Top of the Fold

• GOP wants to know: Where are the COVID tests? Last March, congressional Democrats unilaterally passed a bill allocating $47 billion in additional funding for the development, manufacture, and distribution of rapid COVID tests. Now, with the Omicron variant hitting the country hard, Republican lawmakers are asking, where are all the promised new tests? “For the last month, Americans have faced long lines at testing centers. They’ve gone to places where they thought they could purchase a rapid test to find empty shelves,” Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) observed. “The question I really have is the same that many Americans have, which is, what went wrong? Why are we facing such a shortage of tests now?” Furthermore, where did all that money go?

• Swamp Doctor warns of “disinformation” at WEF summit: Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has a history of spreading COVID misinformation, warned at the World Economic Forum’s virtual summit that “we have ‘disinformation’ that is entirely destructive to a comprehensive public health endeavor.” Records show that Fauci intentionally worked to smear researchers who saw the Wuhan lab-leak theory as plausible by suggesting they were peddling in unscientific conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, at the same summit, Xi Jinping — the Chinese president and communist disinformation mastermind who is to blame for the COVID debacle — warned against blame-shifting.

• “We are definitely going to” investigate Fauci: Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) promised to open an investigation into Anthony Fauci should the GOP retake the House in November. “If the American people put us back in charge, we are definitely going to do this because we now know without a doubt that Dr. Fauci knew on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 that [COVID] came from a lab.” Jordan contended in a recent Fox News interview that Fauci’s actions in early 2020, brought to light by recently released emails, show that he sought to discredit the lab-leak-origin theory out of apparent political motives rather than scientific ones.

• Democrats on the decline: A newly released Gallup poll finds a dramatic shift in the number of Americans who identify as Democrat versus Republican. Since Joe Biden took office one year ago, the number of Americans identifying or leaning Democrat has cratered from 49% in January 2021 down to 42% by the end of the year. On the other side of the political divide, the number of Americans identifying as Republican has risen from 40% a year ago to 47% now. Essentially, the popularity of the two parties has flipped — a 14-point swing, all in the span of just one year of Democrats controlling the levers. This explains why they are desperately pushing their Big Lie on voting “reform.”

More From Your Patriot Post Team

• Douglas Andrews: The Democrats’ MLK Day Demagoguery — Rather than honoring the fallen civil rights leader, the desperate Democrats desecrated Dr. King’s memory with their “voting rights” lie.

• Thomas Gallatin: Expanded Child Tax Credit Ends as Biden Pivots to Jobs and Schools — Monthly payments to 36 million households conclude, so Biden now wants schools open.

• Emmy Griffin: One Last March for Life? — Imagining a world where the March for Life is a victory parade; where we’re holding family instead of holding signs.

• Mark Alexander: Charles McGee, Tuskegee Airman, Thank You — “He had his right hand over his heart and was smiling serenely.”

• Jack DeVine: American Voting Rights: The Rest of the Story — Partisan election controversies have been dogging us for years; a shiny new federal voting law won’t make them go away.

• Harold Hutchison: Joe Biden’s Most Dangerous Sentence — He isn’t exactly losing with grace, proclaiming that we are in a “battle for the soul of America.”

• Douglas Andrews: Corporal Cueball Comes Up Short — Not even longtime Demo strategist James Carville has a way out of the mess his party has created.

Economy

• Remember U.S. energy independence? Oil prices hit seven-year highs (Reuters)

• ChiCom economy grew 8.1% in 2021 compared to a year ago (CNBC)

• China’s birth rate declines to historic low in 2021 (Daily Wire)

Culture

• Ivy League swimmer “Lia” Thomas says she’s he’s “the Jackie Robinson of trans sports,” teammate says (Washington Examiner) | Michael Phelps: Thomas issue shows need for level playing field (New York Post)

• Ghislaine Maxwell will no longer fight to keep names of eight “John Does” secret (New York Post)

• During Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, Epstein’s lawyer asked couple who had managed “Pedophile Island” to swear Bill Clinton was never there (Daily Wire)

Odds & Ends

• “Provide the least protection”: CDC finally admits cloth masks were always political theater (The Federalist)

• The debate over “low-skill” versus “low-wage” workers (AEI)

• What is the “evidence” on poverty and the Child Tax Credit? (AEI)

• Inflation isn’t going away. That should make Biden very nervous. (The Week)

Closing Arguments

• Policy: The K-12 cartel is holding children hostage (Washington Examiner)

• Satire: Historians discover document from 1776 that removes all mandates and restrictions (Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.

The Patriot Post is a certified ad-free news service, unlike third-party commercial news sites linked on this page, which may also require a paid subscription.