Top of the Fold

• Congress passes semiconductor production bill: On Thursday, the House passed the Chips and Science Act. The legislation will ostensibly spend $52 billion to help the U.S. produce more home-grown semiconductors. The bipartisan bill passed the Senate earlier this week thanks to 17 Republicans voting in favor, with the expectation that it would not be linked to Joe Biden’s Build Back Better spending boondoggle. However, following its passage, Republicans were blindsided by West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin’s sudden decision to renege on his opposition and agree to support a slimmed-down version of the bill. While GOP House leadership encouraged Republicans to vote against the Chips and Science Act, seeing that doing so was little other than an empty gesture, 24 crossed the aisle to vote with the Democrats. The U.S. does need to produce more of its own semiconductors — doing so is in the interest of national security — but the problem is the impact that more government spending will have on the already sky-high inflation rate.

• Manchin’s secret deal with Schumer won’t save Democrats: Senator Joe Machin was a man of his word, until he wasn’t. The West Virginia Democrat had long been a thorn in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s side regarding Joe Biden’s Build Back Better boondoggle. Manchin’s main problem had to do with its cost. I.e., where would the money come from? Schumer’s renaming of the slimmed-down version of Build Back Better to the Inflation Reduction Act is laughable because it will produce just the opposite with massive amounts of more government spending. Further underscoring Manchin’s hypocrisy is that he now embraces the very budget expansion items he previously and accurately noted were “budget gimmicks” and “shell games.” The reason for Manchin’s sudden about-face may be his belief that passing this legislation will be good for his party’s election chances come November. But titling legislation “inflation reducing” when in reality it does just the opposite will eventually produce negative political consequences. Indeed, it is the reason Democrats now find themselves facing strong political headwinds.

• Is the AAP censoring concerns over “gender-affirmative care”? One of the worst results of the Left’s “transgender” crusade is the damage being done to children. Institutions supposedly guided by The Science™ have been co-opted to eschew doing actual science in favor of pushing the “transgender” narrative. In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) officially embraced the Left’s gender-bending narrative and endorsed “gender-affirmative care” for gender dysphoric youth. The AAP’s capitulation to the “transgender” lobby appears to have motived it to silence and prevent any debate over the growing litany of negative medical consequences of plying children with hormone blockers designed to slow and prevent puberty. In March, five pediatricians submitted Resolution 27, which called on the AAP to conduct a rigorous review of its “gender-affirmative care” policy. Historically, when a resolution is submitted to the AAP, it is sent to pediatricians across its network to offer comment before it is presented at its annual conference. However, such was not the case with Resolution 27, as the AAP has adopted a new rule that conveniently prevents the resolution’s review. According to the new rule, only “sponsored” resolutions will be solicited for comment. It’s clear that for the AAP, commitment to ideology is more important than commitment to sound science.

Headlines

• Biden insists the U.S. is not in a recession despite two consecutive quarters of shrinking economy (Fox Business)

• Wikipedia’s “Recession” page shows 41 edits in one week, attempts at changing definition (Daily Wire)

• DC mayor asks for National Guard help with migrant buses from southern border (Fox News)

• “Complete waste of time”: ICE comes up empty in effort to find missing border jumpers (Washington Times)

• Vindication: Biden administration quietly orders part of border wall to be finished in Arizona (RedState)

• “One of the most significant threats”: DOJ investigating court system data breach (Washington Examiner)

• “Build Back Better” bill would fund 86,000 additional IRS agents to sic on taxpayers (The Federalist)

• Department of Education miscalculated student loan spending by $311 billion (Washington Examiner)

• Biden and Xi conduct marathon call during time of rising tensions (NY Times)

• Justice Alito slams foreign leaders who criticized Dobbs decision (Daily Wire)

• Judge halts punishment of airmen who filed for religious exemptions from vaccine mandate (Breitbart)

• Go figure: San Francisco declares emergency over monkeypox, a virus spread most widely by sexual promiscuity (AP)

• Los Angeles bans observers from watching George Gascon recall count (Washington Examiner)

• Former Marine Stu Scheller excoriates senior military leadership (Human Events)

• Billionaire-funded eco group quietly taking farmland out of production in rural America (Fox News)

• Policy: Pay attention to the Dutch farmer protests because America is next (The Federalist)

• Satire: Army unsure why its new slogan “America Is Racist, You Should Die for It” isn’t getting traction (Babylon Bee)

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