In spite of the media’s hair-on-fire coverage that the longest-ever government shutdown would cause a recession, the January jobs report “shattered expectations.” More than 300,000 new jobs were created last month.

The labor force participation rate was the highest since 2013. Wages also increased at a 3% annual rate for the sixth month in a row, the fastest wage growth in a decade. Manufacturing is booming again. 

Since Donald Trump took office, five million new jobs have been created. Trump’s policies are making America great again!

Never forget that the left during the Obama years constantly insisted that we lower our expectations, that sluggish growth was “the new normal” we just had to accept. We were told that manufacturing jobs were gone and never coming back. All those so-called “experts” were wrong.

This is a good time to stop and think about why this economic growth is happening. 

For the past two years Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. Taxes were cut. Regulations were rolled back. 

Instead of berating entrepreneurs and telling them, “You didn’t build that,” Donald Trump encouraged them. Instead of waging war on our energy industry, Donald Trump unleashed it. 

But this progress is not etched in stone. 

The newly-empowered left is constantly putting out proposals to reverse everything Trump has done. They are advocating 90% tax rates. If you are successful, they think they are entitled to take half (and more!) of what you earned over your lifetime when you die. They also want socialized medicine and draconian energy policies, none of which will work.

With ideas like these, all of this growth we are enjoying now would end, and we would be back to the malaise days of the Obama era, watching America decline.

Shocked & Energized

Thursday, I took part in an off-the-record conference call with many prominent Christian leaders, all of whose names you would instantly recognize. I am not violating any confidentiality by telling you this: They all agreed that the progressive left’s embrace of infanticide has shocked and energized the pro-life movement like nothing else in many years.

The way things are going, calling the people in favor of infanticide “progressive” should be replaced with “barbaric.” This is not progress. 

Last week, we saw New York celebrate an “anything goes” law that allows abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy. They applauded this evil. But that’s New York controlled by the left. 

This week, Virginians watched in horror as a Democrat state legislator and the so-called “moderate” governor advocated for legislation that would allow a woman in the process of giving birth to abort instead. 

In fact, the governor suggested the baby could even be born and, if there’s a defect, the mother could have a discussion about whether to let the child live. That’s called murder.

For his part, Governor Ralph Northam is doubling down, insisting he has “no regrets” and that this is all about “women’s health." 

Really? If aborting live babies is the left’s idea of "health care,” then we should be very afraid of the left’s “Medicare for All” plan.

The left claims that late-term abortions are “tragic cases” that rarely happen. That’s a lie. As Bethany Mandel notes in Friday’s Washington Post:

“There are more abortions after 20 weeks than gun homicides in the United States, and according to research from the Planned Parenthood-affiliated Guttmacher Institute, ‘data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.’”

Given how the left is constantly clamoring for gun control, it seems what we really need is abortion control.

Uniting The Right

It must be noted that this is not just a state issue. Hundreds of congressional Democrats (including several presidential wannabes) have co-sponsored federal legislation that is just as radical in rolling back limits on late-term abortions.

Moral and policy implications aside, this debate also has political implications. NeverTrumper Matt Walsh recently tweeted, “I’d vote for Trump 50 times if it meant keeping these infanticidal lunatics out of the White House." 

I believe there are many Americans, including many blacks and Hispanics, who are inclined to agree with him.

Speaking of President Trump, I am pleased to report that he plans to raise this very issue with the American people in his State of the Union Address next week. Good for him!

Normandy Fencing?

Many people, including our friends at Fox News, said recently, "If Trump would only end the government shutdown, Democrats are willing to negotiate with him on the wall.” No they aren’t. It’s Lucy with the football all over again.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday, “There will not be any wall money in the legislation.” According to the Associated Press, the Democrat offer unveiled Thursday “would not provide money for President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall and [denies] his request for additional border agents.”

Some say this is just semantics, that Democrats might accept a “barrier” instead of a “wall.” No, it’s not just semantics. 

Thursday Pelosi suggested she was open to “Normandy fencing.” But as the Allies proved on D-Day, you can walk right around it.

Here’s the bottom line, my friends: Progressives do not want to secure the border. 

They want to speed up mass migration because it fundamentally changes America and hastens the day when they believe Republicans can never again win another national election. That is the left’s agenda.

Meanwhile, progressives are also trying to gut funding for the Department of Homeland Security, and specifically ICE. They not only refuse to secure the border, they are also trying to defund the law enforcement agency responsible for arresting criminal aliens, including drug dealers, rapists and murderers.

By the way, Democrats talk a lot about inequality of all kinds. Well, kudos to Tucker Carlson for pointing out the left’s hypocrisy on walls. Perhaps we need a national discussion about “security inequality.”

As a result of the left’s intransigence, President Trump is reportedly moving forward with plans to secure the border through executive action.

I know this report is read by a lot of people on Capitol Hill, particularly Republican members of the House and Senate. I am putting politicians on notice now: If President Trump is forced to declare a national emergency to secure the border, I will do everything I can to expose any Republican who attacks his decision to put America first.