Thursday Top News Executive Summary
Crises with debt and the border, Barr in contempt, Trump on foreign “dirt,” and more.
DEBT CRISIS: “Washington posted a $208 billion budget deficit in May as a modest increase in revenues failed to make up for higher spending on the military and social welfare programs like Medicare, according to data released on Wednesday by the Treasury Department. The deficit was the highest ever for the month of May… Government spending rose to $440 billion, up 21% from May of 2018. Receipts increased to $232 billion, up 7% from the same month last year.” (Reuters)
BORDER CRISIS: “The federal government has chosen a military base in Oklahoma as the location for a new temporary shelter to house migrant children and is considering a customs port in southern New Mexico as another option as existing shelters are overwhelmed. The Office of Refugee Resettlement said Tuesday it’s dealing with a dramatic spike in the number of children crossing the border without parents.” (NBC News)
CONTEMPTIBLE DEMS: “The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted largely along party lines Wednesday afternoon to hold Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in contempt over their refusal to comply with lawmakers’ subpoena-backed demands for documents related to the inclusion of a citizenship question on the upcoming census,” reports National Review. “The contempt resolution passed 24–15, with Representative Justin Amash of Michigan the only Republican to join Democrats in support.”
COLLUSION IS ALIVE: “House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., sought Wednesday to keep the fire burning over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report with the latest in a series of hearings on the Russia controversy — as Republicans voiced frustration over what they described as a ‘grotesque spectacle’ on Capitol Hill.” (Fox News)
TRUMP ON FOREIGN DIRT ON POLITICAL FOES “President Donald Trump may not alert the FBI if foreign governments offered damaging information against his 2020 rivals during the upcoming presidential race, he said, despite the deluge of investigations stemming from his campaign’s interactions with Russians during the 2016 campaign.” (ABC News)
SANDERS TOUTS SOCIALISM: “Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Wednesday gave what was billed as a major speech outlining his sweeping vision for ‘democratic socialism’ that he said would require nothing short of ‘political revolution,’” reports the Washington Examiner.
SOCIAL SECURITY: “Baby boomers are often blamed for putting a strain on Social Security, but a new study has found that the generation may not actually be responsible. A new report from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College has found that the problems facing Social Security today are a result of the way the program was developed in the late 1930s.” (Fox Business)
CULTURE OF DEATH: Just days after a troubling study about the drastic rise of deaths of despair nationwide, the Associated Press reports, “Maine legalized medically assisted suicide on Wednesday, becoming the eighth state to allow terminally ill people to end their lives with prescribed medication.”
POLICY: “A new study by the Institute for Justice says federal asset forfeiture funds have little to no impact on solving crimes, suggesting police are more interested in the revenue it generates.” (Reason)
POLICY: Mass homelessness exposes California’s political dysfunction (The Daily Signal)
HUMOR: Homophobic bigot changes his ways after stumbling across rainbow-colored corporate logo on Facebook (The Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.
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