"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky admitted this week that her agency made 'some pretty dramatic public mistakes' handling the coronavirus, promising to 'pivot' the organization so that it can better provide information to ordinary people.

"But communication was never the CDC's real problem. That was its arrogant and politicized leadership, which was unable to tell the truth. That is why no one trusts the CDC anymore or cares much for its guidance, whatever it happens to be. The cure begins with Walensky's resignation. ...

"The CDC's function is dependent upon the agency enjoying the public's trust. More than 18 months of flip-flops and transparently political decision-making have undermined the CDC's credibility. The agency desperately needs to earn that credibility back. The best way to start is by holding its current leadership accountable."

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"Citizens United filed two lawsuits this week against the Department of Interior and Department of State for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records requests regarding the White House's attempt to federalize elections.

"The nonprofit submitted FOIA requests in June, but both agencies failed to respond (federal law requires FOIA requests to be responded to within 20 working days). The requests sought email and text messages from both agencies that mentioned President Biden's Promoting Access to Voting executive order and the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits executive branch employees from engaging in election activities. ...

"As previously reported by The Federalist, Biden's executive order directs all 600 federal agencies to become voter registration agencies and organize voter outreach efforts. It allows such agencies -- including ones that dole out federal benefits -- to work with leftwing get-out-the-vote groups.

"Government watchdogs and Congressional Republicans are worried Biden's EO is a scheme to mobilize the federal bureaucracy to drive Democratic voter registration and turnout, swinging elections in favor of Democrats -- particularly as the 2022 midterms loom."

Read the entire article here.

"Flash!

"We interrupt your inconveniently scheduled recession -- aggravated by crazy congressional spending and absurd tax hikes -- to bring you breaking news from London. Britain's famed 'single-payer' system of national health insurance is in crisis. Again.

"According to The Telegraph, one of Britain's leading newspapers, the total number of patients waiting for medical care has soared to a record 6.6 million British citizens, almost 10% of the entire population. The newspapaer's Data Tracker contains a remarkable set of revealing numbers on the Western world's oldest model of socialized medicine. ...

"In short, according to The Telegraph, 'The NHS is failing to meet every single one of its key duties of care to patients.' ...

"Given the NHS performance, it is worth recalling the promises of America's 'progressive' champions of a single payer national health insurance system for the United States. They insisted, after all, that such a system would be much better prepared to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic than the existing public-private financing and delivery systems that characterize American health care. ...

"It's hard to imagine anything more expensive than 'free care for all.'"

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"The surest sign that public policies are simply virtue signals is when the messages don't cost anything. The easiest way to tell when that signal starts to fail is to watch politicians flounder as the costs start to rise and voters demand relief. ...

"Changes like this happen when voters realize the old virtue signals actually entail serious costs -- and that they will have to pay them. That is exactly what's happening in New York City and Washington D.C. now that Texas governor Greg Abbott is sending those cities a few busloads of illegal immigrants from his state.

"These progressive bastions were silent when the Biden administration flew planeloads of illegal immigrants to suburban airports in the middle of the night. TV coverage was prohibited, and the arrivals were secretly dispersed. Abbott's buses, by contrast, arrive downtown greeted by local TV crews. Now you can hear the politicians screech."

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"This $739 billion tax-and-spending bacchanale includes $80 billion to swell the Internal Revenue Service's payroll from 93,654 to 180,506 -- up 92.7%. The IRS will have more staffers than the 148,511 aggregated employees at the federal departments of Commerce (35,406), Education (3,532), Energy (13,809), Health and Human Services (64,985), Housing and Urban Development (7,334), Labor (13,720) and State (9,725), as the Office of Personnel Management tallied them in 2018 -- the latest totals available.

"These 86,852 new IRS agents are a bit much, if Democrats want them to find billionaires, capsize them and shake them until the gold bars and stock certificates cascade from their pockets. Forbes counts 735 American billionaires. IRA would underwrite 118 IRS agents per billionaire.

"Don't be shocked if IRS audits aim lower -- much lower -- as they already do.

"The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in May that in Tax Year 2019, IRS audited 196,717 returns from earners between $1 and $25,000; 72,669 between $25,000 and $50,000; and 32,285 between $50,000 and $75,000. IRS audited 379,357 returns from filers with incomes below $1 million."

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"Three passports, Privileged documents. A file on a presidential pardon. As evidence surfaces about what FBI agents seized during the raid of former President Donald Trump's estate in Mar-a-Lago, new questions about the real focus of the investigation and new avenues for legal challenges are bubbling to the surface.

"The Justice Department informed Trump's team Monday that agents gathered the former prersident's passports and are obligated to return them, and that officials are also reviewing seized materials that may be covered by various privileges, multiple sources told Just the News. ...

"Kevin Brock, who served as FBI assistant director for intelligence under former Director Robert Mueller, said the new revelations raise legitimate questions about over-collection of evidence that could lead to significant legal challenges. Trump lawyers are weighing whether to ask a federal court to name a special master to review sensitive documents and protect the president's 4th amendment, executive and attorney-client privileges."

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"The Democrat-led House passed a climate and healthcare spending bill on Friday without a full Congressional Budget Office score of the legislation's cost.

"The CBO confirmed to GOP lawmakers on Friday that $20 billion will be collected under the bill from those earning less than $400,000 per year through new audits, according to House GOP Whip Steve Scalise. Republicans argue that $20 billion breaks President Biden's promise not to raise taxes on households making less than $400,000 annually.

"The CBO said on Thursday it needed more time to score the full cost of the legislation."

Read the entire article here.

"The FBI made Dr. Martin Luther King their No. 1 political target during the civil rights era. At one point the agency even threatened to expose what they said was evidence of King's marital infidelities, and suggested the only way out was suicide.

"The American Civil Liberties Union deplored the FBI's surveillance and raids against civil rights leaders, feminists, and leftists in the 1950s and 1960s. But the ACLU is noticeably silent about the raid on Mar-a-Lago.

"In 2015, then FBI Director James Comey invoked the persecution of King to claim that the agency is different now. Comey said he kept a letter on his desk from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to Hoover, approving the wiretap of King's phone calls 'to ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them.' Too bad it didn't work."

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"Welcome to President Joe Biden's White House, where numbers don't actually matter and dictionary definitions can be rewritten at the will of the president and his allies.

"Two consecutive quarters of economic contraction no longer constitute a recession, and an 8.5% increase in the consumer price index over the past year is somehow spun by Biden as 'zero inflation.'

"Yet perhaps no lie from the West Wing is as flagrant as this one -- Ron Klain claiming that wages are up.

"Unlike his boss's lengthy list of falsehoods, which we can generously attribute to senility, the White House chief of staff's lie is an apparently intentional confusion of the facts.

"Although wages rose nominally by 5.8% in July, that was more than nullified by the 8.5% increase in the consumer price index. Once both numbers are taken into account, real average hourly earnings fell by 3%. Couple that hourly wage decline with the 0.6% decrease in the average work week, and real average earnings per week fell by 3.6%."

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"Everyone should be deeply troubled by the recent report that the Army is on pace to miss its recruiting goal by dozens of thousands of troops and by the report that followed a few days later, alleging that the Border Patrol is running short of agents in Arizona and Texas. The border is so porous these days that even mayors of sanctuary cities are starting to complain about illegal immigration.

"So, what is Congress doing about these crises? They are going to spend tens of billions of dollars to increase the number of ... IRS employees. The plan calls for spending some $80 billion to hire some 80,000 new agents and investigators. This will give the IRS the resources to double the number of people who get audited every year.

"Is this about the most warped set of national priorities you've ever heard? If this $80 billion were rerouted to the Army and the Border Patrol, we could easily stop much of the tide of illegal immigration and staff up our military so we have the soldiers we need to defend our country."

Read the entire article here.