Cross-Examination

• Solid Q4 GDP numbers: Economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2023 bested expectations, showing a 3.3% rise in GDP over the final three months. That number raises the overall economic growth for 2023 to 2.5%, up from 1.9% in 2022. That’s good news because a widely anticipated and feared coming recession did not materialize. The silver lining on inflation is that it rose just 2% over the final quarter, though it was double that for the year and more than 17% since Joe Biden took office. This GDP growth amounts to “supersonic Goldilocks because it’s really a strong number, yet inflation hasn’t shown up,” said U.S. Bank chief economist Beth Ann Bovino. “Everybody wanted to have fun. People bought new cars, a lot of recreation spending as well as taking trips. We’ve been expecting a soft landing for some time. This is just one step in that direction.” However, Allianz Trade Americas senior economist Dan North warned against overblowing the positive GDP news. “It was a great report,” he said, “but you didn’t see the market move much because GDP is backward-looking. It told us what happened in October and November and December. It’s great for historical patterns, but it doesn’t really tell us much about where we’re headed.”

• Why is McConnell’s border bill such a secret? Mitch McConnell isn’t just standing there. He’s doing something. And that something is working secretively, behind closed doors, to craft a border bill that’s acceptable to Democrats while at the same time pressuring his fellow Republicans to support it before releasing its terms to the public. It’s as if he wants Republican lawmakers to pass it so the rest of us can find out what’s in it. As Breitbart reports: “The draft bill is also being reviewed by the Senate’s Committee on Appropriations because the Biden administration wants roughly $15 billion to operate its migration program in 2024. The money is needed by Democrats to process, transport, feed, house, and hide arriving 2024 migrants — and the 6.2 million migrants already admitted — during the run-up to the 2024 election. The extra spending can also be used to persuade senators who do not yet support the giveaway.” Also on Capitol Hill, Republican senators grilled Melissa Dalton, Joe Biden’s nominee for undersecretary of the Air Force. Dalton, it turns out, supervised the recent sell-off of border wall materials at a 97% discount — to buyers who immediately resold it for 10 times that amount, according to Iowa Senator Joni Ernst. Regarding the Pentagon plan that led to the ridiculous fire sale and the bilking of American taxpayers, Dalton said, “It was the best available information we had at the time.”

• Black Chicagoans are sick of illegal immigration: The influx of illegal aliens into Chicago’s black neighborhoods is reaching a boiling point for many residents. These poorer black neighborhoods have long been a political backbone of Chicago’s Democrat Party, but Joe Biden’s migrant crisis has many residents regretting their vote. As one resident expressed regarding Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson and other Democrat leaders, “All these people, I have supported every one of them.” Yet upon learning of city leaders’ plan to use Amundsen Park as an area to house illegal aliens, combined with all the money the city has spent on providing for migrants, that resident huffed, “I was like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’” Increasingly, anger over the migrant crisis is growing, especially among black residents in Chicago, to the point where many are openly blaming Biden and stating that they will not be voting for him, and some are even suggesting that they plan to vote for Donald Trump. Furthermore, at least three black residents are now suing the city of Chicago over its migrant accommodation policies, which are negatively impacting their communities. This represents a great political opportunity for not only Trump but also Republicans to offer a genuine ear and policy solutions for these blue-city residents whose frustration is mounting with the failures of Democrat leadership.

• Good news: DeWine’s “trans” pandering is defeated: On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate voted to override Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of HB 68, legislation that bans the medical gender mutilation of minors. The override vote followed along party lines, with a 23-9 result in the Republican-dominated Senate. This came two weeks after the Republican-controlled House voted to override DeWine’s veto. The legislation, now Ohio law that will take effect later this year, bans medical gender-bending treatments, including the administering of cross-sex hormones and mutilation surgeries on minors. Furthermore, the new legislation bars male athletes from competing in female-only sports, as the law reads, “No school, interscholastic conference, or organization that regulates interscholastic athletics shall knowingly permit individuals of the male sex to participate on athletic teams or in athletic competitions designated only for participants of the female sex." This is good news for Ohioans, as Republican lawmakers stood strong and on the morally correct side of this needlessly divisive issue. Protecting children from being permanently damaged by this gender-bending social contagion is always the right thing to stand for, even as the Republican governor got cold feet.

• Serious miseducation: It’s no secret that the American education system continues to fail our children, but that grim fact isn’t deterring one public school from focusing on superfluous matters rather than academic excellence. The Amigos School of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is planning to throw a "period party” next month for third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders in order to help “de-stigmatize periods while empowering and supporting youth as they approach puberty — and beyond,” according to Mpower, the group that will orchestrate the event. As National Review reports, the period party will include “menstruation goodie bags and period empowerment speakers who will share their first period stories.” A watchdog group called Parents Defending Education uncovered the school-sponsored scheme by way of an email from the school to parents. “It defies explanation that a school is hosting a period-themed party,” said Erika Sanzi, the watchdog group’s spokesperson. “Those in charge at the school have clearly lost sight of the concept of boundaries.”

• Despicable exploitation of tragedy: The Democrats have increasingly become a one-trick party, and First Lady Jill Biden’s special guest at her husband’s upcoming State of the Union address is proof positive of this. That one trick is, of course, abortion, and that honored guest is Kate Cox, the young woman who fought tooth and nail for the right to leave Texas in order to abort her unborn child. As The Daily Wire reports, “Cox, who has two other children, was more than 20 weeks pregnant with a baby who had a condition called trisomy 18, which involves having an extra chromosome 18 and can cause abnormalities like heart defects.” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre trumpeted the news: “On Sunday, the President and the First Lady spoke to Kate Cox, who was forced to go to court to seek permission for the care she needed for a nonviable pregnancy that threatened her life. They thanked her for her courage in sharing her story and speaking out about the impact of the extreme abortion ban in Texas.” That the Biden administration would seek to capitalize on the wrenching tragedy of this young woman — before discarding her after she’s no longer useful — tells us all we need to know about its moral bankruptcy.

• Oregon Dems backpedal: To anyone with even a limited grasp on the reality of human nature, it was obviously a bad idea. But back in 2020, voters in Oregon passed Measure 110, championed by Democrat lawmakers, that decriminalized drug use. Democrat lawmakers claimed that this decriminalization of drug use would lead to lower crime rates and more addicts getting the help they needed. Well, lo and behold, the legislation did just the opposite, as conservatives predicted, and now drug-related crimes are spiking and there’s a rampant fentanyl crisis sending overdose deaths surging. So, the Beaver State’s Democrat lawmakers are now seeking a means of putting the proverbial toothpaste back into the tube. On Tuesday, they introduced new legislation that would recriminalize drug possession as a misdemeanor, which would allow law enforcement to confiscate drugs as well as remove from public places individuals who are using drugs. One Democrat lawmaker called it a “compromise path.” It will be interesting to see if Oregon’s Democrat-dominated government will pass the legislation.

Headlines

• United Auto Workers union endorses Biden after eight-month delay (National Review)

• Immigration is now top voter concern, beating inflation, new poll shows (Daily Wire)

• Dems call on Biden to seize control of Texas National Guard (Fox News)

• Trial begins for six pro-lifers targeted by Biden administration over peaceful protest (Daily Wire)

• Arizona GOP chairman resigns after Kari Lake recording leak (National Review)

• TED fellows resign after Bill Ackman, Bari Weiss invited to speak at conference (National Review)

• New Jersey banned plastic bags and increased plastic usage by 300% (Hot Air)

• Policy: Four reasons U.S. military isn’t prepared to face worst enemies (Daily Signal)

• Humor: Texas places razor wire around The Alamo for final stand against Biden (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.