This will make transparency easier to analyze and more accessible to employers, researchers and innovators working to lower health care costs. 

By receiving prices upfront in a clear, easy-to-use format, Americans can shop around for the best provider at the lowest cost—driving more competition and empowering patients. Friday’s move was announced jointly by the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Labor, and Treasury Department.

President Donald Trump already fought hard in his first term to improve health care price transparency, and Friday’s announcement continues that momentum which continued in Trump’s February executive order.

In December 2020, Trump also signed the No Surprises Act, meant to provide patients detailed upfront price information about their care. But the Biden administration delayed implementing these policies, and the American people never saw the full benefit of price transparency.

Additionally, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 requires insurance companies and brokers to reveal all historical claims data and broker fees while also removing gag clauses. Hospitals must not surprise patients with bills after insurance companies refuse to pay more.

The article includes the following graph:

The article notes:

There’s a simple reason health care prices skyrocket above overall inflation: no free and fair competition. Costs for hospital services in particular have seen the highest rates of inflation among major U.S. consumer goods and services, per economist Mark J. Perry.  

Notice that college tuition has also gone up faster than inflation. I think that if we could get the government out of healthcare and out of student loans, the price of healthcare and of college would go down.

Let’s Make The Chaplain Corps Great Again!

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On Wednesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about changes Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is planning to make to the Chaplain Corps of America’s military.

The article reports:

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has pledged to toss “New Age notions” in America’s Chaplain Corps and make the military body “great again.”  

“In recent decades, its role has been degraded in an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism,” Hegseth said of the Chaplain Corps in video message released Tuesday night.  

“Chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” Hegseth said, adding “faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care.”  

…The Chaplain Corps was established in 1775 at the request of George Washington, who at the time was serving as general of the Continental Army. Washington established the corps to meet the spiritual needs of the men.  

“For about 200 years, the chaplain corps continued its role as the spiritual leader of our service members, serving our men and women in times of hardship and ministering to their souls, but sadly, as part of the ongoing war on warriors, in recent decades, its role has been degraded,” Hegseth said.  

The article mentions the current ‘spiritual guide’ (U.S. Army Spiritual Fitness Guide):

The 112-page document mentions “God” only once, does not mention “Jesus” or “virtue,” but does mention “feelings” 11 times and “spiritual” over 350 times.  

“The guide relies on New Age notions, saying that the soldier’s spirit consists of consciousness, creativity and connection,” Hegseth said.  

“The guide itself reports that around 82% of the military are religious, yet ironically, it alienates our war fighters of faith by pushing secular humanism. In short, it’s unacceptable and unserious, so we’re tossing it,” he continued.  

Hegseth has signed a directive to eliminate the use of the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide. The secretary also announced that military is simplifying the U.S. Military’s Faith and Belief Coding System, which is used to track religions and spiritual preferences within the military.  

The system currently has over 200 faith and belief codes, according to Hegseth, who added that the majority of the military uses only six of the codes, and 11 are not used at all.  

The article concludes:

“We are going to make the Chaplain Corps great again,” Hegseth pledged, adding, “Merry Christmas.”

According to artificial intelligence:

  • Approximately 70% of Americans identify as Christians.
  • About 1.9% of the U.S. population identifies as Jewish.

Our Chaplain Corps should reflect those numbers in its faith and belief codes.

Undermining The Tax Cuts President Trump Put In Place

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The Big Beautiful Bill provided tax relief for certain groups of people. A major portion of Social Security will not be taxed, tips will not be taxed and overtime pay will not be taxed. Those are targeted tax breaks given to the people who work hard (or have worked hard) and were hit hard by President Biden’s economic policies. Unfortunately, there are those in some states who really don’t care about helping those of us who work for a living.

On Monday, The Daily Signal reported:

The Trump/GOP “One Big, Beautiful Tax Cut” includes no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and a new tax-deduction for Social Security benefits. These promises helped Trump secure the White House and Republicans the U.S. House and Senate.

The GOP’s huge win in November 2024 gave Republicans a solid mandate to keep these promises. And they did.

Nonetheless, the Democrat-mismanaged states of Colorado, Illinois, Maine, and New York are rigging their tax codes so that this Trump/GOP tax relief does not reduce corresponding state levies. The same holds for Democrat-smothered Washington, D.C., which will keep higher taxes on 13 of the GOP’s 84 federal tax-cut provisions.

Colorado’s House Bill 25-1296, decoupled its state taxes from these federal tax reductions. So, next April 15, factory workers will have to render unto Democrat Gov. Jared Polis the overtime pay break that Trump and Republicans let them enjoy.

Among other things, this requires taxpayers to keep two separate records of taxable income. What a mess.

The article notes:

So, at last, Republicans deliver concrete relief to the “affordability crisis” that has become the Democrats’ latest obsession. The Trump/GOP tax cuts will help Americans pay their bills, buy groceries, fill their gas tanks, and maybe even get out of town, to pursue happiness. What could be more wonderful?

Rather than celebrate with everyday people, Democrats decrease taxpayers’ additional income and diminish their economic security. For Democrats, making Americans poorer is a bargain compared to the bonanza of denying Trump and Republicans any credit for feeling and easing the people’s pain.

Anyone who votes Democrat at this point is simply not paying attention!

The Fallout From Ending Some Of The Government Corruption

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One of the biggest money-laundering operations in America was known as USAID (United States Agency for International Development). In March, the State Department announced that it was effectively dissolving USAID. Many family members of our legislators were employed by the agency in various levels, so they had to find new jobs, but there were other ramifications. 

On Sunday, The Daily Signal posted an article about one result of the end of USAID.

The article reports:

Arabella Advisors, a for-profit company that managed services for many influential dark money nonprofits on the Left, is no more—or so it seems.

Sunflower Services, a new public benefit corporation, announced on Monday that it would be acquiring “Arabella Advisors’ fiscal sponsorship servicing business.” Meanwhile, Arabella’s former CEO, Himesh Bhise, announced that he would lead a supposedly new company, Vital Impact.

A Nov. 19 email to Arabella Advisors received an automated response stating, “As of November 17, 2025 Arabella Advisors has ceased operations.”

What, exactly, is Sunflower Services? Well, it’s a completely new company financed by… lead investor New Venture Fund, with financial support from the Windward and Hopewell Funds.

These names should be familiar to longtime observers of Arabella Advisors. New Venture Fund, Windward Fund, and Hopewell Fund are three of the “seven sisters” dark money nonprofits that received services from Arabella. These are the nonprofits organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

These groups acted as “fiscal sponsors,” housing various quasi-independent projects that did not register as separate entities. Critics say this system allows donors to fund activist projects through the nonprofits—cloaking what their dollars are actually paying for. These groups funded many of the left-wing activist groups that fed staff and ideas into the Biden administration, particularly pushing climate alarmism. The Open Society Foundations, founded by Hungarian American billionaire George Soros and now run by his son, Alex, has contributed millions to the nonprofits who were Arabella’s clients.

The other nonprofits—Sixteen Thirty Fund, North Fund, and Impetus Fund—more politically active groups organized under Section 501(c)(4), were notably absent from the Sunflower Services press release.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is complex, but it provides insight as to how taxpayer money has been used in recent years to undermine America and the principles upon which it was founded.

Where The Money Is Going

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According to the National Debt Clock, the current national debt is about $38 trillion dollars (that’s a lot of zeroes). In addition to cutting spending, it might also be a good idea to see how we got here.

On Sunday, The Daily Signal reported the following:

Oregon state Rep. Dwayne Yunker began asking questions when he discovered the state was using tax dollars to bring developmentally disabled clients to a strip club this past summer. 

Yunker—a Republican lawmaker in a very blue state with a Democrat super majority in the legislature—has exposed this and other controversial Medicaid spending in the state that has little or nothing to do with medical or health issues. 

On Monday, he will be in Washington meeting with members of Congress and Trump administration officials about looking into how his state—and likely others—are spending Medicaid dollars. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program intended to cover health care coverage for the poor or disabled. 

The Oregon Department of Human Services informed the lawmaker in mid-August that denying the strip club outing could jeopardize federal Medicaid funding, Yunker told The Daily Signal. 

Specifically, the state agency referred to a federal law that requires state Medicaid programs to help disabled people integrate into the community. 

“The adult day care [program] has taken developmentally disabled clients to strip clubs and bars,” Yunker said. “They say they are integrating them with the community. But we are not talking about taking them to a park or the museum.”

Yunker supports the Trump administration’s reforms to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that include work requirements to receive benefits. 

The article concludes:

The part of the funding paying for illegal immigrants comes from state Medicaid dollars, not federal Medicaid dollars. The state also notes online that Medicaid dollars can go for temporary rental assistance as well as nutrition assistance.  

In August, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, denounced Republicans’ federal Medicaid reforms, saying they will make Americans and Oregonians “sicker, hungrier, and less prosperous.” 

“I am going to work with Oregon lawmakers and community partners to do all that we can to stand up for Oregonians and get through this needless, callous hardship,” Kotek said.

In his letter to Oz, Yunker wrote, “The real hardship is what my constituents endure under Oregon’s broken Medicaid program.”

“We’ve barely scratched the surface of the broken Medicaid system,” he said.

Using taxpayer dollars to take people to strip clubs is not helping anyone (except the strip club owners).

Elections Matter

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The City of New Bern (where I live) is currently having a run-off election for Mayor and one of our Aldermen. I am familiar with all of the candidates after having attended a number of candidate debates. The results of this election will be significant for the city. One of the mayoral candidates is boosted on the Craven County Democrat Party page as being in support of No Kings Day. The other candidate has successfully run the city since 2022. An example of the difference leadership can make can be found in the contrast between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Maryland.

On October 20, The Daily Signal reported:

Thanks to smart fiscal management, the Republican administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears just mailed numerous Virginia households checks ranging from up to $200 and $400. 

This pleasant surprise for many of us heading into the holiday shopping season is indicative of the competent, prudent leadership that will fall by the wayside if Virginians fail to continue Richmond’s fiscally conservative leadership. 

Youngkin announced these checks—tax rebates—late last month for eligible taxpayers—up to $200 if they filed individually, and up to $400 if they filed jointly. Because of Virginia’s record job growth and capital investments under Youngkin totaling $140 billion, Virginia enjoyed surpluses for four straight years.

The article concludes:

Virginia and its neighboring state Maryland provide the perfect natural experiment in what would happen if conservatives lose the Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion. Maryland’s Democrat governor, Wes Moore, squandered outgoing Republican Larry Hogan’s budget surplus.

“For eight straight years, we balanced the budget without raising taxes—in fact, we cut taxes, tolls, and fees every single year, totaling $4.7 billion in relief,” Hogan wrote in a statement in August. “When we left office, Maryland was in the strongest financial position in state history, with a record $5.5 billion surplus.”

In an about face, this year, Moore raised taxes on the backs of Maryland taxpayers instead of sending out checks.

Virginia’s choice couldn’t be more clear: prudent, abundant economic growth with conservative leadership or fiscally reckless, resource squandering, tax-raising progressive failures. My fellow Virginians: Choose wisely.

Elections have consequences.

Common Sense Invades The Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI)

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On October 3rd, The Daily Signal reported that the FBI has severed all ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC kept a hate map of groups it considered hate groups. Oddly enough, a lot of the groups on that map were simply family-oriented or conservative political groups. One of those groups, a Christian nonprofit called the Family Research Council was attacked by a gunman in its headquarters in August 15, 2012, after he saw the group on the SPLC’s hate map. The FRC was placed on the hate map because it did not support the homosexual agenda. The attack was thwarted by FRC building manager Leo Johnson, who was shot in the arm, but survived.

The article at The Daily Signal reports:

The FBI has confirmed that it severed all ties to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left activist group that puts conservatives and Christians on a “hate map” along with Ku Klux Klan chapters. The “hate map” has inspired at least one terrorist attack against a conservative organization.

“The Southern Poverty Law Center long ago abandoned civil rights work and turned into a partisan smear machine,” FBI Director Kash Patel told The Daily Signal in a statement Friday. “Their so-called hate map has been used to defame mainstream Americans and even inspired violence.”

“That disgraceful record makes them unfit for any FBI partnership,” Patel added.

The article notes:

The man who opened fire at a Republican practice session for the Congressional Baseball Game in 2017, nearly killing then-House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, had “liked” the SPLC on Facebook. The SPLC condemned that attack, as well.

The SPLC added Turning Point USA to the “hate map” mere months before an assassin with a transgender boyfriend allegedly murdered Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

The SPLC condemned the attack, but has not removed Turning Point USA from the “hate map.”

A bureau official told The Daily Signal that the FBI was aware that the “hate map” included Turning Point USA before the shooting.

The article concludes:

Big Tech companies like Amazon have used the “hate map” to screen recipients for its former AmazonSmile program, where customers could designate a portion of their purchases go to support certain charities and other nonprofits. Companies like Eventbrite, PayPal, and Hyatt Hotels have relied on the SPLC’s “hate” accusations to decide who they will allow to use their platforms and facilities. Donor networks worth billions have pledged to keep charitable funds from going to SPLC-labeled “hate groups.”

The SPLC enjoys this impact despite multiple scandals. The center fired its co-founder and saw its president resign in a 2019 racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal. Amid that scandal, SPLC staff created a union that is part of a union organization that represents the radical anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace. And amid a round of layoffs last year, the SPLC Union accused the center of engaging in “union-busting.”

Despite its penurious name, the SPLC has an endowment of more than $700 million, compensates its leaders handsomely, and possesses more than $30 million in offshore accounts, according to IRS filings.

Finally, the SPLC has troubling ties to Antifa, the loosely-organized movement of far-left agitators that President Donald Trump recently declared a domestic terrorist group.

It is good news that the government will no longer work with the SPLC to target innocent Americans and groups of Americans.

How You Vote For Governor In Virginia Will Have Major Impact On Your Energy Bill

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On September 20, The Daily Signal posted an article about the upcoming election for governor in Virginia.

The article reports:

Virginia governor candidate Abigail Spanberger proved yet again she wants to make Virginians poor and financially struggling—endorsing a terrible state law that is projected to increase energy costs by $3,500 per customer. 

Spanberger embraced the poorly-named “Virginia Clean Economy Act,” signed into law in 2020 under former Gov. Ralph Northam, which will ban oil and gas production in Virginia, mandating that both of our state’s two utilities produce 100% renewable electricity by 2050.

This law is already having ruinous effects: Energy prices are higher, and Virginia now imports 40% of its electricity from out-of-state, up from 18% in 2020. The Act mandates Virginia transition from reliable power sources to expensive, unproven, unreliable “green energy” that has been demonstrated to be notoriously incapable of meeting the needed capacity for storage and distribution. 

Yet no energy transition is happening in the Commonwealth of Virginia, despite the Virginia Clean Economy Act being law. As of June 2025, 87% of Virginia’s net-electricity generation is primarily derived from natural gas, nuclear, and coal. Renewables—including solar and biomass—only accounted for 14.3%.

The article concludes:

California and Germany are two energy case studies of what Spanberger wants to do to Virginia. Despite massive government spending and strict “Green Energy” mandates, this state and country are failing to meet their climate change goals, all while expansively hiking up energy prices. This is an energy scarcity mindset that has no place in Virginia. 

This especially hits poor and middle-class families, who spend a much bigger proportion of their family budget on energy. California and Germany’s energy failure examples should be learned from—not duplicated and expanded.While in Congress, Spanberger voted lockstep with then-President Joe Biden for trillions in inflationary spending—including massive “Green Energy” boondoggles—that caused painful, generational inflation. She even bragged about voting for the deceptively-named “Inflation Reduction Act” in a January 2023 Fox News editorial. During the Biden-Harris administration, electricity prices soared 30%—largely due to the IRA passing. That’s not something to brag about.

Virginia doesn’t need to import Bidenomics to our beautiful Commonwealth.

On November 4th, Virginia voters will decide whether or not they want to see their energy bills increase to an average of $1,770 with economists estimating costs peaking at $3,500 per customer by 2045.

Evil, But Not Surprising

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On Sunday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the sponsorship of unaccompanied children coming across America’s southern border.

The article reports:

Aaron Stevenson began to notice a disturbing trend early on in the Biden administration. As an intelligence analyst for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, it was his job to identify bad guys as well as emerging and novel threats to the U.S.  

In February 2021, a profile of an alien from Honduras with ties to the 18th Street Gang come across Stevenson’s desk. The profile of the man included language noting that he had applied to be an “unaccompanied child sponsor.” At the time, Stevenson told The Daily Signal he had no idea what that was.  

A month later, he saw the same language on another file, this time for a woman from El Salvador with ties to MS-13. And in April, he again saw reference to an “unaccompanied child sponsor” on a profile for a Romanian man with ties to a Balkan crime group. 

…In April 2021, Stevenson began calling the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find out if anyone was tracking human-trafficking threats within the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. 

“No” was essentially the answer Stevenson received. There was no formal tracking of child-trafficking threats within the U.S. program designed to place a child who crossed the border unaccompanied in the care of sponsor in the U.S., according to the analyst.  

…The analyst did an interview with Project Veritas in 2021, explaining what he was seeing and expressing the concerns he had over sponsor vetting. Deborah White, an employee of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, the office responsible for placing unaccompanied migrant children in the care of a sponsor, saw the interview, and it confirmed the trafficking patterns she was already seeing.

“In June 2021, I discovered the first case of trafficking and, along with my counterpart, Tara Rodas, reported it, but children continued to be sent to dangerous locations with improperly vetted sponsors,” White told lawmakers during a Senate Roundtable in July 2024 after she also blew the whistle on what she was seeing related to the program.  

“One case in Florida had over 12 children linked to one sponsor at multiple addresses,” according to White. “Children were sent to addresses that were abandoned houses or nonexistent in some cases.”  

The article concludes:

Among the 448,000 minors to enter the U.S. in recent years, ICE failed to issue more than 233,000 notices to appear in immigration court and more than 43,000 migrant children who were given a notice to appear in immigration court failed to do so, Joseph Cuffari, DHS inspector general, told members of Congress in July.  

“The Biden administration lost 450,000 unaccompanied children who were placed with unvetted sponsors or released into the country,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant DHS secretary, told The Daily Signal.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, the administration has located 13,000 missing migrant children.  

Under the leadership of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, McLaughlin says the department is “leading efforts to conduct welfare checks on these children to ensure that they are safe and not being exploited.”

These children need to be found as soon as possible and either reunited with their families or put in the hands of someone who will properly care for them.

An Interesting Social Change

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On Monday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the declining number of teenagers who have summer jobs.

The article reports:

As an older millennial, my high school and college summers were defined largely by the jobs I held. Not many of today’s teens can say the same.

Once a rite of passage, teen jobs are now endangered. Just 35% of 16- to 19-year-olds worked last summer, down from 54% in 2000.

It’s a big deal.

My only purpose in working as a teen was to earn as much money as possible. But I now realize the experience and life lessons those jobs provided were far more valuable.

Low-wage, entry-level jobs provide the perfect opportunity for young people to learn the importance of key skills: showing up on time, getting along with co-workers, demonstrating respect and kindness toward customers who may lack both, and staying on task even when it is difficult or boring.

Learning these skills early has long-run benefits. Multiple studies link part-time work during high school to higher future wages and occupational status, and more consistent employment.

The article notes an interesting statistic:

For example, Christopher Ruhm and Charles Baum, writing in the Southern Economic Journal, found that teens who held part-time jobs realized 7% higher future earnings than their peers who did not work. And researchers Jeremy Staff and Jeylan Mortimer found that teen employment is “a key formative experience, which establishes patterns of schooling and working that persist during the succeeding years.”

I remember the summer job I held in high school–I worked in the Ladies’ Sportswear Department of a New York discount store. The experience convinced me that I never wanted to work in retail. However, I learned to be on time. I learned that not all people are reasonable. I also learned that not everyone is honest. Those were important skills to learn.

The article states:

The recent plunge in teen employment occurred during the Great Recession, which coincided with dozens of state minimum wage hikes and a federal minimum wage increase. The teen unemployment rate hit a record 27.2% in 2009 and 2010 and remained above 20% for six straight years from 2008 to 2014. That lack of opportunities naturally led many teens to give up the notion of work, contributing to sustained low levels of teen employment.

Today, 10 states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages of $15 or more and multiple cities in Washington state mandate over $20 per hour. Most teenagers can’t create that much value right out of the gate.

Government mandates also force employers to provide health insurance, vacation, paid family leave and other costly benefits that can further dissuade employers from hiring teenagers, while restrictions on the types of jobs teens can perform and the hours they can work can also preclude their employment.

Policymakers should help make teen jobs great again by removing barriers that make it harder for teens to earn, learn and improve themselves.

Let’s give our teenagers a chance to learn the life skills they need to be successful.

The Heart Of The Matter

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article listing three major discoveries in the investigation of the Russia Hoax.

The article lists the first of the three as ‘A Team Sport,’ reporting:

“I know that this activity is on a fast-track,” Rogers (National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers) wrote. Yet he expressed “concerns,” such as whether his team “had sufficient access to the underlying intelligence and sufficient time to review that intelligence.”

“I know that you agree that this is something we need to be 100% comfortable with before we present it to the President—we have one chance to get this right, and it is critical that we do so.”

…Clapper (then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper) responded by stating that “it is essential we … be on the same page, and are all supportive of the report—in the highest tradition of ‘that’s OUR story, and we’re stickin’ to it.’”

The article includes a screenshot of the email Director Rogers sent to DNI Clapper. As more information comes to light, I think we are going to see Mike Rogers as a hero in this mess.

The second discovery was the leaking of classified information in an attempt to indict President Trump.

The article notes:

According to a June 2023 FBI memo, Schiff approved leaking classified information to smear Trump.

The staffer told the FBI that “SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP.”

One attendee of the meeting “stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured [him] that they would not be caught leaking classified information.”

There was no concern for the legality of what they were doing–only a concern for whether or not they would get caught.

The third item the stopping of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

The article reports:

On Wednesday, Just the News published another declassified memo from 2017, a timeline revealing how top-level intelligence officials directed the suppression of an investigation into the Clinton Foundation during the 2016 election. According to the timeline, analysts attempted to investigate claims of a Clinton Foundation pay-to-play corruption scheme in August 2015, based on the reporting in Peter Schweizer’s book “Clinton Cash,” published that May.

When agents inquired about the investigation, their superiors said other agents were already investigating the matter.

Yet superiors like former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates prevented an investigation, according to the timeline.

If nothing else, the article at The Daily Signal illustrates the reason we have to clean house in the intelligence agencies in Washington. I hope the Trump administration is up to the task.

Simply Following Precedent

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On Tuesday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at The Daily Signal about the attacks on President Trump for being an autocratic dictator. Not only are the attacks without merit, they illustrate the double standard the media uses in evaluating presidential actions.

The article reports:

He’s getting attacked by the Left for autocratic use of presidential powers, he’s dictatorial. You’d almost forget that the Left and the Biden administration, in particular, through five criminal and civil courtrooms, fined him over $400 million, coordinated those legal harassments, and indicted him for 93 felonies. They tried to destroy, not just his candidacy, but his person, to bankrupt him and to jail him.

You would’ve forgotten that 25 states tried to take Donald Trump off the ballot. Nobody had ever done that before. Nobody had ever impeached a president twice. Nobody had ever tried a president, probably unconstitutionally, as a private citizen in the Senate, when he had already left office. No presidential candidate had been the subject of two ex-presidential assassination attempts. No ex-president ever had his home raided by the FBI.

So, we’ve forgotten all this and we’re supposed to think that Donald Trump is acting extra-constitutionally. But Donald Trump, I think, could remind people that he’s just following the precedents that he inherited. I’ll give you a few examples.

So, they’re saying he is deporting, deporting, deporting people. Well, former President Barack Obama deported more people in his tenure than any other prior president—2.5 million. And he focused on criminal aliens. He said so. Just like Donald Trump did. And as far as cages and detention centers, Obama created them. So, Trump just said, “I’m just following the precedent of Obama.”

They’re talking about extra powers of the president to harass people. Donald Trump had two members of his administration—Steve Bannon, in the first term, and Peter Navarro, his trade adviser—who were subpoenaed by Congress and they felt for no other reason but harassment in connection with Jan. 6. And they didn’t show up. And they tried to negotiate with Congress. And Congress jailed them.

Former Attorney General Merrick Garland was also subpoenaed by Congress, remember? And he just refused and there were no consequences. Former Attorney General Eric Holder was subpoenaed by Congress. There was no—and he refused.

And so, all Donald Trump should say, if anybody wants to be subpoenaed from the Biden administration, “We’re just following his example. We don’t really know what the rules are.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is brilliant.

This Will Be An Interesting Debate

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the debate that will happen in Congress at some point to decide whether any part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) savings should be returned to the taxpayer. I emphatically say, “YES!” The taxpayers were not responsible for the fraud and reckless spending–Congress was supposed to be exercising oversight. Let’s give taxpayers a portion of the savings and cut some Congressional perks to make up some of the difference.

The article reports:

Some House Republicans say they would rather use Department of Government Efficiency savings to pay off the national debt than to hand out the funds to taxpayers.

President Donald Trump floated giving $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpaying households in February, saying: “We’re thinking about giving 20% back to the American citizens, and 20% down to pay back debt.”

Investment CEO James Fishback first proposed the idea of a one-time payment of $5,000 for eligible taxpayers. The checks were to be funded with 20% of the $2 trillion in federal budget cuts Elon Musk said could be achieved, meaning around $400 billion split between 79 million taxpaying households.

What about the other 60 percent?

The article continues:

Fishback “continue[s] to advise the effort from the outside and will fight to ensure that a chunk of identified savings are sent back to hard-working American,” he told The Daily Signal in an email.

But fiscal conservatives in the House of Representatives would rather see DOGE savings entirely go toward paying off the debt, some tell The Daily Signal.

The article concludes:

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, also said paying off the debt is the highest priority.

“Let’s focus on tackling our $36 trillion debt, while also helping hardworking Americans prosper by making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and spending less of their tax dollars,” Lee told The Daily Signal.

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, agreed that the “big beautiful bill” is the best way to deliver on promises to voters.

“DOGE savings coupled with tax cuts will ensure Iowans and Americans can keep more of their hard earned money in their pockets while also restoring fiscal sanity and addressing deficit spending,” Hinson told The Daily Signal.

Why should the taxpayers have to pay for the government’s corruption and inefficiency?

A Very Perverted View Of Justice

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the murder of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, in Washington on May 21. Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Illinois man, is the alleged murderer.

The article reports:

A segment of the Democratic Socialists of America has thrown its weight behind an open letter declaring that Elias Rodriguez, the alleged murderer of two Israeli embassy staff, was “fully justified” in killing the couple because he intended to prevent “genocide.”

The Palestinian activist group Tariq El-Tahrir released the letter Monday. The Democratic Socialists of America Liberation Caucus signed it, while other parts of the DSA condemned Rodriguez. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a candidate for New York City mayor, condemned the letter and urged his opponents in the primary to do likewise.

“Elias Rodriguez’s targeted attack on two israeli diplomatic staff on May 21, 2025 was a legitimate act of resistance against the zionist state and its genocidal campaign in Gaza,” the letter states (the author appears to have intentionally lowercased both “Israeli” and “Zionist”). Rodriguez reportedly shouted, “Free Palestine,” and confessed to killing Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

The letter frames the shooting as a “fully justified” response to “twenty months of non-stop apocalyptic violence wrought by the zionist movement.” It accuses Israel of advancing a “supremacist world view” and “cementing the festering settler colony they have, temporarily, established on Palestinian land.” It claims international law sanctions violent attempts to prevent a “genocide.”

It is amazing to me that the people who are accusing Israel of genocide seem to overlook the events of October 7, 2023.

The article notes:

The Democratic Socialists of America did not support the letter, but one of the party’s caucuses, the Liberation Caucus, did.

“Excellent statement that we are proud to add our name to,” the DSA Liberation Caucus posted on X. “Free Elias Rodriguez and all political prisoners.”

Elias Rodriquez is not a political prisoner–he murdered two people in cold blood.

The article also reports:

The Democratic Socialists of America claims to have more than 92,000 members, following the presidential campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The party endorsed many Democrat politicians, helping to secure victories for Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., among others. Notably, the party withdrew its support for Ocasio-Cortez last year, citing her vote for a resolution affirming Israel’s “right to exist.”

The New York City DSA chapter condemned the violence of Rodriguez’s actions, but many DSA members condemned this denunciation of violence, The Free Press reported.

Political parties that justify murdering innocent people should not exist in America.

The Story From Someone Who Was There

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There are a number of debates going on right now as to whether or not Planned Parenthood should receive federal or state money. The people who want them to receive money claim that their facilities provide necessary healthcare services. The people who oppose giving them money claim that they are simply an abortion mill. There is also the question of selling aborted baby body parts, but that has been addressed in previous articles.

On Tuesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about funding Planned Parenthood from the perspective of someone who worked there for a number of years. The author of the article believes that Planned Parenthood should not get federal or state funding.

The article reports:

One of the legal points being addressed on Wednesday at the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears arguments in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic is whether South Carolina officials have a right to refuse Medicaid funding—that is, taxpayer dollars—to the two Planned Parenthood centers and other abortion facilities in their state.

Underlying that legal concern, being presented to the court by attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom, who are representing the state, is a more basic question: What is Planned Parenthood really about, and what are taxpayers really funding?

If you want a short, simple, and accurate answer to that question, ask someone who saw firsthand how Planned Parenthood functions and who understands its priorities.

From 2000 to 2017, I worked at every level of Planned Parenthood, from the front desk to the labs, doing everything from showing videos to managing up to three centers at a time across Arizona. What started out for me as a job with good benefits that would let me help my people (I was born in Mexico) and serve women in need ended up as something altogether different—a front-row seat for the big business of killing babies.

The article also notes:

I took a lot of those calls. Almost every day, we heard from women who were experiencing incredibly more pain than the medical staff had promised … who were bleeding out over a bathroom floor … who were horrified to find themselves trying to flush a baby’s corpse down the toilet.

“Just go to the ER,” we were instructed to tell them. “And make sure you say it’s a miscarriage.”

Nothing was allowed to stop the push for abortions. If a woman’s blood pressure was too high or her iron count too low for the procedure, nurses kept rechecking the numbers until they found what they wanted to see. If a woman in the surgical room had serious second thoughts about killing her baby, a doctor would go in and talk to her until she agreed to go through with it.

We paid the staff who did abortions more than we paid other workers. We gave them bigger Christmas bonuses. When I presented ways of expanding or converting our facilities to accommodate a wider array of non-abortion services, I was reminded—again and again—that that’s not where the money was.

And when I kept expressing my concerns about all of this, I was fired.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. Abortion is not healthcare and it kills the most vulnerable. It has been said that if the abortion clinics were killing puppies instead of babies, the public outcry would have closed them by now. I am not sure what that says about our culture.

Let’s See Some Action To Go With The Hearings

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The Republicans in Congress are really good at holding hearings. Look at all the hearings they held investigating the Biden family and other corruption. Also look at the fact that none of these hearings have resulted in anyone being charged with anything or held accountable in any way. Well, they are holding hearings again. Let’s see what happens.

On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he would be holding hearings as early as next week on recent judicial rulings against actions undertaken by the Trump administration.

The announcement comes as several members of Congress are filing articles of impeachment against the federal judges who have stepped in to prevent Trump administration policies from taking effect. 

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., announced last month that he will be filing articles of impeachment against Chief District Judge John McConnell Jr. for the District of Rhode Island. McConnell has blocked an Office of Management and Budget order that would have frozen all federal grant, loan, and financial assistance programs. 

Since when does the judiciary control the executive branch. This needs to go to the Supreme Court (even though I don’t trust the Supreme Court).

The article notes:

Boasberg (Chief District Judge James Boasberg for the District of Columbia) ruled that the Trump administration had to return Venezuelan migrants that had been deported. Gill contended in a press statement that Boasberg, who was appointed in 2011 by Democrat President Barack Obama, is seeking to prevent the president from enforcing the Alien Enemies Act.

“Judge Boasberg has gravely overstepped his authority, usurping the constitutional power of the commander in chief. President Trump is securing America’s neighborhoods; restoring safety for men, women, and children who call this nation home. We will not tolerate radical, politically motivated judges illegally and unconstitutionally stopping the president from carrying out his mandate,” Gill said in a press statement.

Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., told The Daily Signal that the judiciary was not responsible for making public policy.

“The judicial branch is not the [human resources] department of the federal government, nor does it set national or foreign policy. It solely interprets the law, and certainly should never engage in judicial insurrection,” Perry said.

This is ridiculous.

There Are Financial Reasons Some Judges Are Fighting President Trump

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Om Thursday, The Daily Signal posted an article detailing the background of some of the judges opposing the agenda of President Trump.

The article notes:

Federal judges ruling against President Donald Trump’s recent executive actions have been almost entirely appointees of his two Democrat predecessors.

Some were previously activists, others were steeped in Democrat politics, and one is a former clerk for then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor. These judges have issued rulings to block Trump’s policies on immigration, federal spending, the Department of Government Efficiency, and other matters. 

Plaintiffs have been “forum shopping” to attain more favorable rulings, said Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice. Forum shopping means they search for specific parts of the country where judges are more likely to be liberal and sympathetic to their case.

Here is some information on some of the judges involved:

A one-time major Democrat donor, U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island, recently sided with a group of Democrat state attorneys general in a lawsuit to block Trump’s attempted funding freeze for numerous federal grants to nongovernmental organizations. 

From 2000 until when President Barack Obama nominated him to the federal bench in 2010, McConnell contributed about $60,000 to Democrat candidates. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposed his nomination, noting his long career as a lawyer who sued over lead paint and tobacco, Forbes reported. 

…In a separate case targeting the order on the funding freeze, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan of the District of Columbia, an appointee of President Joe Biden, imposed a restraining order on the freeze. AliKhan was previously on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the D.C. solicitor general. 

U.S. District Judge Amir Ali of the District of Columbia, a Biden appointee, enforced a restraining order to prevent the spending freeze on foreign aid disbursed by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. In 2020, Ali contributed $1,500 to Biden’s presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. He also made modest contributions to numerous other Democrat candidates. 

…U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang of the District of Maryland, an Obama appointee, blocked the Trump administration from conducting immigration raids and arrests at certain houses of worship. 

During much of Obama’s time in office, Chuang was the deputy general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. Before that, from 2007 to 2009, he was the deputy chief investigative counsel for the Democrat majority on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He was also a past contributor to several Democrat candidates, including giving $750 to Obama’s 2008 campaign and $1,250 to the 2004 presidential bid of Democrat John Kerry. 

You get the picture. Please follow the link above to the article for information on some of the other judges involved. None of these judges can realistically be expected to be objective.

Books Banned In Prison, But Not In Schools?

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On Sunday, The Daily Signal posted an article reporting that books that were banned in prisons by The Texas Department of Criminal Justice are allowed in schools.

The article reports:

A Texas mother is looking to pass several bills through the state legislature this session after discovering what she calls “vulgar,” “profane,” and “indecent” books in public school libraries across the state.

Bonnie Wallace, a member of the Llano County Library Advisory Board and mother to a former Llano County Independent School District student, began warning parents, school officials, and lawmakers about the inappropriate content available to children in public schools after she found dozens of “bad books” at her local high school library. 

“Someone showed me a picture from a book, and the book is called ‘Gender Queer,’ and it’s by … an author named Maia Kobabe … and it was in our library,” Wallace told The Daily Signal.

“Gender Queer” contains graphic depictions of sex and discusses topics such as “gender identity” and sexual preference. 

During her investigations into Texas public school libraries, Wallace said she found books containing QR codes that link to online sex shops, Planned Parenthood, and a website called “F***ing Trans Women.” 

The article notes:

“The Texas Department of Criminal Justice that handles all the prisons in Texas and protocols, they have a list of 10,800 books that they prohibit Texas prisoners from accessing,” Wallace told The Daily Signal. “Any sex act that is illegal in Texas cannot be in a book that’s sent to a prisoner in Texas. … By the way, I have books in high schools and junior highs that have all of these things. It’s shocking.”

Anyone who remembers Junior High School or High School understands the problem leaving these books in the library poses. School libraries have a responsibility to give students access to good literature and books that will help them become contributing members of society. The types of books mentioned above will not advance that goal.

Reversing A Bad Decision

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There are still a lot of questions about the Covid-19 vaccine. There are questions about its effectiveness and its risks. It was rushed through as an emergency measure with the claim that we had no effective cure for Covid. It seems that there may have been a cure that was squelched. I am not a doctor, so I can’t say for sure, but many reputable doctors have claimed that ivermectin cures Covid. The restrictions that were put on the unvaccinated were unfair. The masks were ineffective, and according to one pulmonary specialist I have talked to, interfered with basic immune function and led to a spike in pneumonia cases. So the bottom line is that we have more questions than answers. That is what makes President Trump’s Executive Order on funding schools with vaccine mandates a reasonable action.

On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday cutting off federal funding to schools that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, fulfilling a promise he made repeatedly on the campaign trail.

“OK, that solves that problem,” said Trump after he signed the order in the Oval Office.

The order prohibits “federal funds from being used to support” any educational institution “that requires students to have received a COVID-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs.”

In many places, the vaccine was reserved for the elderly and those who had some sort of medical condition. School-age students generally were able to survive Covid, develop natural immunity, and go on with their lives.

The article concludes:

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has emerged as one of the Senate’s most passionate supporters of Trump’s and Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, told The Daily Signal that he wholeheartedly supported the move to grant parents more control over their children’s health care.

“Mandating the COVID injections for anyone, much less children, was an outrage and violated the principle of informed consent,” said Johnson. “Ending what never should have happened is obviously welcome.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., who in 2021 voted to block then-President Joe Biden’s attempts to mandate vaccines for millions of workers, likewise praised the move.

“I fully agree with President Trump’s decision to stop federal funds from going to schools that mandate the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Lummis in a statement given to The Daily Signal. 

“This type of unscientific overreach is a blatant violation of Americans’ personal freedoms and has no place in schools supported by the American taxpayer,” she said.

Because the government was able to send the American people into a panic, many of our Constitutional freedoms were ignored. We cannot let that happen again.

Running The Government Like A Business

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President Trump has been a successful businessman for years. There have been a few hiccups along the way, but overall, he has done very well. He has the mindset of a businessman–keep costs down, eliminate waste, and make a profit. The federal government is not necessarily supposed to make a profit, but keeping costs down and eliminating waste is a pretty good idea. That’s what the Washington establishment fears.

On January 30th, The Daily Signal posted an article about the firing of the 17 inspectors general. The article points out some of the reasons they were fired.

The article reports:

There is a very strong argument to be made that those inspectors general failed to do their jobs during the past four years. Their failures provide Trump with all of the “due cause” he needs.

Just two examples suffice: their failure to investigate the misbehavior of their departments in attempting to interfere in the 2022 and 2024 federal elections and in using government resources to violate the First Amendment rights of American citizens and censor their opinions and social media accounts.

…In 2021, Joe Biden issued an executive order directing all federal agencies–including every one of the agencies whose inspectors general were fired–to get involved in state election administration. The agencies had to implement “strategic” plans to use agency personnel and resources to persuade and “assist” members of the public who interacted with those agencies to register and vote in federal elections. That included providing access to “vote-by-mail ballot applications,” identification documents, and multilingual voting materials.

…Think about that for a moment. What possible business is it of the Energy or Commerce or Transportation Departments to play a role–any role–in our elections? Zero. Zip. Zilch.  

…Congress never appropriated any funding for any federal agency in the executive branch to engage in voter registration and ballot activities, with only one exception: the Federal Voting Assistance Program office at the Pentagon that helps overseas military personnel and their families.

Yet not a single inspector general investigated any of these illegal activities and illegal spending of taxpayer funds at any of their agencies. Why not? 

The article also cites other examples where the government violated the civil rights of its citizens and the inspectors general sat on their hands. Please follow the link above for further details.

The Lawsuit Filed Against The Effort To End Birthright Citizenship

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On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the lawsuit that has been filed to stop President Trump from ending birthright citizenship. In recent years, birthright citizenship has been the camel’s nose under the tent to allow children of other nations to attend colleges here and to pave a way for their parents to come here legally through chain migration.

The article lists four of the problems with the lawsuit against ending the practice:

 

Error #1: The citizenship clause merely adopted the pre-Dred Scott common law rule that everyone born in the United States is automatically a citizen.

In 1856, the Supreme Court held in the infamous case of Dred Scott v. Sandford that the U.S.-born descendants of African slaves were not and could never become citizens, even though under the traditional common law rule, a person automatically became a citizen of the nation on whose soil he or she was born. The plaintiffs contend that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause was intended to restore this earlier common law rule of universal birthright citizenship.

They support this claim with a single, highly edited quotation from Sen. Jacob Howard, a Republican from Michigan, who was instrumental in drafting the citizenship clause: “This amendment … is simply declaratory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is … a citizen of the United States.”

Error #2: This is an unprecedented action—the executive branch has long recognized that it can’t deny citizenship to children based on the immigration or citizenship status of their parents.

This assertion is only true if history begins in the first half of the 20th century. Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, it doesn’t. In the decades following the ratification of the 14th Amendment, the federal government regularly articulated a view of the citizenship clause that’s remarkably similar to that espoused in Trump’s order, and the executive branch issued citizenship documents accordingly.

Error #3: The Supreme Court confirmed in Wong Kim Ark that the citizenship clause automatically bestows citizenship on the U.S.-born children of noncitizen parents.

Contrary to popular assertions, this is not what the Supreme Court held in the 1898 case of Wong Kim Ark v. United States. The question decided by the court in that case was far narrower: whether a child born in the U.S. to lawfully present and permanently domiciled immigrant parents was a U.S. citizen. And the court concluded that, indeed, the U.S.-born child of this narrow and specific subset of noncitizen parents is a citizen.

Error #4: The president’s order will leave many children deportable and stateless.

It would rarely, if ever, be true that a U.S.-born child of illegal or nonpermanent resident aliens would be left stateless simply because he or she isn’t automatically granted U.S. citizenship. Virtually every nation (including the United States) recognizes some manner of citizenship “by blood,” under which a child is automatically eligible for citizenship when one or both parents are citizens, even if that child is born abroad.

Please follow the link above for further details. This battle will probably eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see how the Justices rule.

 

Shutting It Down Isn’t Really Shutting It Down

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Right now the mainstream media and the Democrats (actually the same thing) are trying to scare Americans with the idea of a government shutdown. Somehow they fail to mention that in a government shutdown, only about 17% of the government actually shuts down. The rest remains open to provide Social Security checks, military pay, and other essential services.

On Friday, Mark Levin posted an article at The Daily Signal.

The article reports:

Hey, Republicans. The sky will not fall if there’s a government shutdown. The government was shut down six times during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Over 20 times since 1974. Yet, recent presidents have avoided it like the plague.

The nation survived, Reagan won massive landslides, and, in the end, the public didn’t give a damn despite all the media-Democratic Party hype at the time.

The bureaucrats wound up getting their money. Social Security checks and Medicare payments continued without a hitch. So did veterans’ benefits. The active military was unaffected.

…When you think of it, since the biggest entitlements are unaffected and they make up the overwhelming majority of government spending, it makes sense. And, by the way, no one, and I mean no one, will discuss reforming any of the big entitlement programs. Not even the self-anointed fiscal conservatives.

We are talking about a pittance in relative terms. Nonetheless, the Republicans need to take a stand somewhere. At least it’ll be a beginning. And they should explain to the people that the Democrats (and too many of their fellow Republicans) spend, borrow, and steal like pirates—which will bankrupt the country for their children and grandchildren; further drive up inflation, including the cost of food, clothing, and energy; destroy the value of their paychecks and pension checks; eventually collapse the government altogether—and that this drug-like spending addiction must be broken before it’s too late, which it already may be.

The Republicans shouldn’t act defensively or out of fear but boldly and proudly. They should speak up and speak to the people.

Government shutdowns (and the threat of government shutdowns) are a political strategy that needs to end. We have seen this play before.

Shut down the government if necessary, but please do not continue to spend American into oblivion.