Cross-Examination

• No visitor logs exist for Biden’s Delaware home: On Monday, the White House revealed that there are no visitor records to Joe Biden’s Delaware home. That was after House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) asserted, “Given the serious national security implications, the White House must provide the Wilmington residence’s visitor log.” The claim of having no visitor records comes a day after the Secret Service had also noted that it kept no visitor logs while on detail at Biden’s home “because it’s a private residence.” These revelations serve to add more fuel to the brewing scandal surrounding Biden’s apparent mishandling of classified documents. Particularly knowing that Hunter Biden lived in the house, just who might have had access to these classified documents?

• Income tax phaseouts: The states of Florida, Tennessee, and Texas have been experiencing a population boom as folks are moving out of blue states like California and New York for freer and economically greener pastures. One of the biggest factors drawing new residents to these southern states is taxes, or the lack thereof. All three states do not levy income taxes. Six other states, the majority of which happen to be under Republican leadership, also do not collect a state income tax, and the trend is growing. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, recently noted, “There are 10 states that are in the process of moving their personal income tax to zero.” States on the road to zero income tax include North Carolina, North Dakota, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Idaho. The main reason an increasing number of states are moving toward eliminating state income taxes is that doing so can actually increase state revenue by encouraging economic growth.

• Why semiconductors aren’t made here: The global COVID pandemic highlighted the vulnerability of the U.S. supply chain, specifically when it comes to a product that America’s modern tech-based economy has become absolutely dependent upon — semiconductors. The vast majority of semiconductors used in a variety of goods are produced overseas, especially in Taiwan. With China wolfishly eying Taiwan, a potential war between the two Asian nations could cripple huge swaths of the American economy. Joe Biden’s solution has been to throw more American tax dollars at the problem in the form of government subsidies to induce the semiconductor industry to build factories in the U.S. The main problem, however, is that the cost to build these factories in the U.S. is four to five times more expensive than in Taiwan, and the reason has everything to do with over-regulation, bureaucratic red tape, and labor unions. Deregulation rather than costly subsidies would be a more practical and effective first step to bring this essential sector back to the U.S.

Headlines

• Biden’s MLK address was a complete disaster (Townhall)

• Ex-intel official who signed Hunter Biden laptop letter admits significant portion of emails “had to be real” (Fox News)

• Glenn Youngkin outraged after Virginia schools withhold national merit awards from top students over “equity” (Fox News)

• Six people, including a baby, were killed in a “cartel-style execution,” California sheriff’s office says (CNN)

• Italy’s most-wanted Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro arrested in Sicily (BBC)

• San Fran’s reparations committee proposes $5 million to each black longtime resident, total debt forgiveness (Fox News)

• California court freezes controversial fast food minimum wage law (Daily Wire)

• TikTok proposes $1.5 billion plan to U.S. lawmakers amid national security concerns (Daily Wire)

• LGBTQ charity at center of pedo scandal to train NHS medical staff on how to treat “trans kids” (PM)

• China records first population fall in decades as births drop (AP)

• Hoosier Rep. Jim Banks enters the race for U.S. Senate (Hot Air)

• Policy: Recapturing higher education (City Journal)

• Humor: GoFundMe page started to help complete MLK statue (Babylon Bee)

• Humor: Thirty other things investigators found in Biden’s garage (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.