Top of the Fold

• Washington gives itself a spending splurge: On Thursday, the Senate passed a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill that effectively works to insulate Washington from the spiking inflation rate hitting the rest of America hard. The House passed the bill Wednesday. Some $13.6 billion of the money will be sent to aid Ukraine in response to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request for more help — a worthy cause. So too is the $782 billion allocated for national defense. However, $730 billion has been slated for government discretionary spending, representing a 6.7% increase over last year. Health and Human Services gets an 11.6% increase, the Internal Revenue Service receives an additional $675 million (equating to a 5.6% boost over last year), and the Department of Transportation gets an additional $3.1 billion, much of which will be used to fuel the Democrats’ climate agenda.

• Team Biden keeps sky-high masking political theater on autopilot: Anyone hoping to see an end to the politically motivated masking theater in the sky will have to wait. The Transportation Security Administration announced on Thursday that it is extending its masking mandate through April 18. The TSA’s masking mandate had been slated to end on March 18, and with 49 states having now dispensed with masking mandates (the lone holdout being Hawaii, which plans to end its mandate on March 25), the TSA’s rationale of following the science and guidance from the CDC is dubious. Senator Rand Paul blasted the TSA’s masking extension and promised to challenge it by “forcing a vote next week to end this unscientific mandate.”

• Dems plan to “help” Americans by taxing oil companies: With gas prices spiking and inflation hitting a 40-year high and continuing to rise, Democrats have come up with a “solution” to help Americans struggling with rising costs — cut them a quarterly check by raising a 50% tax on oil companies’ profits. This plan, sponsored by socialist lawmakers like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, effectively is a proposal to rob Peter to pay Paul. How such a plan would actually lower costs and help Americans is the stuff of socialism’s fantasy math. A more realistic solution would be to open up more of America’s abundant resources to drilling and restart construction on the Keystone XL pipeline. Working toward energy independence is an achievable goal and provides a more practical long-term solution to address the rising cost of fuel and other goods. Socialism only results in spreading the misery, a reality that has been repeatedly demonstrated wherever it has been tried.

• Disney blasted from Left and Right: In Disney’s shareholder meeting this past Wednesday, Paul Chesser, a shareholder and director of a left-leaning ethics watchdog, blasted the company for its “complicity with China genocide.” Chesser called on Disney to conduct and produce a report “evaluating the human rights impact of its business and associations with foreign entities.” He specifically referenced Disney’s movie “Mulan,” which was filmed in China in an area “among the most disgusting and egregious human rights violations in the world — in Xinjiang.” Chesser pointed to the blatant hypocrisy of Disney ignoring China’s ongoing genocide of the Uyghur Muslims while banning the release of any new films in Russia because of Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. “Since when does ESG (Economic, Social, Government) principles mean you get to support genocidal regimes in Asia, but you must oppose colonial warmongering in Europe?” Chesser astutely asks. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hit back at Disney’s disingenuous objection to his state’s recently passed parents’ rights legislation: “If that’s the hill they’re going to die on, then how do they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship from the Communist Party of China?”

Headlines

• Russian strikes hit western Ukraine as offensive widens (AP)

• Facebook and Instagram will allow calls for violence — as long as they’re against Russians (Daily Wire)

• North Korean missile launches were a “serious escalation,” official says (Washington Post)

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says Americans will likely see another year of “very uncomfortably high” inflation (CNBC)

• U.S. Census undercounted blacks and Hispanics in 2020 (Fox News)

• Special counsel’s office is investigating the 2016 DNC server hack (The Federalist)

• RNC files lawsuit against Pelosi, January 6 Committee (Washington Times)

• Major League Baseball lockout ends as MLBPA, owners reach CBA agreement (CBS Sports)

• NASA gives employees option to choose preferred pronouns in email communications (Daily Wire)

• Policy: Eight ways massive omnibus spending bill is a mistake (Daily Signal)

• Humor: Amish man smiles smugly as he rides by gas station with $6 prices (Babylon Bee)

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

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