Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
Earlier this week, my colleagues Tony Kinnett and Tim Kennedy visited Hawaii to report for The Daily Signal on the deadliest U.S. wildfire in over a century. Their trip coincided with President Joe Biden’s head-scratching island adventure, which did little to restore confidence with Hawaiians after his callous “no comment” quip about the disaster days…
In June 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the U.S. Supreme Court said what we can all read for ourselves, that the U.S. Constitution “does not confer a right to abortion.” That shifted the venue for those who want to eliminate any legal protection for the unborn to state courts and state constitutions….
A front-page story on Aug. 21 in The Washington Post sounds a false alarm: “American democracy is cracking. These forces help explain why,” by Dan Balz and Clara Ence Morse. The analysis is incoherent, betrays constitutional ignorance, and misunderstands the purpose of government—not majority rule but justice secured through checks and balances and separation of…
The Department of Labor on Aug. 8 finalized an 812-page rule that contains more than 50 significant changes to the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act. Instead of modernizing and improving this deeply flawed law, those changes double down on its shortcomings. Such massive changes make a bill introduced earlier this year by Rep. Bob Good, R-Va.—the Repeal…
Drinking, partying, and pressure to explore homosexuality are common within women’s sports, but this does not need to be the norm, according to former college athlete Samantha Kelley. While the “transgender” issue is a new challenge in women’s sports, it has long been “statistically proven that college athletes party more [and] drink more than the…
The town of Lahaina, Hawaii, looks like it’s been “bombed,” The Daily Signal’s Tony Kinnett says after visiting fire-devastated areas on the island of Maui. Kinnett, investigative columnist for The Daily Signal, spent five days on the ground in Lahaina and elsewhere on Maui. Where government officials have failed, he says, locals have stepped up…
Abortion advocates have their sights set on Ohio this fall. On Nov. 7, Ohioans will vote on the “Right to Make Reproductive Decisions Including Abortion” Initiative to amend the state’s constitution. The key word in the title of this proposal is “including,” because it is about much more than abortion. Its backers hope that the focus…
President Joe Biden says he wants a carbon-free future for the United States and acknowledges that to realize that future, nuclear energy is essential. Judging by the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of taxpayer dollars that Biden is throwing at his version of “green energy,” combined with a willingness to strangle consumer choice, his…
President Joe Biden, we keep hearing, is a deeply empathetic man. It is that empathy that brought him to the presidency—his deep and abiding capacity to connect with others. In “What It Takes,” Richard Ben Cramer’s detailed blow-by-blow of the 1988 election cycle, Cramer describes Biden’s ability to “connect” as his greatest supposed skill. This…
Tonight is the first Republican presidential debate, where eight candidates will square off in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Who has the most to gain and most to lose? And what topics will dominate the debate? Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer, host of “The Sean Spicer Show,” spoke to The Daily Signal about what he’ll be…
The House version of the State Department’s foreign operations appropriations bill calls for defunding the agency’s various special envoys, representatives, and coordinators unless expressly authorized by law or confirmed by the Senate. Congress is right to scrutinize and prune these proliferating, expensive, and often redundant “special” offices. One of these positions is the State Department’s…
Someone with a million dollars of credit card debt probably wouldn’t celebrate if his interest rate skyrocketed. Yet some analysts are touting rising interest rates on America’s trillions of dollars of long-term debt as a good sign for the U.S. economy. Are they right? Are rising long-term interest rates a good thing? Certainly not for…
The Biden administration is expected to announce, by Sept. 1, the first 10 prescription drugs it will target in its newly authorized drug price “negotiation” regime. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (more properly dubbed the Innovation Reduction Act), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will announce the 10 drugs under Medicare Part D that…
The Biden administration reportedly has reached a deal to free five Iranian-American hostages held by Iran, in what may be the prelude to an even worse agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. Under the reported deal, the United States would secure the five hostages’ release by releasing an unknown number of Iranian agents or sanctions violators…
I am writing this column on a beautiful sunny day in Southern California. It is a Monday in mid-August, so it is not a national holiday, yet in Los Angeles County, where I live, all the schools and all government offices are closed. Why? Because, for the past week, the National Weather Service, state and…
How does a church community respond when someone comes through the doors who identifies as transgender, or who is struggling with his or her gender identity? What does a response of love look like? According to author-lawyer John Bursch, the “very first response is accompaniment.” “Just like anybody who is suffering in any situation, whether…
Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate in Milwaukee for the Republican candidates for the presidency will be more a Q&A session than a classic debate, but that’s OK. Viewers will have a chance to take the measure of the men—and woman—who wish to become president. Each candidate brings something to the table, so imagine if we…
While Americans are paying trillions of dollars for President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda, that agenda is weakening America’s national security, and China is set to profit heavily from this folly. As members of Congress were leaving Washington for the August recess, Biden’s National Highway Transportation Safety Administration quietly published new proposed fuel economy standards…
You don’t need a college degree to understand what’s happening in our country. Oliver Anthony, the Virginia songwriter and singer behind the viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond,” didn’t even finish high school. But his song is the most intelligent political commentary of the year. [The viral song debuted Monday at No. 1 on…
Aug. 15 marked two years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan after a nearly two-decade war. For James Hasson, co-author of “Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End” and an Afghanistan veteran, seeing the Taliban takeover “was a punch in the gut.” “And I…