Opinion and commentary on news, politics, culture, and policy impact.
On today’s edition of The Daily Signal podcast, Rob Bluey and Ginny Montalbano review the week’s top news. We feature an exclusive interview with Henry Darwin, the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of operations. He speaks about the new Office of Continuous Improvement and how EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is implementing a lean management system in a…
Severe mental illness has received considerable attention lately, owing largely to recent tragedies, including mass shootings involving the mentally ill. The issue also has emerged in discussions about fighting poverty, because an estimated 1 in 5 homeless people suffer from severe mental illness. It also has arisen in the context of criminal justice and prison…
Robert Mueller was appointed one year ago Thursday as a special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether the Russian government coordinated its activities with associates of candidate Donald Trump. Over the past year Mueller has managed to spend $10 million in taxpayer funds, taken up enormous amounts of time…
The left is sleepless in Seattle, working overtime to squander years of economic success. Seattle is, by many measures, one of the fastest-growing cities in America, if not the fast-growing city. A few big tech companies, including Amazon and Microsoft, plus other large, successful businesses such as Boeing and Starbucks, have fueled this explosive rise. But…
The Senate confirmations on May 15 of two more of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees bring the total number approved so far in the 115th Congress to 39. Twenty-one of the 39 have been to appeals courts. The appeals court total is the highest at this point of any president in history. Trump has made 114…
The wedding of Great Britain’s Prince Harry and America’s Meghan Markle this Saturday is a “huge positive” and a symbol of the historic special relationship between the two nations. So says Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation, who agreed to answer The Daily Signal’s questions about the…
Much of the news media’s coverage of Monday’s opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem linked the ceremony to Palestinian riots along Gaza’s border with Israel, suggesting that there was a cause-and-effect relationship. That is a false conclusion. The Gaza border riots were orchestrated by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist terrorist organization, as part of its…
Andrew McCarthy, a former chief assistant U.S. attorney and contributor to National Review, joins us to discuss special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Plus: Henry Kissinger thinks we should have a national conversation about artificial intelligence.
New data from insurance company regulatory filings show that enrollment in the individual health insurance market declined significantly last year—by 10 percent, or 1.8 million people. Over the three years prior to the implementation of Obamacare (2011 through 2013), enrollment in the individual market was basically stable—fluctuating narrowly between 11.8 million and 12 million persons….
May 8, 2018, is not just the date when President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran deal. It will ultimately go down in history as a day that the United States made the entire world safer. Though not everyone is on board yet, one day soon the world will be thanking us. Trump deserves…
Fallout from relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Democrats declare the NRA “just shy” of a terrorist group, victims of Larry Nassar set to be honored at the ESPY Awards, and drama surrounding the royal wedding. All that and more in this week’s edition of “Problematic Women.” Watch the video above, or listen—and subscribe—to the…
Just in time for National Police Week, an opportunity to honor America’s heroic police officers, both chambers of Congress have introduced versions of the Protect and Serve Act, with the laudable aim of supporting police officers—but with the dubious means of federalizing local crimes. The Protect and Serve Act, though well-intended, unfortunately would duplicate state…
The most remarkable thing about the title of this column [“Cornell Student Presents Thesis in Her Underwear”] is that not one reader will think it’s a joke. That, my friends, is further proof of the low esteem in which most Americans hold our universities. The left has rendered our universities, in the description of Harvard…
If all Donald Trump did with these four years was balance the courts, his presidency would still be a success. Lucky for us, he’s got his sights set on a lot more than that—and a pile of accomplishments to prove it. But in an age when more decisions are being snatched out of his hands…
If you’ve been scanning news headlines in the past 24 hours, you might have read that President Donald Trump on Wednesday called immigrants “animals.” Here are a few of the headlines: “During Roundtable, Trump Calls Some Unauthorized Immigrants ‘Animals’” (NPR) “Trump Calls Some Unauthorized Immigrants ‘Animals’ in Rant” (New York Times) “Trump ramps up rhetoric…
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is a government entity that provides mandatory insurance to private pension plans. The PBGC’s multiemployer program deficit—estimated to be between $65 billion and $101 billion—and looming insolvency threatens workers who stand to lose their insured pension benefits, as well as taxpayers who could be forced to pick up the tab….
The Heritage Foundation’s Daren Bakst appeared on The Daily Signal podcast on Wednesday to discuss the farm bill. Here is a lightly edited transcript of that conversation. Katrina Trinko: The House is expected to vote on the farm bill this Friday. Now, the farm bill is actually a pretty huge bill. It includes both funding…
Over the next 10 years, our publicly held debt is set to almost double, going from around $15 trillion today to more than $28 trillion in 2028. Debt as a percentage of our entire economy is set to grow from 76.5 percent today to 96.2 percent in 2028, a level not reached since the end…
I was privileged to attend the dedication of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14—an event of enormous import that will remain with me forever. I am deeply grateful to Ambassador David Friedman and his wife, Tammy, for inviting me to this historic event. The United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is…
During my 33 years in law enforcement, I faced countless dangers—but nothing was more difficult than losing a fellow officer. I think about these friends and their loved ones every day, as if they were part of my own family. This is the week Congress sets aside each year to honor fallen law enforcement officers….