Columnist.
No one's ever accused the Senate of efficiency — and the Obamacare repeal is no exception.
Neil Gorsuch may have been Trump's biggest contribution to the courts, but he's far from the only one! The new Supreme Court Justice was just the opening act to what the president calls "monthly waves" of solid lower court nominees.
When religious liberty came up in the Obama White House, you can bet the conversation wasn't about how to advance it! After eight years of sustained attacks on faith, Christians got their first taste of life outside the bunker Thursday when President Trump did what seemed unlikely just six weeks ago and issued an executive order protecting our First Freedom. At a Rose Garden ceremony, surrounded by some of victims of Obama's war, the new administration took the first step in what will be a journey to revive America's First Freedom.
Yesterday was not just the National Day of Prayer. It was the national day of *answered* prayer for many conservative Christians! After an eight-year war on faith, President Trump finally called a ceasefire on the conflict started by Barack Obama with an executive order on religious freedom. The measure, which was celebrated in a signing ceremony at the White House, was the fulfillment of one of the most significant promises made by the longshot candidate: "to preserve and protect our religious liberty."
The West Michigan Beef Company should be where *cattle* are slaughtered — not freedom. Unfortunately for the Vander Boon family, the USDA made their property a dead end for more than livestock. Don and Ellen, the devout Christians who started the plant, found that out the hard way when inspectors threatened to shut down their operation over something as innocent as a piece of breakroom reading material — which *not one employee* had complained about!
The fence is a crowded place on Capitol Hill. While Republicans desperately try to finish the seven-year job of replacing Obamacare, the "undecideds" are making life difficult for House leaders. Now that the House Freedom Caucus is on board with the American Health Care Act rewrite, it's the moderates waffling on a concept they had no trouble voting for in 2015.
While the rest of the city was enjoying an unusually warm weekend, the Hill's budgeters spent Saturday and Sunday indoors, hashing out a whopping 11 appropriations bills. After clocking out at 1:30 a.m. Friday morning, staffers put in plenty of overtime the next few days on a $1 trillion package that bundles almost a dozen agencies' budgets into one colossal omnibus. And as usual, some of the most important language came through policy riders, which usually latch on to big spending measures like this one.
For the last few years, ESPN has been trying to settle a different score. And unfortunately for viewers, it has nothing to do with sports. The network, whose profits are bleeding more than Curt Shilling's sock, is sinking under the weight of its liberal politics — and fast. Ratings are deflating faster than New England's footballs, as a huge chunk of viewers tune out the one-time king of sports.
What does change in Washington mean for the change in your wallet? We're about to find out! With April 18th still fresh in everyone's minds, President Trump couldn't have picked a better time to roll out his plan to slash taxes. Two weeks after the IRS took a big bite out of people's wallets, the new administration is ready to sink its teeth into something else: the confusing tangle of the U.S. tax code.
Moving into the White House is the easy part. Moving out the old administration's policies is something else altogether. President Trump is finding that out the hard way, as his team tackles mess after mess left behind by Barack Obama. With eight years to dig America into a social, economic, and military hole, climbing out of the pit takes time. With plenty of jobs still unfilled, the Trump administration has the unenviable job of combing through hundreds of thousands of pages of rules and policies to clean up and, in most cases, reverse the damage done by Obama's team.
Nebraska isn't usually a pin on the map of political hotspots, but that all changed this week with Omaha's candidates for mayor. Thanks to Heath Mello's (D) pro-life views, a race that would have been a footnote in the national news has exploded into a front-page headline about the DNC's hard ideological line on abortion.
When members of Congress flew back to DC yesterday, they had some interesting reading material: A new Obamacare replacement bill. After a seesaw month that saw Republicans write and rewrite the text, the GOP is hinting that it may have the plan voters are waiting for. In the language that ping-ponged over to the House from the Senate Budget Committee Saturday night, conservatives will be happy to know that the plan empties more than $390 million from Planned Parenthood's federal bank account.
It was 5:30 a.m. when Friar Najeeb Michaeel looked out his window and saw what every Iraqi Christian feared: trucks filled with ISIS soldiers. Dozens of families were fleeing when the terrorists cut in front of them and stopped. "I gave everybody the last rites," the Friar said. "I thought it was finished for us." Instead, people abandoned their cars and started running. Miraculously, they survived. But, like most Christians in the Middle East, they don't know for how long.
If you thought funding one government agency was tough, try funding 11! That's the colossal chore awaiting Congress when members touch down after a two-week recess next week. While a string of short-term resolutions have let leaders postpone the messy budget fight, the sand is running out of the hourglass on the latest deal. Leaders have until next Friday to keep the lights on in Washington — no small feat with parties as far apart on spending priorities as these two. Still, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plan to beat the clock by bundling almost a dozen spending bills into one big omnibus bill.
What does a children's playground have to do with the Supreme Court? A lot, starting today. That's when the justices — including the bench's newest member, Neil Gorsuch — heard oral arguments in a case of religious discrimination against Missouri's Trinity Lutheran Church. Like a lot of churches in the area, Trinity has an adjacent playground that needed refurbishing. So, the staff applied for a state grant through Missouri's Scrap Tire Grant Program which helps reimburse groups for installing rubber safety flooring from recycled tires. In an odd twist, state officials denied Trinity's request "even though the Missouri Department of Natural Resources ranked its application fifth out of the 44 submitted."
In a flip-flop heard around the world, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) declared at a town hall meeting Monday: "I have no problems with federal funding for Planned Parenthood," the nation's largest seller of abortions. But when specifically asked if he would commit to support federal funding for Planned Parenthood, Heller responded: "Yeah, we'll continue to look at this issue," before adding: "I will protect Planned Parenthood." Then he clarified further that "states have a right to make the determination" of funding.
This weekend, as we celebrate the most significant Christian holiday of the year, the Resurrection, churches in Egypt — which have been the target of Islamists — will either meet in secret or be forced to forego meeting altogether. The Coptic believers make up one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, dating back to 55 A.D. As ISIS's reign of terror spreads throughout the Middle East, some may be tempted to think the terrorists and the tyrants have won, that Christianity is in retreat. Such a notion couldn't be farther from the truth.
The biggest prize of last November is getting settled in his Supreme Court office. But Justice Neil Gorsuch was only part of the GOP's payoff for electing Donald Trump. With Antonin Scalia's replacement firmly in place, conservatives are turning up the heat on phase two: defunding Planned Parenthood.
What recess? Republicans aren't getting much of a break from politics this week, thanks to a homegrown debate over health care. Back in their districts, there's no escaping the drama surrounding the Obamacare repeal as new ads play repeatedly on local televisions. For two weeks, competing groups are trying to sway the pesky middle of the GOP — the moderates — on an emerging plan that the rest of the party is starting to get behind.
It was the most significant swearing in since Donald Trump's. When Neil Gorsuch put his hand on the Bible to become the 113th Supreme Court justice in U.S. history, Antonin Scalia, in that great cloud of witnesses, was no doubt smiling. His 49-year-old replacement is everything the longtime originalist could hope for — a humble, esteemed, and deferential jurist whose legacy will almost certainly outlast the president who appointed him.
