Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. We’re having a big discussion in this country about immigration, both legal and illegal, and one of the themes has been whether a person came legally or illegally, what was their attitude about the country they came to, and did they show appreciation or gratitude? And that could be defined as obeying our laws or professing a love for this country, aside from showing gratitude by becoming legal. And this came up in a variety of context. We had a great number of licenses here in California, 17,000, that were issued to people who were illegally in the United States, and they weren’t even residents of California. We had a lot of drunk driving incidents and violence, murders from people who came across the border. In the south, we had people on campus from the Middle East who were overtly expressing support for Hamas, Hezbollah, antisemitic sloganeering. And most importantly, in Minnesota, during the COVID-19 years, the Somali community got a billion dollars or multibillion-dollar grants—we don’t really know the depth of this scandal—supposedly to supply food and meals, and even in some cases, health services to indigent people or people who were impacted negatively by COVID-19 and apparently, under the nose of Gov. Tim Walz, under the nose of Attorney General Keith Ellison, under the nose of the point person for the Somali community, Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Minnesota congresswoman. This fraud went on and on and on. And it was only due to a federal attorney who uncovered it because it was a matter of—much of it was a federal matter because the funds came from Washington, and there have been indictments and they’re still occurring. But what’s interesting is nobody in the Somali community who was a political representative or supposedly told us what a great community that this was ever bothered to see what they were actually doing. There were a variety of state and local laws that were violated, but there were no prosecutions. Walz cannot explain why the feds had to step in and why he never even investigated this until the media and the Trump administration drew his attention to it. Keith Ellison allegedly has talked about expecting campaign contributions from the Somali community in some kind of quid pro quo fashion. Ilhan Omar’s on a video where she points to one of the restaurants in question, allegedly for serving these fraudulent—I shouldn’t say serving, not even serving the meals at all. But this opened a larger question. If you were an immigrant and you came to the United States from a war-torn, impoverished, and dangerous place, like Somalia, shouldn’t you express gratitude? Ilhan Omar came here, to take one example, and she’s the most prominent example of this controversy right now. She came here at 13 and she was given every benefit of being a U.S. resident and then a U.S. citizen. She was given a generous scholarship to go to college. She was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. She was elected to Congress. I think she’s a four-term congresswoman. She insisted, even though she was an American citizen, to wear the traditional Somali hijab, even though there was a rule in the House, an old rule, that people don’t wear headwear or gear or hats inside the Capitol chambers when Congress is in session. They made a special exception just for her. But I mention this because she has a long line of indiscretions, and they form a pattern. She said that the United States was a trashy country. She said that the dictatorship in America, i.e., the Trump administration, was not much different from the one that she left in Somalia. She said that Charlie Kirk, right after his death, was a scholastic terrorist. I don’t know if that means a random terrorist or just an incidental terrorist or habitual terrorist, but that was a terrible thing to say right after his death. She also said that it’s the Benjamins, baby, when she was making the argument that, as she put it, we in the Congress don’t have to have an allegiance to a foreign country and implying that Jewish members put Israel ahead of the United States. And so, she’s been part of “the squad” and she’s had to apologize for some of her antisemitic rhetoric. She’s expressed overt criticism of the country that befriended her and allowed her to be educated at mostly at public cost, to be a representative of Congress, to write a book with a major New York publisher. She’s also, she put on one of her financial disclosures that she almost had a zero net worth. Now, after her marriage to Tim Mynett, who seems to have made quite a lot of money through his association with politicians, she now says that her, in her financial disclosure, that their net worth may be as great as $30 million. There’s also an accusation that, allegedly, allegedly, that she may have formalistically married her brother to ease his citizenship application, and then that marriage was legal and then it was dissolved as she married again. And we don’t know if that’s true, but one thing we do know, it’s true, she’s never said under oath, “I didn’t do that. I did not do that. I swear under oath that I never married my brother. And this is the proof.” So, at least we don’t have a testimony of that. She may have said it informally, but I don’t think in a court of law she said that. My point is that, in this greater discussion about the fraud that goes on in Minnesota and our worry about immigrants on campus, behind the wheel of a semi-truck, administering a fraudulent food program, coming across the southern border, and then committing acts of violence, maybe, just maybe, we should ask of our immigrants a little gratitude, that they left and voted with their feet to come to the United States. And in this whole nexus, Ilhan Omar stands out as a person for two reasons. As an immigrant example, this country has lavished no more benefits on anyone than her. Every imaginable opportunity was extended to her, and yet, in reciprocity for that, she’s attacked the president of the United States, she suggested that the country was trashy, she said that Charlie Kirk was a terrorist, she said 9/11—she said something happened on that day, something happened. No, not something happened, 3,000 Americans were murdered. And now she’s mysteriously a multimillionaire. And we still don’t know how the entire story of how citizenship was attained, from her brother and whether, as some people charge, she actually married him, which would be immigration fraud. And so, Ilhan Omar is an example of what’s wrong with legal and illegal immigration, that we allow people from countries that are, I don’t want to use the word “Third World,” but are in chaos, in tumult, they come as refugees, they’re extended every benefit, and very soon they realize that their advance or their success politically hinges on the degree to which they express themselves as victims or as hard leftist or as ingrates. And she’s done all of that. And it’s no surprise that she’s very prominent among the hard-left politicians, and she’s a quite wealthy woman. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post COVID-19-Era Grants Show How Identity Politics Can Shield Corruption appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The worst thing that has ever happened to the Capitol Building? “Air conditioning,” says Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. Burchett joined ”The Signal Sitdown” at the Republican Study Committee’s new media row to discuss how a group he calls the “war pimps” came to dominate Washington—and what he’s doing to try to stop them. Installing air conditioning in the Capitol, Burchett said, gave members of Congress the wrong impression: “These guys think they need to be year round,” he said, “I do more work when I’m at home, brother. This is a show up here.” Burchett explained that “a war pimp is somebody who profits off war and or that enjoys war because it furthers their career.” And this advancement is not only political, but financial. Members of Congress like Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have often been criticized for trading stocks while going about their work on Capitol Hill drafting and passing legislation that will have large economic impacts, leading to massive returns. Perhaps nowhere is this behavior better demonstrated than with members of Congress who are charged with appropriating defense funds while being invested in defense companies. A report published by Sludge in September 2024 found that “more than 50 members of Congress own stock in defense contractors whose profits are soaring from giant Pentagon budgets and supplemental weapons packages.” The analysis found that the two defense companies members of Congress were most invested in, in 2023, were Honeywell and RTX (formerly Raytheon). Honeywell is known for its sensors and missile guiding technology, which is used by the Israelis. RTX, meanwhile, makes missiles for Israel’s Iron Dome. It’s not just the war in Gaza or aid to Israel, however. The war pimps don’t care what war it is, they just want their cut. “Look at Ukraine,” Burchett told The Daily Signal. “Under Biden, we gave Ukraine our missile defense system … then you turn around and you have to replenish our missile defense system, which is a multi-billion dollar no bid contract.” “Members of Congress own stock in that missile defense company, and apparently some of them bought it as soon as a couple of weeks before the president officially made that announcement,” Burchett continued. “So you’re in that dadgum committee and you get that information, you buy stock in it.” Burchett, however, said he is trying to end the practice on Capitol Hill with a bill that would ban members of Congress from owning or trading individual stocks. “Congress is infinitely broken and we are crooked as a dog’s leg.” The post GOP Congressman Exposes Practice That Makes Congress ‘Crooked As a Dog’s Leg’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Regulations from Obamacare and under the Biden administration not only increased the cost of health care, they’ve also making it more difficult to advance artificial intelligence and other technology in medicine, experts told a House panel Wednesday.  The regulations amount to “layers of permission” for health data, said Dr. Ziad Obermeyer, Blue Cross of California Distinguished Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley.  “When I started this work, it was so difficult to get the data that we needed here in the United States that I ended up doing this research in Sweden,” Obermeyer said at a joint hearing of two House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittees. “That process took 10 years, but it was still faster than doing it here, despite European data regulations.” “The major culprit here is the many layers of permissions and approvals required to touch health data,” Obermeyer continued.  During the hearing, Rep. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., asked Obermeyer, “If artificial intelligence becomes significantly integrated into medical practice, what impact should we expect on the health care workforce?” Obermeyer said it would change the nature of work, but wouldn’t have the negative impact some anticipate.  “What we’ve learned from the history of automation and technology adoption is that it doesn’t necessarily eliminate jobs—it actually changes the nature of those jobs,” he said. “So, doctors will start to need to interact with these tools and learn from them. And I think they’ll start to augment the capabilities of especially nurses, community health workers, and others who can now have access to cutting edge technology applied to the data from patients to help them make better decisions.” Donalds asked, “Do you think that the Affordable Care Act’s regulatory framework allows for this type of internal innovation in the health care system?” Obermeyer said he couldn’t speak directly to Obamacare, but could talk about regulation more broadly.  “I think right now there are not very strong incentives for a lot of health systems to adopt this AI technology,” he said. “I think the access program that was recently announced from [the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] is a good start in that direction by incentivizing preventive care, augmented by technology.” He said AI technology could “drives lower costs” and “detects the kinds of fraud, waste and abuse that you mentioned earlier.” The two panels were the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs and the Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, asked Chris Jacobs, founder of Juniper Research Group, about the Affordable Care Act. “Obamacare was sold to the American people as a program that would drive down premiums,” he said. “I think the number that was thrown out by President Obama at the time was $2,500. Has that promise come to fruition?” Premiums on individual health insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act more than doubled in the law’s first four years, Jacobs said.  “That’s primarily because of the regulatory mandates that the law imposed,” Jacobs told the House panel. “And prices have continued, premiums have continued to increase substantially, and they continue to increase substantially, more so on the exchanges than for employer sponsored coverage.” Gill followed, “So you would say that Obamacare didn’t slow the growth of premiums in any meaningful way?” Jacobs said, “If anything, quite the contrary.” The post How Obama, Biden Regulations Slowed Technology Growth in Health Care appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Almost a year after the University of Michigan severed ties with a Chinese institution over concerns of national security, over a dozen U.S. universities are still working with Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Now, at least one of those schools is also considering cutting ties with the Chinese university over national security concerns.   The University of Hawaii at Manoa’s relationship with Shanghai Jiao Tong University is currently under review, the Honolulu public university told The Daily Signal.   The central fear is China may exploit its relationship with universities like Yale, Cornell, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the same way it is reported to have done at the University of Michigan, according to a Heritage Foundation expert.   In the case of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, “it would be safer” for U.S. universities “to cut ties at this particular juncture where we must pay closer attention to these critical matters to safeguard our national security from CCP threats,” Anthony Kim, a research fellow in International Economic Affairs at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.   University of Michigan In January, the University of Michigan announced it would end its longstanding partnership with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, based in Shanghai, China, over Congress raising concern of national security.   Following an extensive investigation into American universities’ relationship and work with China, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., sent a letter to University of Michigan President Santa Ono at the end of October 2024 warning that “Sanghai Jiao Tong drives the [People’s Republic of China] PRC’s military modernization and intelligence capabilities.”   Through its work and research, Sanghai Jiao Tong makes “significant contributions to the PRC’s most sensitive defense programs, including nuclear weapons, carrier rockets, satellites, nuclear submarines, and fighter jets,” the Congressman wrote to Ono.   A series of national security breaches at the University of Michigan were also discovered to be linked to the school’s research relationship with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, The Washington Free Beacon reports. The breaches included accusations that University of Michigan Students, who are Chinese nationals, took photos of military drills at Camp Grayling, a military training facility in Michigan.   Earlier this year, the Department of Justice charged a Chinese national employed at the University of Michigan with smuggling a dangerous biological pathogen called Fusarium graminearum into the U.S.  Change Is ‘Overdue’ “I think we need a common sense-based step by step approach to untangle what’s been going on with bad, malicious players that have been polluting our academic institutions,” Kim said, adding that the change is “overdue.”  Changes aimed at “stopping academic or other types of espionage or influence operations, particularly from China’s CCP” should include “enforcing stricter transparency for funding …, lowering disclosure thresholds for university grants [and] donations, and holding universities accountable for concealing foreign influence through government-sponsored student groups,” Kim said.   Shanghai Jiao Tong and US Universities The University of South Carolina, which has an exchange program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, says its relationship with the Chinese institution “has been limited to sending a handful of our business students to SJTU for a semester; not part of research-oriented student exchange program,” Jeffrey Stensland, associate vice president for university communications at the University of South Carolina, told The Daily Signal.   The university does not currently have any students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, according to Stensland.   The University of California at Berkeley, which also has a relationship with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, “complies with every single federal law, every state law, and every university policy that together ensure our relationships with foreign countries and entities operate in [a] manner consistent with our national interest,” Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor at the school, said.   Meanwhile, other colleges, such as Drexel University in Pennsylvania, have already ended their program with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, but did not specify the reason why.   Northwestern University, Cornell University, University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Austin, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment regarding their current relationship with Shanghai Jiao Tong University or whether their school would consider terminating relations with the Chinese institution over concern of national security.   The post Another University Considers Cutting Ties With Chinese Institution as National Security Concerns Mount   appeared first on The Daily Signal.

In a short timeframe, Republicans in Congress are attempting to legislate on an issue that has challenged them for over a decade—health care. At the end of the year, President Joe Biden’s COVID era boosts to premium tax credits are set to expire. Democrat messaging on the issue has repeatedly accused Republicans of taking away Americans’ health insurance, putting pressure on Republicans to act before year’s end. Now, Republicans are scrambling to present an alternative to the tax credits—which they say more closely resemble direct subsidies to insurance companies, are vulnerable to widespread fraud, and have produced market distortions and inflation. The Senate‘s Menu of Options Thursday is set tobe a tremendously important day for this health care fight as Senators will have the option of advancing two bills.  One is the Democratic proposal to simply extend the enhanced credits for three years.  The other is the Republican-backed overhaul from Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Crapo of Idaho, which would allow the credits to expire.  There had been other Republican proposals to choose from, such as Sen. Rick Scott of Florida’s bill, a somewhat similar proposal which would allow states to opt out of more elements of Obamacare, enabled consumers to shop across state lines for plans. It additionally would reinforce President Donald Trump’s 2019 health care price transparency executive order. Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, has introduced companion legislation in the House. Cassidy and Crapo’s bill would put in place of premium tax credits new health savings accounts that would have funds deposited by the Department of Human Health and Services (HHS). The funds could not be used for abortion or gender transition procedures. Additionally, the Cassidy-Crapo bill would widen plan options for consumers and include provisions to prevent taxpayer funds from going to illegal immigrants and transgender procedures. “This program desperately needs to be reformed, the Democrats have decided, ‘We’re not going to do anything to reform it,’ and so we’ll see where the votes are on Thursday,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said at a Tuesday press conference. “But we will have an alternative that we will put up that reflects the views of the Republicans here in the United States Senate.”  Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images) Neither bill is likely to get the 60 votes necessary to be advanced to a vote on a floor, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has already expressed his opposition to the Cassidy bill, but Thursday’s floor action is a chance to get the ball rolling on health care legislation. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told reporters Tuesday that what has to come after the likely standstill is good faith negotiation from both sides. “Hiopefully further negotiation” comes next, he said, “so we can get to some sort of a compromise that can get 60 votes.” A House Divided In the House, where some Republican rank-and-file have recently complained about the chamber not being in the driver’s seat of policy creation, leadership has not yet unveiled its exact proposals.  However, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., confirmed Wednesday that he would be advancing a package to tackle the issue.  The Republican conference is split between numerous views on the matter, with some advocating an extension of existing subsidies, and others advocating their complete overhaul. “Some are talking about that,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters when asked if his some of his members favored a short-term extension of the subsidies. House Republicans had held their weekly conference meeting Wednesday morning. “But there were members on the other side of that issue as well,” Scalise said. “And again, when you got a very narrow majority, if less than a handful of members are on the other side of an issue, it’s not going to make it through our conference.” Republican members of the House ways and means Committee—a key committee dealing with taxation issues—indicated that they would not be able to stomach a proposal which would simply extend the Obamacare credits as they left the conference meeting. “This is absolutely destroying the health care system,” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., said of the credits system. “The CEOs are making 80, 100 million dollars a year while a family of four can’t afford their premiums.” Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images) Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who chairs ways and means, told reporters that he will not go along with a health care plan tailored to credit recipients—who, although numerous, are only a subsection of the wider American population. The recipients are, in accordance with the eligibility structure of the program, generally people under 65 who do not receive insurance coverage from an employer but are also not impoverished enough to receive Medicaid. “Options on healthcare have to be focused on lowering the cost and premiums for every single American, not just the ones on exchanges,” Smith told reporters in a heated tone. “And so I’m glad that people are started to have that discussion and putting the timeframe on when things happen. That’s up to leadership to decide, but I will not support policies that don’t lower healthcare costs for all America” The Abortion Angle A number of pro-life provisions in GOP healthcare proposals are under pressure because of Democrat opposition. While this opposition does not matter much in the House, Democrats will ultimately need to vote with Republicans on a healthcare package to overcome the upper chamber’s filibuster. Speaker Johnson made clear that House Republican proposals will include pro-life provisions in response to a question from The Daily Signal on Wednesday. “Look, it’s an important principle. The Republicans always stand by the Hyde provisions,” Johnson told The Daily Signal on Wednesday. “It’s been a tradition in our law forever. We do believe in the sanctity of human life and we think it’s important that taxpayer dollars not fund abortion. This is a well settled principle of ours.” ‘It’s Important Taxpayer Dollars Don’t Fund Abortion:’ Johnson Says House Republicans Plan to Advance Pro-Life Provisions in Healthcare PackageAs @SpeakerJohnson prepares to advance a health care package to overhaul Obamacare premium subsidies, he tells @GCaldwell_news the… pic.twitter.com/hJVnS3bkgU— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 10, 2025 Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told reporters that abortion, specifically the issue of whether to include a pro-life “Hyde” provision to the package, is causing issued in the House. “The real problem is the Hyde amendment issue, and I would urge that our groups that support us look at the big picture here. We either have incremental wins or we lose everything,” Murphy said. Asked if he meant incremental wins should be sought specifically on pro-life issues, Murphy told The Daily Signal, “Well, that’s part of it, but also, we can do about 15 things, really, that lower the cost of care in the United States… The whole insurance industry in the United States is something that is not replicated across the entire world. It’s an aberration, and it absolutely needs complete reform.” A Do-Or-Die Situation There is a growing Republican consensus that they must act decisively on health care and insurance policy quickly, or Democrats will take the reins on the matter. “If we play small, we’ll lose the elections,” Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., said. “We have to do overhaul of this engine that is sputtering, of the unaffordability among health care.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is already attempting to sow dissent in the Republican caucus, having filed a discharge petition which, if it gathered enough Republican signatures, would force a vote on his bill to extend the subsidies for three years. There also appear to be Republican-led efforts to circumvent leadership. Punchbowl News reported Wednesday afternoon that moderate House Republicans are filing a discharge petition to force a vote on Democrat Rep. Jared Golden of Maine and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania’s bill to extend the subsidies for two years. With midterms approaching, Democrats attempting to stoke the fires of dissent, and Republicans eager to fight back, it appears vital for House Republican Leadership to deliver on popular health care legislation. The post Republicans Engage in Do-Or-Die Health Care Push appeared first on The Daily Signal.