Commentary: Electric Transmission Buildout Could Cost Americans Trillions of Dollars

Electric Grid

Though windmills and solar panels get the headlines, the big energy topic in Washington is electric transmission. Whether it is Congress’s newfound interest in permitting reform, the U.S. Department of Energy’s new Grid Deployment Office, or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) upcoming final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, how to build and pay for long-range transmission to connect generators to customers is considered the final piece in the quest to meet net-zero goals.   

Like so many issues in Washington, the need for more transmission lines is accepted without question and the costs are not considered. But for American consumers, especially low-income and elderly, as well as small businesses and energy intense manufacturers, building new transmission lines could result in much higher monthly bills and leave them on the hook for stranded assets.

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Percentage of LGBTQ Americans Has More than Doubled in Just a Decade, Poll Finds

LBGTQ supporters

The number of Americans identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer has continued to rise in the last several years, reaching nearly 8% of the country’s population, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

In 2012, only 3.5% of United States citizens aged 18 years and older identified as LGBTQ and in 2020, the number increased to 5.6%, according to Gallup. As of this year, the number has jumped to 7.6%, with over half of the LGBTQ population identifying as bisexual, at 57.3%, and around 1% of Americans identifying as gay, lesbian or transgender, respectively.

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Poll: A Majority of Americans Support Building the Border Wall

Border Wall Construction

A new poll suggests that more Americans than ever before support the idea of building a wall along the southern border, as the mass migration crisis rages out of control and has cost more American lives.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the latest poll from Monmouth University shows that 53% of respondents support building the wall, while 46% oppose it, marking the first time ever that a Monmouth poll has shown majority support for the proposal. While more Republicans and independents support the wall than in past years, Democratic support for the idea has fallen.

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Commentary: For Electricity, Americans Deserve More Choices

Electric Grid

Amid a polarizing presidential election, areas of common ground are rare, especially around energy. President Joe Biden has labeled climate change as “the only existential threat humanity faces,” and outlined an agenda to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Meanwhile, his would-be Republican challengers have pledged a different course, with the frontrunning campaign of former President Donald Trump pledging to “maximize fossil fuel production” and roll back funding for Biden’s landmark 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. 

A step back from the daily partisan back-and-forth reveals an idea with something for everyone to support: increasing choice when it comes to where consumers get their energy. A commitment to freedom and creating our own destinies is quintessentially American. Yet most of our citizens have zero control over their power provider and the cost of their energy, and very few politicians on either side of the aisle say anything about it. 

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Commentary: Illegal Immigration Creates a New Slave Caste

Farm Workers

Belatedly, the southern border crisis is getting the attention it deserves.

There’s wall-to-wall coverage in the legacy and conservative press, independent documentaries proliferating on the subject, a Tucker Carlson interview with Bret Weinstein attracting over 15 million views on X, and President Joe Biden blaming Trump for a failed bill that involved the border crisis.

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Biden Cancels Another $1.2 Billion in Student Loan Debt

In yet another move circumventing the Supreme Court on the question of student loan debt, Joe Biden announced the cancellation of approximately $1.2 billion in student loan debt for about 153,000 borrowers.

As reported by ABC News, the Biden Administration made the cancellation official on Wednesday, including a draft email that will be sent to all of the borrowers in question. The email will read, in part: “Congratulations — all or a portion of your federal student loans will be forgiven because you qualify for early loan forgiveness under my Administration’s SAVE Plan.”

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Mortgage Applications Fall as Interest Rates Remain High

Paper Work

Mortgage applications sank last week as high prices and rising mortgage rates have increased unaffordability for average Americans, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The total volume of mortgage loan applications for homes declined 10.6% in the week ending Feb. 16 compared to the previous week when seasonally adjusted, while the purchase index fell 10% in that same time, according to a release from the MBA. The drop in applications follows an increase in the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage for homes under $766,550 to 7.06% from 6.87% the week prior, intensifying housing unaffordability.

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Americans Unhappy with Biden’s Handling of Immigration

Illegal Immigrants

Immigration has become a toxic issue for President Joe Biden, with many voters citing it as their top problem with the president, according to newly released survey data.

Gallup released the poll, which was taken in January and found that only 41% of Americans approved of the job Biden is doing as president while 54% disapprove. Among those disapproving of Biden’s work, 19% cite immigration as the reason, far more than any other specific issue.

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Commentary: Increasing Security Along the Southern Border to Illegal Immigration Is Top Priority to Americans

Illegal Immigrants

With a tidal wave of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border under President Biden daily and Congress locked in a battle over border security, zealots pushing open borders are becoming increasingly out of touch with the American people.

Under Biden’s reckless Open Borders agenda, nine million illegals have entered the country through the southern border, including 1.8+ million who escaped Border Patrol and are presumably living in the U.S. without documentation.

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Commentary: Democrats are Hitting the Panic Button over Biden’s Mental Fitness

Joe Biden

In 1979, when President Jimmy Carter delivered his infamous “malaise” speech in which he laid out all the daunting challenges facing our nation, the president said that America was suffering from a “crisis of confidence.”

Fast-forward 45 years and our country is once again facing a crisis of confidence, this time under the failed leadership of President Joe Biden.

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Americans Increasingly Turning Away from Political News as 2024 Election Nears

The American public is focusing less and less on political news in recent months, even as a crucial presidential election draws nearer.

According to Axios, Americans are instead turning back to consumption of non-political content such as sports and entertainment, indicating a decline in political interest that spiked in 2020 ahead of that year’s presidential race. While numerous events in 2020, such as the nationwide race riots and the lockdowns as the result of the Chinese Coronavirus, led to increased political engagement and culminated in record-high voter turnout, there have been fewer major events in the lead-up to 2024.

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Commentary: America’s Public Education Crisis

Teacher Teaching

In April 1983, U.S. Secretary of Education Terrell Bell created the National Commission on Excellence in Education, directing it to “examine the quality of education in the United States.” The panel found that “the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”

The report famously asserted, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might have viewed it as an act of war.” It also insists that “…academic excellence [is] the primary goal of schooling [and it] seems to be fading across…American education.”

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Tucker Carlson Releases Interview with Vladimir Putin

Tucker Carlson Vladimir Putin

Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson on Thursday released his interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he addressed his rationale behind the ongoing invasion of Ukraine and his view of diplomacy with the west.

Carlson attracted considerable scrutiny from western media for conducting the interview, which he defended as a part of his duty as a journalism. 

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Government Jobs Soared to New Record for Another Month as Federal Debt Piles Up

Office Meeting

The U.S. set a new record in January for the total number of Americans employed by the government, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The government added 36,000 new employees in January, with 11,000 in the federal government and 19,000 in local government, totaling 23,091,000, according to the BLS. January’s total outdid the previous record of 23,055,000 that was set in December, marking the third month in a row with a new record.

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Full-Time Work Is Being Replaced by Part-Time Jobs as Americans and Businesses Struggle

Uber Driver

Since June 2023, Americans have been increasingly employed in part-time positions, with a subsequent decline in full-time work, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The number of Americans working part-time in January grew by 96,000 compared to the previous month, while full-time employment sank by 63,000, according to the BLS. The change in the types of employment follows a trend toward part-time employment that has been increasingly exacerbated since June 2023.

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DeSantis Calls for Constitutional Reforms to Address Spending, Border

DeSantis Speaking

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he is calling for constitutional reforms to hold leadership in Washington D.C. accountable for the crisis Americans face due to weak border policies and unchecked spending.

The second-term GOP governor and former presidential candidate is calling for a balanced federal budget, congressional term limits, laws being made equally applicable for citizens and members of Congress and line-item veto authority for the president.

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Home Sales in 2023 Were the Lowest in 28 Years as Affordability Crisis Plagued Americans

Home Owners

Sales for existing homes, which make up a majority of the housing market, slumped to the lowest level since 1995 as rising prices and sky-rocketing mortgage rates increased unaffordability, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

Existing home sales sank 1.0% in December compared to the previous month, falling 6.2% annually, with 4.09 million homes being sold for the year, according to a report from the NAR. The slump in sales follows a year of rising prices due to inflation, constrained supply and sky-high mortgage rates, which at one point neared 8%, suppressing demand and Americans’ ability to buy in the housing market.

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Poll Finds Americans Worried About National Debt

Congress Spending

Americans are worried about the national debt, according to the results of a new poll.

Americans have the national debt crisis as one of their top concerns along with war, inflation and crime. Those polled think the overspending has a direct impact on their personal security and also has an impact on the security of the United States, according to a recent study commissioned by Main Street Economics, a nonprofit group designed to educate Americans on the nation’s debt crisis.

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Commentary: The Intellectual Foundations of MAGA

MAGA Hat

Republicans are dumb. They are easily led suckers, voting against their own best interests, manipulated by dangerous demagogues. This accusation is accepted as fact by most Democrat voters and is relentlessly reinforced by the media Democrats rely on. From MSNBC, Democratic strategist James Carville says Republicans “have a lot of stupid people that vote in their primaries.”  From New York Magazine, “Is DeSantis Just Not Dumb Enough for Republicans?” From Vanity Fair, “Is the Sheer Stupidity of Republican Politics Breaking Through?”

Even some conservative columnists can’t criticize the Democrats without taking a shot at those stupid Republicans. Daniel Henninger, writing for the Wall Street Journal, characterized national politics this year as “The Stupid Party vs. the Evil Party.” As for the leader of the Republican Party, we have this from The New Republic, “Trump Is an Extremely Dumb Fascist.” And as James Carville said, “When stupid people vote, you know who they nominate? Other stupid people.”

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Commentary: Gun Owners End 2023 Proving Gun Control Advocates Wrong

Hunting

As 2023 drew to a close, millions of peaceable Americans geared up for a new year that will bring with it many new limitations on their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

In California, for example, Jan. 1 was the date to ring in the state’s plethora of new restrictions on carrying concealed firearms in public, courtesy of SB 2, a law passed in the wake of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen to punish concealed carry permit holders for having their rights vindicated by the Supreme Court.

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Commentary: Americans Embrace Religion, Reject Religious Bigotry

People Praying

More than half a century ago, Time magazine famously asked, “Is God Dead?” The black and red cover, the magazine’s first to include only text, sparked countless angry sermons and thousands of letters from readers accusing Time of engaging in tasteless nihilism, Marxist pandering, and outright blasphemy.

The question, which typified the counter-culture movement and the intellectual radicalism of the 1960s, was far off the mark both then and now. The United States has always been and remains a very religious nation despite steep declines in attendance at churches, synagogues, and mosques – trends that have captured far more headlines in recent years than the nation’s enduring faith. America is also a majority Christian nation, though other religious groups and affiliations and those identifying as non-believers are growing.

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Part-Time Jobs Are Booming Under Biden as Americans Look to Make Ends Meet

Uber Driver

More Americans are having to take part-time jobs as consumers struggle with economic factors like high inflation, while full-time employment has sunk in tandem, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Around 133,196,000 workers were employed with full-time jobs in the U.S. in December, which was down from 134,727,000 in November — a drop of more than 1.5 million, according to the BLS. During that same time frame, the number of Americans employed in part-time positions rose by 762,000, while the number of people with multiple jobs increased by 222,000.

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Commentary: Democrats Lie About Election Integrity as Republicans Work for It

A couple of months ago, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that it would hold its 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta, Georgia. This news is more than just a sports scheduling update: it represents the unraveling of Democrat conspiracy theories about election integrity in Georgia and across the country. 

In 2021, a host of leading Democrats – from Stacey Abrams, to Raphael Warnock, to Joe Biden – spread rampant misinformation about election integrity in Georgia, aided by a sympathetic mainstream media. The MLB was bullied into moving its game out of Atlanta, costing local businesses $100 million in projected revenue. They were lying about Georgia’s Senate Bill 202, which strengthens voter ID protections, expands early voting hours, and protects bipartisan poll watching, among other common sense functions. Polling shows that a strong majority of Americans support the measures contained in Senate Bill 202. However, Democrats saw an opportunity to unfairly demonize their political opponents and claimed, with no evidence whatsoever, that the law was aimed at suppressing minority voters. 

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Commentary: America’s Last Stand Is the Most Important Book in America

Thomas Paine

Nearly two and a half centuries ago, the 18th-century American colonists were confronted with a choice: whether or not to continue living their lives as British subjects and supporting the crown or to sever their ties with Great Britain and declare their independence. The choice may seem obvious and easy today, but at the time—circa 1776—a great many colonists were hesitant to choose freedom, and others even supported the crown. They needed persuading.

Fortunately, a virtually unknown immigrant named Thomas Paine felt compelled to persuade the American colonists to choose freedom. His pamphlet, Common Sense, was published on January 10, 1776, and its influence cannot be overstated. It was read by the modern equivalent of 15 million people at the time and provided the fuel the colonists needed to choose independence.

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Bidenomics: Unemployment Insurance Claims Leap as over 1.8 Million Americans Receive Benefits

State unemployment insurance claims rose last week by 12,000 while the number of people who are receiving benefits reached 1.875 million for the week ending Dec. 16, according to seasonally adjusted data released Thursday by the Labor Department. 

Seasonally adjusted initial claims hit 218,000 for the week ending Dec. 23 after rising by 12,000, according to the latest data. 

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Commentary: 11 More Examples of Defensive Gun Use to Fend Off Criminals

Gun Bullets

As cities across the country reel from explosive crime rates, many politicians at the local, state, and federal levels are too preoccupied with disarming peaceable American gun owners to identify, arrest, and prosecute actual criminals adequately.  

Two masked attackers met their match last month when they attacked Los Angeles resident Vince Ricci as he walked toward the front door of his house. The pair brandished a firearm at Ricci, who pulled out his own gun and shot at the thugs, who ran away.

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Americans Are Turning to Even More Financing Options as Savings Run Dry

Couple Credit Card

An increasing number of Americans are turning to buy now and pay later (BNPL) services like layaway as they continue to drain their savings and interest rates on credit cards grow, according to Reuters.

Credit card debt, with its high interest rates, in aggregate exceeded $1 trillion for Americans in 2023 for the first time ever, leading many Americans to use BNPL services that charge a far lower 2% to 8% fee instead, masking a considerable source of debt, according to Reuters. The search for cheaper financing follows declining savings for Americans as they spend through their reserves, holding only $768.6 billion in October, down from over $1 trillion held in May and even further from the all-time high of almost $6 trillion held in April 2020.

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Americans Turn on TikTok: 54 Percent Support Banning Social Media App

TikTok User

TikTok might be popular among America’s youth, but a majority of voters view it as a threat to the United States. An even higher percentage favor a federal ban of the social media platform.

RMG Research, a polling firm led by Scott Rasmussen, shared its latest survey data exclusively with The Daily Signal. The poll was conducted Dec. 18-19 among 1,000 registered U.S. voters.

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Americans Sour on Big Pharma After Pandemic, Opioid Crisis: Poll

COVID Pfizer

Public opinion on the pharmaceutical industry has declined sharply over the past decade, according to new polling released by Gallup.

The proportion of Americans who believe pharmaceutical companies provide good or excellent services declined 21 points between 2010 and 2023, according to a poll released Monday. Public controversies over COVID-19 vaccines and the opioid crisis have implicated the pharmaceutical industry in recent years.

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Commentary: With ‘White Christmas,’ Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby Helped Make Christmas a Holiday That All Americans Could Celebrate

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was a Jewish immigrant who loved America. As his 1938 song “God Bless America” suggests, he believed deeply in the nation’s potential for goodness, unity and global leadership.

In 1940, he wrote another quintessential American song, “White Christmas,” which the popular entertainer Bing Crosby eventually made famous.

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Commentary: COVID Redux

Masks People

Life is hard if you do not learn from your mistakes. With Covid, political leaders and public health authorities engaged in a series of missteps, miscalculations, and manias that amounted to an extreme overreaction to the disease.

First, statistical models overstated the risk of the disease by an order of magnitude. Then, even after these miscalculations became apparent, other extreme measures like lockdowns, mandatory masking, coercive vaccine mandates, and a million other indignities ensued. In the end, almost everyone got Covid, almost everyone survived, and, while the economic countermeasures increased our national debt by 30%, the economy soon recovered too.

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Study: More Americans over the Age of 65 are Heading Back to Work

Old People Working

A new study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center reveals that a rising number of Americans over the age of 65, the normal age for retirement, are heading back to work to earn higher wages.

According to Axios, the number of older Americans returning to the workforce has been consistently rising since the late 1980s, with one major decline during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic. Some of the reasons for this increasing return to work include changes in Social Security law forcing older Americans to keep working even past 65 in order to receive their full benefits; additionally, there has been a shift away from pension plans that normally would force most Americans to retire by a certain age, in favor of 401(k) plans that allow for ongoing workforce participation.

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Existing Home Sales on Track for Worst Year Since at Least 2008

Existing home sales are on track for a dismal year, likely dropping 18% and on course for the worst year since at least 2008’s Great Recession and possibly the worst since 1995. 

And while prices may soften in 2024, single-family homes will remain out of reach for many Americans, National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said Tuesday in the real estate organization’s annual summit. 

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Commentary: Americans Turn on Globalists Saying Government Spending, Greed, and Global Issues Drive Inflation

A new survey reveals inflation is still the primary concern for Americans by a wide margin, and the public is beginning to turn on big government and recognize government spending and globalism as the culprits behind a dwindling standard of living.

This comes at a time when the country is poised to choose between another four years of excessive spending and an evaporating middle-class or return to an America First philosophy that strengthens the middle-class and structures international policy in our favor.

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10 Revelations That Changed Americans’ Understanding of Events on January 6

Videotape of a Capitol door being mistakenly unlocked. Photos of gallows being set up outside without any police interference. Officers exhorting protesters to storm the Capitol. Intelligence warnings of potential violence that went unheeded. Major changes to testimony.

A year after the Democrat-led House Select Committee on Jan. 6 ended it works, major new revelations have emerged from House Republicans led by Rep, Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga, about how the Capitol riot unfolded that fateful day and the security failures that occurred in the days and hours ahead of the violence.

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China is Running an Operation to Get Americans Hooked on Illegal Drugs, Former DEA Boss Warns

Fentanyl

Police operations from California to Maine have busted Chinese nationals operating illegal marijuana growing sites. U.S. officials have clear evidence China is providing Mexican drug cartels the precursor chemicals to make the fentanyl flowing into America. The Drug Enforcement Administration has substantial evidence dating back a decade of Beijing’s role in flooding U.S. cities with a wide range of addictive and harmful drugs.

Experts say there is growing evidence that communist China has launched concerted operations to hook Americans on drugs as part of a larger effort to supplant the United States as the world’s No. 1 superpower. Adding to the problem, the insecure border of the Biden era has only accelerated operations that have killed tens of thousands of Americans from fentanyl poisoning alone. The National Center for Health Statistics reported that drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl increased by 279% from 5.7 per 100,000 in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021.

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Faith in the American Dream Plummets Under Biden: Poll

A majority of U.S. voters feel that the “American dream” cannot be achieved, according to a poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NORC.

Approximately 36% of voters said that the American Dream – as defined by the notion that if an individual works hard, they will get ahead – was attainable, down from 68% who said the same last year, according to the WSJ/NORC poll released on Friday. Roughly two-thirds of voters feel the economy is in poor condition as inflation continues to outpace wages and prices continue to rise.

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Poll: Americans Say Schools Should Focus on Math, Reading, and Writing

A large majority of voters say that public schools should focus on the basics – math, reading, writing, science and social studies – to improve the quality of public education in the country.

That’s according to the latest The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice poll conducted in late October in conjunction with Noble Predictive Insights. The poll of 2,605 likely voters includes 1,035 Republicans, 1,074 Democrats, and 496 true Independents, and is among the most comprehensive in the country.

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Biden Admin’s Regulatory Overhaul Will Burden Americans in the Name of Fighting Climate Change

President Joe Biden’s administration finalized guidance Thursday likely to burden Americans with costlier regulations to fulfill administration priorities such as combating climate change.

Biden’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is enacting new guidance that would require regulators to consider priorities like inequality and climate change when analyzing the costs and benefits of regulation. The White House argued the guidance is necessary so that regulations are issued with up-to-date analysis and information.

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Poll: Most Americans Believe A.I. Will Lead to More Misinformation in 2024

A new poll released on Friday shows that a majority of Americans believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to more misinformation being spread on the Internet during the 2024 presidential election.

According to The Hill, the poll from AP-NORC and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy found that 58% of Americans believe AI will lead to an increase in election misinformation. Among respondents who said they have “heard a lot or some about AI” 61% believed in the threat of more misinformation.

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