by Charles Lipson
Real Clear Politics
If you think really hard, perhaps you can imagine more disastrous policies than throwing open our country’s southern border and abandoning criminal-law enforcement in city after city. The consequences are already emerging, and they are grim. It is important to examine them without ideological blinders so we can change course before more damage is done.
Our border policies are national fiats handed down by the Biden administration. The abandonment of criminal enforcement, by contrast, is a local decision, made by supine city councils and district attorneys, many of them “social justice Democrats” backed by progressive elites and Black Lives Matter.
The problem with these policies is not their moral motivation. Helping the poor from Central America is a worthy cause. So is reducing the incarceration rate of young males from minority communities. The problem lies in their practical effects. It is those effects, not sugarplum dreams, that matter in judging public policy.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) is warning that Democrats’ universal background check legislation creates a “de facto gun registry” in America.
President Joe Biden marked his 50th day in office on Thursday but still hasn’t held a formal, solo news conference with reporters.
America’s military footprint abroad is unmatched in human history. With more than eight hundred military bases in over seventy countries across the globe, the US is in an ideal position to carry out all sorts of imperial adventures, though the emerging multipolarity on the world stage with the rise of Russia and China has thrown several wrenches into many of the regime change orchestrators’ wildest fantasies.
Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told Newsweek that COVID-19 lockdowns are “the single worst public health mistake in the last 100 years.”
Multi-billionaire Hugo Salinas Price just issued this dire warning to the United States. Let’s hope this never unfolds.
Durable goods inflation +3.3%. Food inflation +3.4%. Services inflation rising, but still held down by battered airline fares, lodging, event tickets, etc. — until people start traveling and going to events again.
Passage of the $1.9 trillion spending bill has Democrats giddy. President Biden termed it “historic.” Senator Schumer calls it “a great day for this country.” Not to be outdone, Senator Debbie Stabenow gushed, “People on the floor, in our caucus, it was almost like tears in their eye. I mean, I felt it.”
ASIA:
Congress on Wednesday passed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid bill, complete with relief checks, school funding, state bailouts, and emergency business loans, among other provisions. While some aspects of the American Rescue Plan are related to the coronavirus, much of the bill is not.
Before the lockdown, the Left took a wrecking ball to our economy last year, we were enjoying one of the greatest expansions of economic opportunity in our lifetimes. Unemployment was at its lowest rate in 50 years; the poverty rate was at its lowest in 60 years. Wage growth was the strongest in 40 years. The wage gap was narrowing for the first time in many years as blue-collar wages increased dramatically. The unemployment rate for women was the lowest in 70 years. For African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans, veterans and disabled Americans, and those without a high school diploma, unemployment was the lowest ever recorded.