President Trump’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill has stalled on Capitol Hill because of multiple conflicting interests.
 
The reconciliation process allows some legislation to avoid a Senate filibuster, meaning Republicans can pass it with just 51 votes. Both parties have used it to advance ambitious legislation, especially when they can’t count on the opposition party for support. And President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is very ambitious.
 
It aims to renew the 2017 Trump tax cuts (which expire at the end of this year), eliminate taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security payments, possibly expand the per child tax credit, cut discretionary spending that ballooned under Joe Biden, and enact a host of other policy initiatives.
 
However, it all has to be done in relatively strict parameters, and the math is a little tricky, to say the least.
 
There have been multiple, at times conflicting, reports that the White House is open to allowing the highest tax rate to go up from 37% to 39.6% in order to provide additional revenue for everything Republicans want in the reconciliation bill. The higher rate would apply to individuals with $2.5 million in income and to couples earning $5 million.
 
There is an important carve-out for small businesses that report income on personal tax returns.
 
I never like tax increases. But the idea is being discussed in order to pass a bill that prevents taxes from going up massively across the board if the 2017 tax cuts are not renewed.
 
There’s also some logic here.
 
The 2017 tax reform bill capped the state and local tax deduction in exchange for lowering the overall tax rate. It appears that a group of six or seven House Republicans from California and the Northeast feel like they are dead meat if they don’t get that cap raised so their constituents can deduct more of their state and local taxes.
 
If Republicans have to increase this deduction to secure their support, then it makes sense to let the highest rate go up.
 
One final point: From a purely political perspective, this is a no-brainer. Raising taxes on the wealthiest polls around 60% or more.
 
 
 
More On Leo XIV
 
Last week, we highlighted some concerns about the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost to the papacy. Here are some encouraging points about the new pope. 

• He rejected gender ideology as being inconsistent with God’s creation.
• Some say he may be more conservative than Pope Francis on other LGBTQ issues. We’ll have to wait and see.
• He is strongly pro-life.
• According to Charlie Kirk, he is a registered Republican and has voted in Republican primaries.
• He gave his first mass as pope partially in Latin, something young traditionalists have been pushing to return to.

Yes, you read that right – young traditionalists. This is the exact opposite of how the world has generally worked. The youth want radical change, while older people want to preserve tradition.
 
But in Catholicism and some elements of Protestantism, young Christians are demanding a stronger commitment to the Gospel, the rites, and the traditions that have undergirded the faith for centuries. (Here and here.)
 
In addition to becoming more spiritually conservative, many young Americans are also becoming more politically conservative.
 
 
 
Left-wing Lunacy
 
A hearing last week in the House of Representatives went off the rails because of the absurd antics of left-wing Democrats. The issue being debated was one that the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Democrats, agree on: Men should not be in women’s sports.
 
But Democrats in Congress continue to make this insane argument that keeping men out of women’s sports is like keeping black people out of white country clubs or certain schools and businesses.
 
There is a legal term for that – invidious discrimination, where the only motivation is obvious bigotry. If an all-white NBA basketball team was turning down black athletes, they would be guilty of invidious discrimination. There’s no logic to it.
 
But if someone sued an NBA team because they did not have a player in a wheelchair and claimed the team was discriminating against individuals with disabilities, people would say, “That’s crazy! That’s a distinction based on reality.” People in wheelchairs don’t make good NBA players.
 
When you tell a man who is physically larger and stronger that he can’t play in women’s sports, that has zero resemblance to racial discrimination. That’s recognition of reality.
 
If a woman in the WNBA, where the average age is 27, went back to high school to get her diploma and demanded to play on the high school girls’ team, that would not be allowed.
 
She cannot claim to be a teenager just because she’s in high school any more than a man can be a woman just because he’s in a dress. It’s just insane!
 
But so, too, are today’s Democrats, who have lost all touch with reality.
 

 

 

Quote Of The Day
 
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared before a Senate subcommittee Thursday. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) demanded to know what she was doing to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Noem said:
 
“Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador and should never have been in this country and will not be coming back to this country. There is no scenario where Abrego Garcia will be in the United States again. If he were to come back, we would immediately deport him again because he is a terrorist, a human smuggler, and he is a wife-beater.”
 
The award for “Hypocrite of the Day” goes to Disney CEO Bob Iger.
 
After seriously sullying Disney’s reputation by fighting a popular law to protect young children in Florida’s schools from graphic LGBTQ propaganda, Iger just announced that he’s building a new Disney theme park in a Muslim nation where homosexuality and transgenderism are criminal offenses.
 
 
 
Good News 

• The Trump administration is protecting our children from radical teachers who are “socially transitioning” children without parental notification. 

• Leftist groups challenging Alabama’s law protecting children from mutilating transgender surgeries just dropped the case. Why? Because Alabama’s attorney general forced “discovery” in the case, meaning he demanded proof of the “evidence-based science” that justifies such radical “standards of care.” As we have repeatedly noted, it doesn’t exist, and the leftist groups beat a hasty retreat. 

• Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed legislation protecting pro-life pregnancy resource centers from being forced to promote abortion in any way. 

• North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong signed legislation into law protecting parental rights and protecting children from radical teachers “socially transitioning” them in school. 

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed school choice legislation into law.