Cross-Examination

• Inflation Reduction Act deficit: The Congressional Budget Office released an updated review of the Democrats’ recently passed and deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act and unsurprisingly determined that it would actually increase the deficit through 2026. So, far from reducing inflation, it would in fact add to it. Furthermore, one of the more controversial features of the legislation was the $80 billion to massively expand the IRS. The CBO has now also updated its estimate on the impact of a bigger and meaner IRS and has determined that the tax agency will wring an extra $60 billion out of taxpayers on top of the $80 billion that had been previously projected.

• Sanctuary city mayors panic: It’s “a crisis that is certainly not of our making,” lamented Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser as she ironically declared an “emergency” over the number of illegal immigrants being bussed into her city from the border states of Arizona and Texas. Bowser sought to put a brave face to her complaint. “We’re not a border town,” she said. “And so basically what we’re doing today is a new normal for us. We have to have an infrastructure in place that allows us to deal with the border crisis that has visited us in Washington, DC.” Meanwhile, in Chicago, another self-declared “sanctuary city,” Democrat Mayor Lori Lightfoot has addressed the problem of illegals bussed into the city by removing them from the city and sending them to Burr Ridge, a community that has not designated itself a “sanctuary.” And Lightfoot has the temerity to turn and blast Arizona and Texas’s bussing policy as “racist and xenophobic.” The fact of the matter is that these Democrat-run cities brought this upon themselves when they declared themselves “sanctuary cities.” And now they are blaming the Republican governors of border states for acting in recognition of their own loudly declared “sanctuary” status. This is precisely why virtue signaling is the antithesis of actual virtue. If Bowser and Lightfoot had any integrity, they’d be blaming Joe Biden for creating this border crisis.

• Immigrants on the dole: The Biden administration recently announced a rule change for green card applicants. No longer will they be disqualified for receiving welfare assistance, including food stamps and Medicaid. The rule change reverses a Trump-era requirement that sought to deny legal status to an individual who would effectively be living off the government dole as a “public charge.” The Biden administration eliminated the requirement that eligible immigrants must not have been a burden to the American taxpayer. In other words, concern over ensuring that a new immigrant would be a positive contributor to the nation rather than a user has been thrown out. The more people depend upon government programs, the better — that’s the message the Biden administration is sending.

Headlines

• Queen Elizabeth II dies at 96, was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch (NYT) | Flashback: Queen Elizabeth broke tradition, had “The Star-Spangled Banner” played in wake of 9/11 (Daily Caller) | The predictably vile sentiment of the Left (Daily Mail)

• As Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry has flown more than 180,000 miles, emitting 9.5 million pounds of carbon (Free Beacon)

• Biden student loan cancellation will mean unexpected tax bills for many (Washington Examiner)

• Heritage Foundation releases education freedom report card, with Florida ranking highest (Fox News)

• “Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” releases official statement denouncing “racism, threats, harassment” (Daily Wire) | “Rings of Power” fails because it abandons Tolkien’s moral imagination (The Federalist)

• Baltimore arrests Marine vet hero who stopped crazy gunman for having concealed weapon of his own (Not the Bee)

• Policy: Climate gains are “inconvenient truth” — it’s not all bad news about the environment (NY Post)

• Humor: Stacey Abrams announces that with a heavy heart she will succeed Elizabeth II as queen (Babylon Bee)

• Humor: Gavin Newsom now running ads in Florida and other states where people can still turn on their TVs (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.