Insight

“The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power. But there is also a constructive reason. The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or in literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.” —Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

For the Record

“The theory is that America owes the rest of the world money for burning fossil fuels over the last hundred or so years. Huh? These were the fossil fuels that provided America with the energy to save humanity from fascism and communism during World War I, World War II and the Cold War. These energy sources are what have powered the industrial age, bringing light, heat and air conditioning. And they have powered our infrastructure, factories, an abundant food supply and a technology revolution. Add to that our drugs and vaccines, which have saved many hundreds of millions of lives globally. It was the fossil fuel energy revolution of the last century that supplied America with the wealth and financial resources to provide some half a trillion dollars of disaster and foreign aid to seemingly every area of the rest of the world. And now, President Joe Biden’s dunces are agreeing with foreigners that we owe them money?” —Stephen Moore

“Regrettably, some of my congressional colleagues are more concerned about tracking that $600 Venmo payment you made than tracking $60,000,000,000 of your money they sent to Ukraine.” —Congressman Thomas Massie

“The Twitter officials caught up in the progressive bubble that caused them to censor first, ask questions later — all in the name of ‘safety,’ of course — weren’t the most blameworthy actors in this episode. That dishonor belongs to the former intelligence officials who put out a widely cited, deliberately misleading letter suggesting that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. It muddied the discussion over the laptop and gave President Joe Biden a handy tool to try to deflect the laptop story. These former officials knew what they were doing, traded on their public service for a tawdry political purpose, and have by and large demonstrated no remorse.” —Rich Lowry

Political Futures

“Trump is giving Republicans a taste of what they’re in for if they nominate him again in 2024. His presidential campaign is less than a month old. Already Mr. Trump has dined with anti-Semites and a white nationalist, while calling for himself to be reinstated as President, even if this requires the ‘termination’ of whatever in the Constitution stands in the way. What he’ll really terminate is the GOP.” —The Wall Street Journal

Food for Thought

“Ask yourself: If you won $500 million in the Powerball lottery, would you put your winning ticket into an envelope and trust the U.S. Postal Service to deliver it to the state agency that administers the lottery? Or would you want to deliver your ticket personally to lottery officials to ensure that they received it and acknowledge that you are the owner of that ticket? The answer is pretty obvious to just about anyone. So why would we want to encourage voters to cast their ballots through the mail or place them in unsupervised, unsecured ‘drop’ boxes instead of voting in person in a polling place?” —Hans von Spakovsky

Nothing to See Here…

“Because there are more important things going on.” —Joe Biden on why he won’t visit the border ( “Nothing is more important than the safety and security of the American people, but to President Biden it is an afterthought. With a record number of people and drugs, including deadly fentanyl, crossing our border illegally and evading apprehension, it is apparent Biden cares more about politics than our children, friends and neighbors. Biden’s record clearly proves he cares about politics, not about doing his job of protecting American lives.” —National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd)