Plus: Senators advance a proposal to dismantle DEI.
• Maybe the whole past four years have been a fake video.
• That Biden chose the twelfth anniversary of DACA to promulgate his new immigration order is fitting. Indeed, all that was missing was a commemorative sign that read, “Twelve years of ignoring the Constitution.” Adopting his decreasingly persuasive tough-guy pose, Biden told the audience, “Folks, I’m not interested in playing politics with the border or with immigration.” Considered from any angle, this was a disgraceful thing to say. For a start, Joe Biden has, in fact, “played politics” with the border, and he did so again in this speech, when he pretended preposterously that it was “Trump and the Republicans”—rather than the progressive wing of his coalition—who were standing in the way of his ability to deal with the problem. More broadly, though, “politics” is precisely what has been missing from this White House’s approach to immigration. President Biden did not consult Congress when he decided to open up the border, and he has not consulted Congress now that he has decided to pursue a mass amnesty. Were the border to be secured, the public might well be more open to dealing sympathetically with the often difficult question of whom to prioritize for deportation and whom to put on a path toward legalization. But the border has not been secured, and there seems no prospect of the border’s being secured anytime soon, and, as a result, there exists a great deal of skepticism toward rewarding yet another generation of lawbreakers. Just this month, polling showed that, in nearly every demographic group, majorities of American voters have come to support mass deportations. That President Biden’s response to this has been to announce the ultra vires amnesty of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants is not solely bad politics; it is an affront to our constitutional system, to our democracy, and to the claim that nobody is above the law.
• According to a report by the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. is now facing a deficit of $1.9 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year—up $400 billion from its February estimates. The bulk of the changes came from an increase in spending on student loans thanks to the Biden administration’s debt-forgiveness action, higher-than-expected spending on Medicaid, and the recently passed foreign-aid bill—all of which added to an already grim fiscal outlook. Cumulatively, over the period 2021 to 2024, deficits are now $2.6 trillion higher than what the CBO had projected for the same period in February 2021, before any Biden policies had gone into effect. We wish we could say that Donald Trump is providing a clear contrast with Biden when it comes to tackling the deficit problem. Unfortunately, neither Trump’s record nor his current rhetoric inspires much confidence. Most significantly, neither candidate wants to do anything serious to rein in entitlements, which are the main driver of the nation’s long-term debt problems. Thanks to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, even if the next president does no further harm and the programs just run on autopilot, the fiscal situation will get worse. In 2027, the public debt will reach 106.2 percent of gross domestic product—eclipsing the record set during World War II. Unless major changes are made to alter the current path, Americans will face harsh trade-offs, with the possibilities including: crushing tax increases, severe spending cuts, the degradation of military readiness, economic stagnation, or some combination of all of the above. This is a recipe for American decline.
• Web welfare ran out of money at the end of May, and we hope it will stay that way. The Affordable Connectivity Program provided a $30 monthly subsidy for internet bills to qualifying households. It was designed to follow the classic Washington path from temporary to permanent, beginning as an “emergency” program after the Covid pandemic and being defended as a life necessity by political supporters as funding expired. The emergency never existed: Hardly anyone lost internet service during the pandemic, and broadband has been becoming more affordable over time. A significant chunk of the subsidy, especially for low-income recipients, was captured by internet-service providers, who lobbied Congress hard to extend the ACP. Senate Democrats’ efforts to tie the program to reauthorizing the authority of the Federal Communications Commission to conduct spectrum auctions failed, and naturally they blamed Republicans. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz and other Republican ACP opponents should wear Democrats’ ire as a badge of honor.
• Senator J. D. Vance (R., Ohio) and Representative Michael Cloud (R., Texas) have introduced the Dismantle DEI Act. The bill would bar school-accreditation agencies from requiring DEI in schools and stop financial agencies, including Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, from instituting diversity requirements for corporate boards. It would effectively rescind President Biden’s June 25, 2021, executive order, which pushed DEI requirements and ideas into “all parts of the Federal workforce.” That executive order alone helps to sustain an entire private industry of DEI consultancies and lobby groups, by giving all federal agencies the power and the mandate to contract for “diversity and sensitivity trainings.” It’s wrong for such politically charged content to be in the federal government’s training and development programs. But the government’s practice here isn’t just about executive-branch employees. The norms it sets also become a template for private-sector employers and HR groups who want their workplaces to avoid lawsuits. Divisive ideologies like those that underlie diversity, equity, and inclusion have trouble surviving without sponsorship and promotion by the government. No sane entrepreneur thinks that his or her business is the proper forum for adjudicating and correcting man’s inhumanity to man stretching back into millennia of history. But if the government can inflict such mandates on its own employees, states are only a few steps behind doing so for the private sector. The bill is a blow against government overreach, against crony-ideological sponsorship, and against the politicization of the workforce and everyday life. It immediately attracted 20 co-sponsors in Congress, and deserves more.
• A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said, “The notion that tariffs are a tax on U.S. consumers is a lie pushed by outsourcers and the Chinese Communist Party.” No, it is a truth pushed by economics.
• The city of Chicago is hunkering down for a hot summer of 17-year cicada blooms and an impending Democratic National Convention desired by exactly nobody outside of balloon vendors and pro-Hamas activists looking to set the city ablaze come late August. But thankfully Mayor Brandon Johnson—with all of that as well as the city’s endemic issues of violent crime, debt, infrastructural decay, and a crushing illegal-immigration crisis to deal with—is keeping his eye on the ball: With an executive order, he has established a “Reparations Task Force” that will siphon half a million dollars from city coffers as it “studies” the issue, and whose ultimate aim is to siphon billions of dollars more from residents to address “the legacy of slavery” in Chicago, metropolis of the Land of Lincoln. It is a move sure to bridge the city’s infamous racial divides; the city’s Latino residents, in particular, will no doubt be thrilled.
• Jack Phillips, the Coloradan who has faced years of legal attacks for refusing to bake cakes that communicate progressive messages, was back in front of the state supreme court on Tuesday. His latest offense: refusing to bake a cake celebrating a “gender transition.” This is after the United States Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that Colorado officials had unconstitutionally acted with prejudice toward his religious views when they attempted to force him to bake a cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. It also ruled last year that the Colorado law being weaponized against Phillips could not be used to compel speech. If the state’s highest court rules against Phillips, expect SCOTUS to vindicate the embattled baker’s First Amendment rights once again. Does Colorado’s government really have nothing better to do than harass this man?
• Since 2016, Bryan and Rebecca Gantt have adopted three infants through Vermont’s foster-care system. In September, the state asked whether they would consider welcoming a fourth child into their home—a baby boy who was about to be born to a homeless, drug-addicted mother. The Gantts were the department’s “first choice,” they were told. But that changed about a week later after Mr. Gantt, a local pastor, asked for clarity about a new policy. Vermont, like several other blue states, now requires prospective foster parents—even in hypothetical situations—to agree to affirm a child’s sexual orientation and gender identity “even if the foster parents hold divergent personal opinions or beliefs.” Because the Gantts hold traditional Christian views about sex and gender, Vermont declined to place the baby with them and revoked their license. In early June, with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, the Gantts and another Christian family sued on the grounds that the state’s policies violate their First Amendment free-speech and religious-liberty rights. Vermont “requires me to affirm things that I don’t believe,” Bryan Gantt told National Review. It also deprives children of loving homes.
• California governor Gavin Newsom and Florida governor Ron DeSantis agree on little these days. The progressive Democrat and conservative Republican have leaned into their differences. (Remember their debate last year?) Each offers up his state as a model for the nation. But they agree on at least one cause: limiting children’s exposure to smartphones. Newsom recently promised to do what DeSantis did last year: sign legislation restricting smartphones in schools. Given the governors’ rivalry, Newsom’s promise led to some degree of crowing from the DeSantis orbit. But Newsom could, in this instance, point to prior, similar actions California has taken during his governorship. Americans should welcome both efforts. The data linking smartphones to a host of negative social and psychological outcomes for today’s youth may not yet be unimpeachable, but they are plausible. Californians might be particularly well positioned to notice something amiss: The state is home to Silicon Valley, many of whose leading lights limit smartphone usage for their own children. Typical cautions against government overreach are worth considering, but neither DeSantis, Newsom, nor their state legislatures are acting beyond their authority. State-level action to confront this pressing problem is preferable to federal action. When Newsom and DeSantis can agree on something, the rest of us should pay attention.
• “We are aware of new and credible reports that Russian authorities are listing abducted Ukrainian children on Russian adoption websites.” So said Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national-security adviser, in an official statement. By “reports,” he meant an investigation by the Financial Times. Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Sullivan noted, “hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians” have been deported to Russia, “including children who have been forcibly separated from their families.” This is “despicable and appalling,” he said. It is also a war crime.
• If Willie Mays wasn’t the greatest baseball player ever, he has serious partisans for the claim that the title is his. He was the most complete everyday player the game has seen. He hit for average with a good batting eye, clubbed 660 career home runs and as many as 20 triples in a season, led the league in stolen bases four years running, and defended center field like it was one of his children, mostly for the Giants. Playing professionally from age 17 to 42, he scarcely missed a game or had an off year until he was 38—except for nearly two full years in the Army, without which he likely would have hit 700 home runs. His first year back, 1954, he won the batting title, the MVP award, and with his famous back-to-the-plate catch sparked a World Series upset of the 111-win Cleveland Indians. The Say Hey Kid was that rarity who played a boy’s game with a boy’s joy and a man’s discipline and shrewdness. The image of him running out from under his hat to make one of his signature basket catches will endure. Like Hank Aaron, he was born in the Jim Crow Alabama of the early 1930s. Mays was from Westfield, a coal- and steel-company town. Called up into the legendary 1951 pennant race while hitting .477/.524/.799 in AAA, he became a legend in both New York and San Francisco. His passing at 93 closes the book on the titanic figures of the golden post-war, post-integration era. R.I.P.