Top of the Fold

• Inflation hits 40-year high of 7.5%: The U.S. consumer price index, which measures cost of living, jumped 7.5% over last year. The inflation rate has not been this high since February 1982. One of the biggest inflation contributors has been vehicle prices — new and used are up 12.2% and 40.5%, respectively, over the last year. Other leading contributors have been food (up 7% over 12 months) and energy (up 27%). Furthermore, January’s 0.7% wage growth has been rendered nearly flat, with inflation rising 0.6% over the month. The probability of a significant interest rate hike now looks inevitable.

• The incredible sinking man’s approval sinks below 40%: Joe Biden’s approval rate has hit a new low on the RealClearPolitics aggregate, falling to 39.8%. Meanwhile, his disapproval has ticked up to 54.5%. This puts Biden 15 points underwater. The last time any major poll had Biden in positive territory was CNN last October, when he was at + 1. The fact is, ever since Biden’s Afghanistan disaster, he’s been steadily trending down, and the only question is this: Where is rock bottom? Biden has quite simply lost the trust of the American people. His failure to course correct or even recognize this reality indicates that the bottom has yet to materialize.

• House GOP introduces sanctions against Xi and other CCP officials: House Republicans have introduced a bill titled the “Stop CCP Act” that would impose severe sanctions against every member of the Chinese Communist Party’s National Congress, the country’s highest governing body, including Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. The sanctions would also be applied to immediate family members, such as Xi’s daughter, who attended Harvard University in the past. The sanctions would prevent these individuals from being granted travel visas to the U.S. as well as blocking their access to certain financial assets. Congresswoman Lisa McClain (R-MI), the bill’s author, explained: “China is one of the biggest threats to the safety and security of the United States and the world. Sanctioning leaders of the CCP is a commonsense way to show China and the world that we are sick and tired of their aggressive, bully-like tactics.”

• Annals of Democrat hypocrisy: Joe Biden’s recently departed science adviser, Eric Lander, who resigned following allegations of bullying White House staff, made quite the pile of cash after he sold his stock in BioNTech. He waited until August 5 — less than three weeks before Pfizer, BioNTech’s partner, got FDA authorization for its COVID vaccine — to unload his BioNTech stock. Two days prior to his sell-off, BioNTech’s shares jumped over $50 in value, allowing Lander to rake in $1 million. Lander had been a heavy promoter of the vaccines. Meanwhile, another Democrat, Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT), engaged in similar unsavory actions. Last year, while he was calling for an investigation into GameStop, he and his wife bought and sold shares in the trading app Robinhood. Blumenthal apparently failed to disclose his stock trades within the 45 days required by federal law, as it wasn’t until 56 days after selling between $265,000 and $550,000 in shares that it was made known.

Headlines

• Jen Psaki, “fact-checkers” busted lying about distributing crack pipes to drug users (Post Millennial)

• Biden admin removes “lawful immigration,” “protecting Americans” from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services mission statement (Townhall)

• Team Biden resisted military’s Kabul evacuation plan (Power Line)

• ICE deportations down 70% in 2021 (Free Beacon)

• “Spotify has hung in with me”: Joe Rogan turns down $100 million Rumble offer (Daily Wire)

• Is Trump in trouble over document handling? (Power Line)

Closing Arguments

• Policy: The unbearable bleakness of American schooling (Commentary)

• Satire: Psaki says everyone will have to show proof of vaccination before receiving free crack pipe (Babylon Bee)

• Related satire: Biden admin issues new masks with holes in them so you can smoke your free government crack pipe (Babylon Bee)

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

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