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Friday, June 2, 2023

Kevin McCarthy Defying Expectations, Leading Bipartisan Legislation

Wall Street Journal: For House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, pursuing a bipartisan deal to avoid defaulting on the nation’s debt meant putting his own job at risk. Now he is taking a victory lap, even as threats to his leadership endure in corners of his party. On Wednesday, the California Republican successfully shepherded a must-pass bill through the House to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling into early 2025 in exchange for reining in federal spending. The bill, crafted in breakneck talks with the White House, now heads to the Senate. The passage of the bill marked a third key win for McCarthy and a setback for his detractors, who earlier questioned whether he would get the votes to become speaker back in January and doubted he could guide a debt-ceiling bill through the House in April, much less a bipartisan debt-ceiling deal in May (Wall Street Journal). Hill: The Speaker has defied expectations since struggling to win the gavel in January, rallying Republicans behind a host of bills advancing the party’s priorities on a wide variety of issues, including immigration, energy policy and education. The fraught process has proven that McCarthy can not only move partisan bills through the House, but can also navigate bipartisan bills into law — all in a pressure-cooker environment when failure might have led to an economy-crushing default (Hill).

Senate Votes to Block Student Loan Cancelation 52-46; Biden Vows to Veto Resolution

Just the News: The Senate voted 52-46 on Thursday to block President Joe Biden’s student loan relief program. The legislation would repeal Biden’s debt relief program and resume federal student loan debt payments, which the administration had on pause. Moderate senators, including Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana as well as independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, voted with Republicans to pass the bill. Democrats expressed outrage after the resolution passed (Just the News). NBC: The House passed the measure last week in a 218-203 vote, largely along party lines, with two Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington — joining Republicans in supporting the measure. Just a simple majority of senators were needed to pass the legislation and send it to Biden’s desk. But the White House warned in a Statement of Administration Policy last month that Biden would veto the resolution (NBC).

Women’s Magazine Kicks Off “Pride Month” by Putting “Trans Pregnant Man” on Cover

This is a legitimate mental illness. Townhall: On Thursday, left-wing women’s magazine Glamour UK announced that a “trans pregnant man” named Logan Brown is its June “Pride Month” cover star. According to the outlet, Brown is an author and “father.” Brown “unexpectedly became pregnant” with her partner, a drag performer who identifies as “non-binary” (Townhall). British Glamour: Introducing Logan Brown, GLAMOUR’s June Pride cover star. “I’m a pregnant trans man and I do exist. No matter what anyone says, I’m living proof” (Twitter). Oli London: Day 1 of Pride Month kicks off with a pregnant woman who claims to be a man and calls herself a ‘pregnant man’ and ‘father’ appearing on the cover of one of the UK’s biggest women’s magazine- Glamour UK (Twitter).

Despite Losing $27 Billion, Bud Light Continues to Sponsor LGBTQ Organizations

Fox News: Two months ago, Bud Light rolled the dice on a marketing push involving transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, a move that has been met with customer pushback, boycotts and a big hit to the bottom line in the form of falling sales and the value of parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev. About $27 billion in market value has vanished, falling to $107.44 billion through the end of May, down from $134.55 billion on March 31 (Fox News). Townhall: Bud Light announced it would continue its partnership with the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce and donate $200,000 to the business advocacy organization to support its initiative focused on the minority LGBTQ+ business community (Townhall).

Senate Passes Debt Ceiling Proposal, Legislation Moves to Oval Office

Wall Street Journal: The Senate passed wide-ranging legislation Thursday that suspends the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling while cutting federal spending, backing a bipartisan deal struck by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to avert an unprecedented U.S. default. The 63-36 vote reflected support from both Democrats and Republicans, with backers saying the need to raise the nation’s borrowing limit outweighed concern about provisions related to military and domestic spending and energy policy. The measure now goes to the president for his signature with several days to spare before June 5 (Wall Street Journal). Associated Press: Overall, the 99-page bill restricts spending for the next two years, suspends the debt ceiling into January 2025 and changes some policies, including imposing new work requirements for older Americans receiving food aid and greenlighting an Appalachian natural gas line that many Democrats oppose (Associated Press).

11 GOP States Band Together to Help Secure the Southern Border

Daily Signal: Republican governors are sending National Guard troops to the southern border. Governors of Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia announced this week they will send troops to Texas to support the work of Gov. Greg Abbott and Operation Lone Star to secure the southern border. Since the start of the Biden administration, Customs and Border Protection reports encountering more than 5.5 million illegal aliens at the southern border. Since fiscal year 2023 began on Oct. 1, CBP has encountered more than 1.4 million illegal aliens, about triple the number encountered at the southern border during fiscal year 2020. CBP has seized a record 17,000 pounds of fentanyl at the southern border so far in fiscal year 2023, which ends Sept. 30, more than triple the total amount seized in all of fiscal year 2020 (Daily Signal). RNC Research: Biden says the border is “safe and orderly and humane.” Harris says “we have a secure border.” Mayorkas says “the border is secure.” They are all LYING (Twitter).

Drag Show Canceled at US Air Force Base, GOP Asks Why Tax Dollars are Funding Drag Shows

ABC: The Pentagon informed Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base that a previously approved drag show slated to take place on the base on the first day of Pride Month could not take place because it was not in line with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s recent comments (ABC). Daily Wire: In a letter to both Department of Defense officials, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said that the U.S. military had approved six other drag show events occurring on different bases in Montana, Virginia, and overseas at the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. “I find it completely unacceptable that DoD is using taxpayer dollars to fund DEI programs that are divisive in nature,” Gaetz wrote. “DoD resources should be used for mission-essential operations, not diverted toward initiatives that create cultural fissures within our service ranks.” Gaetz asked U.S. officials to clarify if any punitive action has or will be taken against individuals who facilitated drag events with taxpayer dollars by June 12 (Daily Wire).

US Birth Rate Has Not Recovered to Pre-Pandemic Levels

Hill: The total number of births in the United States remained flat in 2022 compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC reported 3,661,220 provisional births in the United States in 2022, which is about 3,000 fewer births than in 2021 in what the CDC calls a “nonsignificant decline. The total number of births in 2022 also remained below pre-pandemic levels after the birthrate slightly rebounded in 2021 after the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic (Hill). HotAir: The reality is that the average number of births per woman in any society that’s required to maintain a stable population over the long run (known as the replacement rate) is roughly 2.1 births per woman. We have now dropped below 1.7 (HotAir).

10,000 Pictures from Hunter Biden’s Laptop Made Public by Nonprofit Research Group

National Review: Thousands of photos from first son Hunter Biden’s laptop have been made publicly available via a website. The site was launched by the “nonprofit research group exposing corruption & blackmail” Marco Polo, headed by former Trump White House aide Garrett Ziegler. Ziegler stated that it took his team months to review and redact the photos, which span from 2008 to 2019. He emphasized that the aim of the website is to provide truth and transparency, allowing the American people to see what their first family is like, without excluding photos that may portray the Bidens in a negative light (National Review). Collin Rugg: 10,000 crazy photos from Hunter Biden’s laptop surface online. If this was Don. Jr. he would surly be in prison (Twitter).

10.

POTUS Takes a Tumble on Stage at the USAFA Graduation Ceremony

Just the News: Biden falls on stage at U.S. Air Force Academy graduation. Video footage shows the president hand one graduate his diploma, at which point the crowd breaks into applause. The president then turns to his left and stumbles, prompting screams from the crowd. The commander-in-chief appeared to land on his knees but then fell sideways to fully hit the ground. He required the aid of three nearby persons to stand back up (Just the News). BNO News: Biden falls on stage at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony (Twitter).