Cross-Examination

• Incomes fall three years straight: One of the major reasons why a majority of Americans aren’t buying the Bidenomics lie is because of what they are experiencing with their bank accounts. For the third straight year, American households’ inflation-adjusted median income has fallen. In 2022, median household income came in at $74,580, a decrease of 2.3% from 2021, when the number was $76,330. Despite the fact that wages have grown, sustained high inflation means the cost of everything is increasingly outpacing that wage growth, and Americans are finding themselves getting further and further behind. Demonstrating this unfortunate reality, last year the nation’s poverty rate jumped to 12.4%, more than doubling from 2020’s 5.2%. Bidenomics, folks.

• Inflation is rising again: Speaking of inflation, for the second month in a row it grew again in August by 0.3%, rising to 3.7% over this time last year. Leading the way on the inflationary increase were energy prices, which rose 5.6% over the prior month, with the price of gas jumping 10.6%. Food prices rose 0.2% and housing costs increased 0.3%. This upturn in inflation effectively decreased wage earnings by 0.5% on the month. The question is whether the Federal Reserve will continue hiking interest rates, which it has increased by 5.25% since March 2022.

• COVID aid theft: On Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office released a report estimating that as much as $135 billion in COVID unemployment aid had been stolen by fraudsters. To put it another way, out of every $7 in aid the government handed out, $1 of it was stolen. The GAO faulted both the Trump and Biden administrations for failing to close technical and legal loopholes that were exploited by criminals. Between April 2020 and May 2023, the time span over which the federal government declared a public health emergency, an estimated 11% to 15% of the $900 billion the federal government shelled out in unemployment insurance was stolen. The GAO also noted that the “full extent of [unemployment] fraud during the pandemic will likely never be known with certainty.”

• Biden’s deadly border: According to a recently released report from the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), there were 686 deaths and disappearances of migrants trekking toward the U.S. southern border last year alone. That number makes the migration routes through Mexico the world’s deadliest. Of course, this is yet another data point showing the inhumanity of Joe Biden’s de facto open border, and it should be used as a call for Biden to uphold and enforce the border more aggressively to stop this problem. As for the IOM, its response was to instead call for “decisive action to create regular legal migration pathways.”

• Kamala won’t set an abortion limit: When Republicans like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis accurately note that Democrats don’t want any limits placed on abortions even all the way up to the point of birth, Democrats and the Leftmedia howl and insist that DeSantis is lying. Well, time and again when Democrat politicians are pressed on the issue, they end up proving DeSantis correct. A recent example comes courtesy of Kamala Harris, who was asked by CBS’s Margaret Brennan, “What week of pregnancy should abortion access be cut off?” Harris at first obfuscated. “We’re not trying to do something new,” she insisted, but Democrats just want to “restore the protections of Roe [v.] Wade.” To her credit, Brennan pushed back on Harris, noting that Roe was “nebulous … about viability, which could be anywhere between 20 to 24 weeks.” Harris continued to deflect by refusing to agree to any limit placed on abortion, only asserting, “Abortion should be a private matter between a woman and her doctor.”

• DOJ indicts five officers in Nichols case: The federal government has indicted five former Memphis police officers with criminal charges related to the beating death of Tyre Nichols last year. Following the incident, the five officers were fired. The former officers all already have been charged by the state of Tennessee with second-degree murder and aggravated assault, among other charges. This case has failed to gain much national attention likely because it doesn’t fit the “racist cop” narrative. All individuals involved are black. Released video footage of the beating appears pretty damning. Despite this, all the former officers have maintained their innocence, with a lawyer representing one of the men calling for the release of additional footage surrounding the incident.

Headlines

• McCarthy opens impeachment inquiry into alleged Biden family corruption (National Review)

• Chuck Schumer calls Biden impeachment inquiry “absurd,” a “witch hunt” (Not the Bee)

• White House to send letter urging news outlets to “ramp up scrutiny” of Biden impeachment inquiry (NY Post)

• Ex-FBI agent Timothy Thibault, accused of Hunter Biden political bias, meets with Congress (Washington Examiner)

• Whistleblower alleges CIA offered officials money to change view of COVID origins (Fox News)

• Sexually explicit library books subject of congressional hearing (Just the News)

• Washington University to cease all hormone treatments to minors (RedState)

• Democrat AG rebuffs New Mexico governor, refuses to defend gun carry ban in court (Daily Wire)

• California Dems pass concealed-carry restrictions that could lead to Supreme Court challenge (National Review)

• DC teens are committing crimes in droves. Punishment is light. (Free Beacon)

• Even blue-state voters oppose a ban on new gas-powered cars, poll shows (Free Beacon)

• Policy: FEMA money should go to disaster-stricken Americans, not illegal aliens (Daily Signal)

• Satire: McCarthy announces he has greenlit a probe to examine the possibility of investigating preliminary meetings into whether or not they should begin to consider the future likelihood of hypothetical impeachment hearings sometime later down the road (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.