President Joe Biden proposed a $6.8 trillion budget this week that would impose tax hikes on the wealthy to bolster Medicare’s finances and provide additional money to expand social programs. All presidents’ budgets are merely suggested starting points for congressional deliberation — especially now, with the opposite party controlling the House. But they offer a general […]
As Tennessee’s governor signed into law a bill that aims to restrict some drag performances, online rhetoric muddied the known scope and impact of the legislation. The measure, signed March 2 by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, bans “adult cabaret performances” on public property or in front of children. Under state law, those performances include male […]
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on March 6 aired newly released security video from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that he said was provided to him by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Carlson used the footage to falsely portray the riot as a peaceful gathering and to continue pushing long-debunked claims, […]
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ State of the State address foreshadowed talking points in a potential 2024 presidential bid by highlighting Florida’s “number one” record on some metrics while vowing that the state will do more in “the battle for freedom.” DeSantis didn’t specifically mention some of the most attention-grabbing recent controversies, such as his battle with […]
New research suggests that COVID-19 immunity acquired from infection is as protective against severe illness and death as immunity acquired through vaccines. Many social media users have interpreted the findings, published Feb. 16 in the Lancet medical journal, to mean that some health officials “lied” when they said vaccine-induced immunity was stronger. Others suggested that […]
Are you woke to “woke”? Seems pundits and politicians can’t stop talking about it. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address warned of “woke mobs.” Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, in announcing her GOP presidential candidacy for 2024, promised a country that wasn’t “weak and […]
Former President Donald Trump vowed to a Republican audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference to “finish what we started.” “I am your warrior, I am your justice — and for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” Trump said March 4 at the conference in National Harbor, Maryland. “I will […]
During the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, two Republican House representatives claimed that cartels control the United States’ southern border. In one panel, moderator Todd Starnes asked Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., to describe the situation at the southern border. “The cartels are running the border,” Perry said March 2. “The cartels have operational control of […]
Republican lawmakers and pundits at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference berated President Joe Biden and his administration officials as weak and biased against conservatives. The conference, which has been held annually since the 1970s, has been a magnet for major figures in the conservative movement, and such announced or possible presidential candidates as former […]
A Feb. 26 report by The Wall Street Journal sent major ripples through the policy world and social media. The article said the Energy Department had concluded in a five-page report that the COVID-19 pandemic “most likely arose from a laboratory leak” in a “classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key […]
Does abortion cause infertility? Can fetuses feel pain in the first term? Is it common for women to seek abortions later in pregnancy? Google any of these questions and you’ll find a range of contradictory answers. After nearly five decades of federally protected abortion access in the U.S., the Supreme Court’s June 24, 2022, decision […]
President Joe Biden’s administration recently proposed a new rule that would limit an immigrant’s ability to seek asylum at the southern U.S. border. This comes as Biden deals with historic numbers of immigrants reaching the border, including about 1.7 million who entered the U.S. to seek asylum. Immigration rights advocates and congressional Democrats have criticized […]