"Republicans are 'refusing to do their job,' President Joe Biden thundered Monday, calling their failure to lift the debt ceiling 'hypocritical, dangerous and disgraceful.'

"Sorry, Joe: our decades in Washington surely taught you how this works. It's the party in power, especially the one that holds the White House, that has to get this done. Getting the votes to do it always requires compromise. ...

"As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell puts it, 'Bipartisanship is not a light switch that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and Leader [Chuck] Schumer may flip on to borrow money and flip off to spend it.'

"Biden himself voted against debt-ceiling hikes three times as a senator. Now he notes that Dems voted to raise it under President Donald Trump. But that was after Trump cut a deal with Pelosi and Schumer for Democratic votes, agreeing to hike spending on domestic programs. 'Democrats have secured an increase of more than $100 billion in funding for domestic priorities since President Trump took office,' Pelosi bragged in urging colleagues to vote for suspending the debt limit.

"Whining and finger-pointing won't get the job done now. Negotiate a compromise, or get Chuck and Nancy to bite the bullet and use reconciliation. Stop refusing to do your job, Mr. President."

"The great economic problem facing the poor and the middle classes is not that high-income Americans aren't paying taxes that are proportional to their incomes. The great problem for the poor is that both incomes and mobility are stagnant for lower-skilled workers, with globalization and automation putting pressure on those jobs. The great problem for the middle class is rising prices of certain critical goods, namely housing in the markets where the best jobs are, health care, and education. The basic responsible progressive proposition (to the extent that there is such a thing) is that higher taxes on the wealthy would make funds available to subsidize these goods on behalf of those with lower incomes. The conservative response is that the worst housing, the worst health care, and the worst schools already are free, and that much of what is wrong with those markets is the result of earlier progressive efforts to fix them.

"Conservatives also are right to point out that if American progressives want to build a Scandinavian-style welfare state, then they are going to need to impose Scandinavian-style taxes, meaning radically higher taxes on the middle classes. There isn't enough leftover income at the top to fund what progressives dream of."

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"'Those people will pay.' With that promise, President Biden vowed to punish Customs and Border Protection agents accused of whipping undocumented immigrants on the southern border. Despite the announcement of an investigation into the allegation just the day before, Biden did not stop for the pretense of process in declaring the agents guilty.

"This 'sentence first -- verdict afterwards' approach may amuse the Red Queen of Alice in Wonderland, but it should be anathema to an American president. Not only did Biden shatter his own administration's investigation but he joined other leading Democratic figures in defaming the agents. ...

"By announcing that the agents were guilty and needed to be punished, Biden destroyed the credibility of the Department of Homeland Security's ongoing investigation. It is akin to what is called 'command influence' in the military, when comments or actions of a superior officer influence an investigation or prosecution. Investigators and department officials could well be worried about their own careers if they do not find a basis to punish one or more of the border agents. The failure to do so would be an embarrassment to the president and risk the wrath of powerful figures in Washington. Conversely, any action taken against these agents can now be challenged due to Biden's preemptive declaration.

"The biggest problem is that the whipping story was entirely untrue."

Read the entire article here.

"A new congressional report shows that the tax increase bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee would increase taxes on millions of taxpayers making less than $400,000. That would violate a pledge President Joe Biden has made repeatedly.

"The House tax bill would raise taxes by $2.1 trillion, making it the largest peacetime tax increase in U.S. history. It contains 45 separate tax increases and would raise taxes on individuals, small businesses, companies, family farms, and other estates. Analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation shows that a substantial number of taxpayers at all income levels would pay more in taxes.

"According to the Joint Committee numbers, more than two-thirds of all taxpayers in 2023 would experience either no tax benefit or a tax increase. About 35% of taxpayers earning between $100,000 and $200,000 would face a tax increase. By 2027, more than 85% of taxpayers would receive either no benefit or see a tax increase.

"Middle-income taxpayers would be hit hard. Nearly 60% of taxpayers earning between $75,000 and $100,000, roughly the national median family income, would face a tax increase."

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"'My "Build Back Better" agenda costs zero dollars. Instead of wasting money on tax breaks, loopholes and tax evasion for big corporations and the wealthy, we can make a once-in-a-generation investment in working America.'

"That's President Biden insulting the intelligence of sober, sane Americans by claiming that $3.5 trillion in new spending -- via an infrastructure bill in which most of the money allocated does not go toward improving roads, rail lines, bridges, power grids or other actual infrastructure -- 'costs zero dollars.'

"Fortunately, numbers are numbers and math is math, and therefore they can't be spun so easily.

"According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization based in Washington, the $3.5 trillion bill would call for the U.S. government to borrow $1 trillion. It also projects that approximately $3 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next decade.

"The CRFB further found that, thanks to various accounting and budgeting gimmicks, the $3.5 trillion bill's cost is more in the $5.5 trillion range."

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"Biden lied, they died.

"That's no longer just an accusation. It's now a fact, with Tuesday's Senate testimony shredding President Biden's nonsensical fictions about Afghanistan and confirming that he alone made the fateful decisions that created the chaotic and deadly withdrawal.

"We now know for certain what was suspected all along -- that the president rejected the advice of his top military aides about how to reduce the troop numbers while keeping the Taliban in check. He also falsely claimed to the public that al Qaeda was no longer in Afghanistan and declared the withdrawal a ringing success.

"Reluctantly, but clearly, his commanders begged to differ. One by one, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said they advised the president either to keep 2,500 troops in Kabul or supported the proposal.

"All three also said al Qaeda remains in Afghanistan and, as Milley put, is still at war with us. And none dared call the conclusion a success.

"'The war is lost,' Milley said. 'The enemy is in control in Kabul.'"

"A new survey of the top 150 colleges in the U.S. found that nearly 25% of students said it is acceptable to use violence to shut down a controversial speaker. The number jumps to nearly 50% at several elite women's colleges. According to the survey, Claremont-McKenna College ranks best for free speech, DePauw University ranks the worst.

"The findings are based on the opinions of over 37,000 students at 159 of America's largest and most prestigious campuses. The largest survey of campus free expression ever conducted was published in the 2021 College Free Speech Rankings, produced by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), College Pulse, and RealClearEducation.

'"Existing ranking systems don't look at a core aspect of higher education: the ability to think, discuss, and speak freely,' FIRE Executive Director Robert Shibley said. 'Our rankings guide prospective students and their parents toward schools that value free speech and open inquiry. They also help us hold schools accountable and demand they do better.'

"The survey evaluated free expression on campus in seven categories: openness to discussion of controversial topics, tolerance for liberal speakers, tolerance for conservative speakers, administrative support for free speech, comfort expressing ideas publicly, whether students support disruptive conduct during campus speeches, and FIRE's speech code rating. The report found that public schools generally performed better than private schools."

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"The House will vote Thursday on the Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill, pushing back an originally planned vote for Monday that Democratic moderates had demanded as part of a deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

"Lawmakers will still debate the bill on the House floor on Monday, but the actual vote will be pushed to Sept. 30, when some surface transportation programs are set to expire, Pelosi announced in a Sunday night missive to Democrats.

"The vote is only part of what's set to be a jam-packed week in the House. In addition to the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Democrats are also aiming to take action on the $3.5 trillion package to expand social safety net programs, act to prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 1 and avoid a debt default."

"According to the left-of-center Tax Policy Center, Biden's tax plan will raise taxes on 75% of middle-class families next year and 95% of families over the long term. Biden's policies are already slowing the economy. In August, the U.S. added just 235,000 jobs, a far cry from estimates that 720,000 jobs would be created. The economy has over 600,000 fewer jobs than the Biden administration boasted would be created in February, and we are 5.2 million jobs short from pre-pandemic employment levels.

"Biden's plan to increase taxes on businesses by trillions of dollars is not about 'asking' them to pay a little bit more. It is a massive tax hike borne by working families."

Read the entire article here.

"WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Eight months after President Joe Biden's inauguration, his job approval rating has fallen six percentage points to 43%, the lowest of his presidency. For the first time, a majority, 53%, now disapproves of Biden's performance.

"These findings are from a Sept. 1-17 Gallup poll that was conducted after the U.S. military evacuated more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan. The United States' exit from the nation's longest war was marred by the Taliban's quick takeover of most of the country and a suicide bombing at the airport in Kabul, which killed 13 U.S. service members. Over the same period, COVID-19 infection rates, nationally, were surging, leading to hospital overflows in some regions."