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On Tax Day: Speaker Johnson Touts Benefits of Tax Cuts
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The Speaker of the House was surrounded by working Americans who benefited from last year’s tax cuts that—he emphasized—were permanent: It is a great day because this filing season, three things are happening as you just heard summarize there. Lower taxes, bigger refunds and more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans…. In the past 40 years since the administration of Ronald Reagan, this country has only seen temporary tax cuts…. Here’s just a few numbers: • $10,000: That’s the increase in annual take home pay for the typical working family. That’s the average, and some have much higher. • 15 percent: That’s the average tax cut for a family earning between $15,000 and $80,000 annually. • $3,400: That’s the value of the average tax refund for this year’s filers, as you’ve heard, and that’s the biggest refund American taxpayers have seen in decades…. While Republicans are cutting taxes for families, for lower and middle class, hardworking, Americans, Democrats are trying to raise those taxes. While Republicans are making it easier to build and invest in America, Democrats want a return to the policies that shipped American jobs overseas. While Republicans are working to make everyday life easier and more affordable, Democrats want to go back to the nightmare of Bidenomics. It’s common sense versus crazy, y’all, as we say down in Louisiana…. We’re going to continue this, and that’s why we’re going to have a great midterm election that defies history ( Johnson). Leader Thune was driving home a similar message. From his appearance on Fox News: The truth is, we prevented a $4 trillion tax increase… ( Thune).
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Senator Gallego Feeling the Heat After Swalwell Falls
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The Arizona Democrat was a longtime buddy and roommate to Swalwell. He’s trying to defend himself, saying he heard the accused rapist was “flirty” ( Washington Eye). That argument is not going to hold up. Free Beacon reports: The aspiring 2028 presidential candidate is either deaf, dumb, and blind or a degenerate liar. There’s really no other possible explanation for his supporting role in the saga of Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.). Gallego was Swalwell’s Capitol Hill roommate and longtime wingman. With Swalwell dropping his bid for governor of California and resigning his seat in Congress in the face of numerous accusations of sexual assault and sexual harassment—plus a video depicting him rolling around on a bed in Las Vegas with an escort—some people are quite reasonably wondering: What did Gallego know and when did he know it? … Gallego is either one of the few people on Capitol Hill who hadn’t gotten wind of Swalwell’s misdeeds or an enabler and participant in them, and either scenario is a non-starter for a serious presidential contender ( Free Beacon). Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Swalwell yesterday: I think it’s also quite plausible … that there were many other Dems… who knew… ( Rapid Response). Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) is calling for access to communications from Gallego: Lawler sent a letter to Gallego on Tuesday pointing to Gallego’s support of releasing the files of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and calling on him to “adhere to the same standard set by you and Congress with respect to those with close ties to serial abusers.” “In the interest of full transparency, you must release all text messages, emails, group chat messages including over Signal, social media communications, including Facebook, Instagram, X, Snapchat, TikTok, as well as any photos and videos,” Lawler wrote ( Roll Call).
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New Scrutiny on Democratic Candidate for Senate in Maine After Revelation of His Record of Praising Hamas
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Graham Platner is the Democrats leading candidate for Senate in Maine. In the latest poll, he’s carrying a 33-point lead ( RCP). He’s also carrying water for Hamas, having praised the terror group’s successful attack on IDF troops that killed ten: “Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me.” Jewish Insider: Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner repeatedly praised the tactics used by Hamas terrorists in comments made about a graphic video of a Hamas raid into Israel in 2014, in which terrorists killed at least five Israeli soldiers. In archived posts from his now-deleted Reddit profile under the username “P-Hustle,” Platner commented on a video post titled “Helmet Footage from Hamas cross-border raid,” which showed the attack on multiple Israeli soldiers…. According to a text description of the video and the raid shared online, the video includes footage of the shootings of several Israeli soldiers, at least one of whom is screaming as the terrorists attempt to kidnap him. “Looks like an all around well executed and successful small unit raid to me,” Platner wrote in 2014 on the Reddit forum r/CombatFootage, a discussion board for footage and photographs of past and current armed conflicts ( Jewish Insider).
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Operation Economic Fury Will Do Economically to Iran What Operation Epic Fury Has Done Kinetically
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That was the argument from our Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent yesterday as he joined White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House Press briefing. Bessent: Yesterday we announced Operation Economic Fury and for over a year, we have had maximum pressure on the Iranians, both on blocking payments into the Iranian state and going after the accounts of the IRGC. One of what may prove to be fatal mistakes that the Iranians made was bombing their GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] neighbors and who are now willing to be much more transparent in terms of the funds or do a deeper dive in investigating the funds that are held within their banking systems. So, we have pushed out to them the request that we want to freeze more funds of the leadership of the IRGC and any members of Iranian leadership. The other thing that we have done is we have told countries that if you are buying Iranian oil, that if Iranian money is sitting in your banks, we are now willing to apply secondary sanctions, which is a very stern measure. And the Iranians should know that this is going to be the financial equivalent of what we saw in the kinetic activities ( Daugherty). From the Treasury department: Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) intensified pressure on Iran’s illicit oil transportation infrastructure by sanctioning more than two dozen individuals, companies, and vessels operating within the network of Iranian oil shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani (Shamkhani), the son of now-deceased senior Iranian security official Ali Shamkhani…. Financial institutions should be on notice that Treasury will leverage all tools and authorities, including secondary sanctions, against those that continue to support Tehran’s terrorist activities” ( Treasury).
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Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, China: Yes, the Administration’s Foreign Policy Moves Impacting Them Are All Parts of a Whole
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And Tim Sheehy—the Freshman Senator from Montana—does quite well summing it up succinctly: These are tied together and I think that’s another important issue that hasn’t been given fair airtime for really anybody is zooming out again and placing the Iranian conflict in this challenge in the context of larger geopolitical players. The Venezuela move was not unrelated to Iran. The cheap sanctioned oil that allowed Venezuela and Iran to fund the ghost fleet, the shadow fleet, the underwater, the underground global oil trade that allowed Russia and China to dodge sanctions that provides 93 percent of China’s discounted oil, literally buying oil at cents on the dollar. China loved the status quo of a sanctioned Iran and a sanctioned Venezuela because that gave them guaranteed access to a captive oil market where they knew they’d get cheap product exclusively for them. So this isn’t just about defeating Islamic extremists. This isn’t just about taking out a socialist narco trafficking dictator in South America. This is about removing linchpins that are upholding a world order where this administration’s accused of being nice to Xi and nice to Putin, yet we’ve taken out the two satellite states that exist as the primary economic drivers of their global discounted energy. So these are absolutely connected ( Meijer).
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Iran’s Decision to Weaponize the Strait May Have Served Their Own Undoing; ‘a judo move by the American president’
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They blocked the Strait of Hormuz in a fit of desperation. But they are far more dependent on the trade movement through those waters than the U.S. (and pretty much anyone else). Now that the U.S. has out-foxed the mullahs and shuttered Iranian use of the waterway, the Islamic Republic is economically suffocating. Miad Maleki in Foreign Affairs: More than any other country on earth, Iran cannot survive a sustained closure of the strait. Before the outbreak of war in late February, 20 percent of the world’s commercial shipping may have transited the Strait of Hormuz, but over 90 percent of Iran’s seaborne trade traversed this 21-mile-wide chokepoint. Even before the U.S. naval blockade, Iran was struggling severely to move shipments vital to its own economy through the passage. A blockade will inhibit Iranian exports of all kinds—oil being the most important, but also petrochemicals—as well as imports of much of the country’s grain…. By closing the strait, Iran has not established a new, meaningful source of long-term clout. Instead, it has indicated how militaries can decimate the Iranian economy and thus really exert power over the Islamic Republic…. The blockade makes continued resistance economically impossible. The Strait of Hormuz will likely prove to be Iran’s Achilles’ heel and undoing, not its secret weapon ( Foreign Affairs). Lindsey Graham: One of the most brilliant moves in the history of warfare is @POTUS using the U.S. Navy – the greatest navy on the planet – to blockade all Iranian ports so they can’t sell oil or gas…. President Trump’s bold move has brought oil prices down and further weakened the regime’s economy, where inflation has reached 180%. Mr. President, your decision to impose a naval blockade on Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism, is paying off ( Graham). Jonathan Conricus: The biggest and most important tool was Hormuz, and it has been turned against them in kind of a judo move by the American president ( i24).
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In the Chess Match With China: Guess Who’s Asserted Control Over the Trade Routes Now?
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Elite media would lead us to believe that Trump’s engagements on the world stage are random, haphazard and impulsive. Erick Erickson: With our alliances with the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and our control of the Strait of Hormuz against Iran, the United States now controls every access point that China has to get to the other side of Southeast Asia, to get to India, to get to Africa, and to get to Europe. Every trade route China needs to go west is now controlled by the United States of America. Donald Trump did that. Pete Hegseth negotiated the deal with Indonesia…. The Trump administration has just put itself in a position to have the United States control every access point China has for trading west, west to Europe, west to Africa, west to India, west to other parts of Southeast Asia. The United States military now controls those routes. Have you heard about that in the press? I bet you haven’t. We have pushed China out of the Western hemisphere ( Erickson). It reminds us of Secretary of State Rubio’s recent words: we in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West’s managed decline ( State).
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Lebanon Not Demanding Pullback of Israeli Forces Before Next Round of Talks
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As Lebanon seems increasingly willing to take decisive steps against Hezbollah. Isreal Hayom: The next meeting between Israel and Lebanon will most likely take place as early as next week in Washington, according to Israeli and American diplomatic sources. Under that framework, the second meeting will map out the issues for discussion, chiefly border demarcation and the economic and civilian aspects of a possible agreement. The issue of Hezbollah and its disarmament is only supposed to come up as a point of reference, but discussion of it is taking place at the highest political level…. The IDF will not withdraw from the area, and notably Lebanon did not demand that, at least not immediately. Israel is linking Hezbollah’s disarmament, as set out in the November 2024 agreement, to an Israeli military withdrawal and a full ceasefire. That means the IDF will continue operating against Hezbollah targets that pose an immediate threat, including deep inside Lebanese territory, and will have complete freedom of action in the area south of the Litani River ( Israel Hayom).
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California Providing Gender ‘Transition’ Treatment for Illegal Immigrants
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The layers of what is wrong with this are numerous. Christopher Rufo in the City Journal, talking about a visit to California as they looked into illegals in California homeless shelters: We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it…. Wearing rouge on his cheeks and a low-cut red shirt, Jacqueline flaunted his large chest. He said that he had gotten transgender hormone treatments, and confirmed that he had received breast implants from the state Medi-Cal program. Though Jacqueline claimed to be a legal resident, he suggested that the state also provides implants to illegal immigrants. “Even though you’re undocumented,” he said, “you can get them” ( City Journal). And he goes on. Let’s just say Californians are paying for the full scope of transgender ‘treatment.’ More from David Strom at Hot Air: I would call this peak woke, but we will never reach peak woke because they will keep inventing new categories of victims to steal money and rights from you to give them ( Hot Air).
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Pro-Life Group Wins in Federal Court: No, They Do Not Have Provide Abortion Coverage
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The origins of the case go back to 2017 and an Oregen law mandating that employer health plans provide coverage for the termination of human life through abortion. Oregon Right to Life challenged the law. Life News: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Oregon cannot force a leading pro-life organization to provide abortion coverage in its employees’ health insurance plans. That hands a victory to pro-life advocates who argue the state’s law violates religious freedom by compelling them to fund a practice they view as the taking of innocent human life. U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai announced from the bench in Eugene that Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act — which requires most employer health plans to cover abortions — is unconstitutional as applied to Oregon Right to Life. The Keizer-based nonprofit, devoted to protecting unborn children, had challenged the 2017 law’s mandate on First Amendment grounds. Oregon Right to Life argued the law discriminates against its sincerely held religious beliefs by granting exemptions to some secular employers and to religious organizations meeting the state’s narrow definition of a “religious employer” — while denying relief to the pro-life group…. State officials, including pro-abortion Gov. Tina Kotek and Attorney General Dan Rayfield, said they will appeal the ruling. The law remains in effect pending further proceedings ( Life News).
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