The Patriot Post® · Tuesday Top Headline Summary
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview that she opposes moving to impeach President Trump even though she believes he is ‘unfit’ for office,” The Washington Post reports. The Post infers that “Pelosi is well aware of the political risks of impeachment and how pursuit of the president could energize Republicans voters ahead of the 2020 election.” But National Review’s Charles C. W. Cooke speculates that Pelosi is privy to certain information related to the Robert Mueller probe.
“President Trump kicked off a new battle with Congress on Monday by releasing his fiscal 2020 budget plan seeking billions more in funding for a border wall and controversial work requirements for Americans collecting a variety of welfare benefits. Both proposals are sure to face resistance from Democrats, especially coming off a partial shutdown triggered by a border wall dispute that only ended when Trump declared a national emergency over immigration — a step being litigated in the courts and challenged in Congress. The requests are part of the president’s $4.7 trillion budget plan.” (Fox News)
“As growing chaos took hold in Venezuela, a country whose people have had little power, water and communications for days, the United States announced plans to withdraw all remaining personnel from its embassy there this week. … [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo announced the decision late Monday as Venezuela struggles to restore electricity following four days of blackouts around the country and a deepening political crisis.” (Associated Press)
“The 2020 Democratic National Convention will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez announced Monday, a decision that comes after Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the critical state to Donald Trump in 2016. … The city beat out Miami and Houston as the site to host the Democratic Party’s convention, which will take place between July 13 and 16. … Clinton’s unexpected loss in Wisconsin sparked widespread griping in the party that the state, which she did not campaign in once during the general election, was largely ignored in favor of bigger electoral prizes like Florida, which also ultimately went to Trump on election night.” (ABC News)
According to Politico, “Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), one of the most outspoken advocates of the #MeToo movement who has made fighting sexual misconduct a centerpiece of her presidential campaign, spent last summer pressing legislators to update Congress’ ‘broken’ system of handling sexual harassment. At the same time, a mid-20s female aide to Gillibrand resigned in protest over the handling of her sexual harassment complaint by Gillibrand’s office, and criticized the senator for failing to abide by her own public standards.” Recall back in December when a Kamala Harris aide stepped down for likewise harassing a female.
“The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a far-left nonprofit known for its ‘hate group’ designations, has surpassed a half billion dollars in total assets and now has $121 million parked offshore, according to the group’s most recent financial statements. … The SPLC’s assets increased despite its total revenue falling by $15 million last year. The SPLC hauled in $136 million in total revenue throughout 2017. This number fell to $121 million in 2018. Its contributions and grants also fell by more than $20 million from 2017 to 2018, from $132 million to $111 million. Despite the fall in revenue, the SPLC’s vast investment portfolio expanded in 2018, which included a drastic increase in the amount of money it has parked overseas.” (The Washington Free Beacon)
“ICE health officials have been notified of 236 confirmed or probable cases of mumps among detainees in 51 facilities in the past 12 months, compared to no cases detected between January 2016 and February 2018. Last year, 423 detainees were determined to have influenza and 461 to have chicken pox. All three diseases are largely preventable by vaccine. As of March 7, a total of 2,287 detainees were quarantined around the country.” (Reuters)
“New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that NYC’s public schools will be going vegetarian one day per week in order to save the Earth. … Recent studies, however, have demonstrated that while eating meat does have an environmental impact, cows aren’t the Four Horsemen of the climate change apocalypse, and … in most places in the world where populations aren’t swimming in excess food, cattle, pigs, goats, and chickens provide much-needed sources of protein.” (The Daily Wire)
“President Trump apparently is tired of switching clocks just like everyone else,” Fox News reports. Coming off a universally sleep-deprived weekend during which America set the clocks to spring forward an hour, Trump tweeted that he’s ‘O.K.’ with making Daylight Saving Time ‘permanent’ — in other words, enough with the clock changing. … Republican Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott filed a bill last week to extend daylight saving time for the entire year, called the Sunshine Protection Act.“ Help fight communism by making daylight great again.
Humor: "We must resist Trump!” cries woman whose life hasn’t changed in the slightest since Trump was elected (The Babylon Bee)
Policy: “It would take real reforms to Medicare that change its spending and funding formulas in order to get the U.S. government off its current path to fiscal disaster,” write the Washington Examiner editors. “Wealthy retirees should be responsible for more of their own coverage. More services should have larger co-pays. But the Trump White House has timidly sworn off these reforms.”
Policy: The Heritage Foundation’s James Gattuso says, “Just over one year ago, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to repeal the network neutrality rules it adopted in 2015. However, the FCC regulation could make a comeback if House Democrats have their way.” Here’s why this is a bad idea.
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.