Leftists Try, and Fail, to Smear Speaker Johnson as ‘Christian Nationalist’

• Democrats are trying to make Halloween extra spooky this year by exhuming the boogieman of Christian nationalism. The news hook is the election of a conservative Christian as speaker of the House. Rep. Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, won the election last week.
• In the left-wing media’s lexicon, Christian nationalism doesn’t refer to the handful of people who would like to repeal the First Amendment. It refers to people—usually evangelical Christians like Johnson—who think bad secularist court decisions have drastically curtailed the Framers’ vision of the free exercise of religion over the last several decades.
• Look past the heated rhetoric and it becomes clear that this denunciation from the Left (“Christian” or otherwise) is really an effort to keep conservative Christians from applying their faith to their politics.
• The Left evidently doesn’t like Johnson. But rather than challenging his views directly, they’re trying to smear him. Conservatives should not fall for this trick. Instead, we should receive it as the treat it is: Left-wing pundits are panicked about the new, constitutionally-grounded speaker of the House.

Schedule an Interview: Ryan Walker

When the Left Says, “Border Security,” They Mean Increasing the Flow

• President Biden is asking Congress for $13.6 billion in “border security funding.”
• But when the Left says, “border security,” they don’t mean securing the border, they mean increasing the flow.
• The president’s $13.6 billion request includes funding for additional Customs and Border Protection officers to process more illegal aliens quickly into the U.S. and buy more plane and bus tickets to move illegal aliens to the nation’s interior faster.
• Biden’s request would fund more federal bureaucrats to hand out work permits faster. It would cut travel time and costs for people not authorized to come to America by paying to fly illegal immigrants directly in rather than having to walk to the border.
• Customs and Border Protection announced that they encountered over 2.4 million inadmissible aliens at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which ended Sept. 30. The funding sought by Biden’s request would make the border crisis worse.

Schedule an Interview: Lora Ries and RJ Hauman

Bidenflation: Hazardous to Your Health Care, Too

• Bidenomics is driving up the cost of health care.
• Rather than addressing underlying issues, the Biden administration’s answer to rising health care costs is more government—that is, more government subsidies and more government price controls.
• During the COVID-19 emergency, ACA subsidies were enhanced and expanded. These temporary boosts are set to expire at the end of 2025. Yet, the Biden administration has already revealed its aims to make them permanent.
• In Medicare, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act inserted new government price controls, including an enormous new excise tax, on prescription drugs. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, there will be less innovation and fewer life-changing drugs for patients.
• In Medicaid, the Biden administration’s policy is to ignore the fiscal and demographic challenges bubbling to the surface, and instead, fixate on expanding the program and spending money at all costs to do it.

Schedule an Interview: Nina Schaefer