Planned Parenthood has long been synonymous with abortion, profiting from the violent destruction of preborn children. But now, the nation’s largest abortion chain has added another sinister revenue stream — mutilating young people in the name of “gender-affirming care.” It is past time for Congress to cut off the more than half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding that Planned Parenthood receives annually. Americans should not be forced to subsidize an organization that ends the life of preborn babies and irreversibly harms confused young people. Planned Parenthood’s total revenue for 2023-24 was $2.03B, nearly the same as the previous fiscal year of 2022-23 at $2.05B. They took in a staggering $498 million just in donations in 2022 — and instead of improving the horrific conditions inside its clinics, it funneled much of it into advancing its radical political and legal agenda. In 2024 alone, the abortion giant spent $69.5 million to defeat pro-life Republican candidates and policies. Abortion: The Business of Death According to its 2023-2024 annual report, Planned Parenthood performed 402,230 abortions in the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year. This breaks down to an average of 1,102 daily abortions, nearly 46 hourly, and one every 78 seconds Its business model revolves around ending innocent lives, and they are unapologetic about it. The science is clear: from the moment of fertilization, a unique human life begins. Yet Planned Parenthood treats preborn children as disposable. Their so-called “care” consists of poisoning or dismembering the youngest members of our human family. This brutality is not an unfortunate byproduct of their work — it is their core business. Despite offering fewer legitimate healthcare services each year, Planned Parenthood’s abortion numbers continue to rise. Women in crisis deserve real support, not an organization that profits from their despair by ending their children’s lives. Defunding Planned Parenthood is not about limiting healthcare access; it is about redirecting taxpayer dollars to organizations that actually serve women and children. Yet, year after year, Congress continues to funnel hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into this abortion behemoth. Gender Transitions: The Business of Mutilation As if poisoning and dismembering preborn children weren’t evil enough, Planned Parenthood has also become one of the largest providers of cross-sex hormones, pushing powerful, life-altering drugs onto vulnerable teenagers with little to no medical oversight. According to insurance claim data, Planned Parenthood has prescribed gender transition hormones to at least 40,000 young adults in just one year, often after brief, superficial consultations. One of us, Chloe, knows firsthand the devastation of this industry. As a teenager, she was encouraged to believe that she was born in the wrong body. Medical professionals — including those at organizations like Planned Parenthood — fast-tracked her onto puberty blockers, testosterone, and eventually a double mastectomy, all before she was old enough to legally drive. She was told it would bring her happiness. It didn’t. It left her with permanent scars, a deep voice, a damaged body, and the realization that she had been betrayed by the very people who claimed to help. Planned Parenthood is not providing informed, compassionate care. They are running a conveyor belt of gender transition services, pushing vulnerable young people toward a medical pathway that results in permanent sterilization, sexual dysfunction, and lifelong regret. Many of those who detransition, like Chloe, find themselves abandoned by the medical community that once rushed them into these procedures. No More Taxpayer Funding The American people should not be forced to pay for the destruction of innocent lives or the mutilation of confused young people. Planned Parenthood has shown time and time again that it is not a legitimate healthcare provider. It is an ideological machine that profits off death and suffering. According to a recent report from the Lozier Institute, “Taxpayer funding in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements hit $792.2 million, over $2 million per day…” European nations such as Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom are now restricting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, recognizing that the evidence supporting them is weak and the risks catastrophic. Yet, in the U.S., Planned Parenthood continues to push these treatments at record rates, all while receiving taxpayer dollars. Enough is enough. Congress must act. Every dollar that funds Planned Parenthood is a dollar spent enabling the deaths of preborn children, the mutilation of young people caught in an identity crisis, and political attack ads on Republican leaders. That money should be invested in real healthcare — providers that support women, protect children, and offer genuine, life-affirming care and psychological help. The fight to defund Planned Parenthood is not just a policy battle; it is a crossroads for our nation. Lives are at stake for both the preborn children who deserve the right to live and the young people being led down a destructive path from which they may never fully recover. We must demand that our lawmakers stand against this barbarism. It’s time to end taxpayer funding for an organization that kills and mutilates the most vulnerable in our community. Congress must defund Planned Parenthood now. * * * Lila Rose is a writer, speaker and activist. She is the founder and president of Live Action, a human rights nonprofit with the largest digital footprint for the global pro-life movement. Chloe Cole, a poised and articulate 20-year-old woman, passionately advocates against the practice of transitioning minors.Driven by a noble mission to safeguard children from potentially harmful ideologies and medical interventions, Chloe draws from her personal experiences to shed light on the distressing consequences of gender-affirming care for adolescents. Having embarked on her own transition journey at the tender age of 12, only to subsequently detransition at 16, Chloe speaks with firsthand authority on the deeply traumatic effects experienced by minors undergoing such treatments. Follow her: @ChooCole The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Riley Gaines, the former collegiate swimmer who rose to fame advocating to protect women’s sports and spaces from transgender-identifying males, dropped the first installment of her new clothing collection on Monday, the 53rd anniversary of Title IX.  Gaines teamed up with XX-XY Athletics for a “Be Bold” collaboration intended to “honor the past and defend the future,” featuring clothing emblazoned with “Title IX,” along with messages like “Save Women’s Sports.” According to XX-XY’s webpage, “The collaboration with Riley Gaines and Title IX represents a powerful stand for protecting women’s sports as they were meant to be—fair, female and grounded in truth.”   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by XX-XY Athletics (@xx_xyathletics) Gaines marked the collaboration’s launch and the anniversary of Title IX with an opinion piece for Fox News, writing, “Title IX was written to protect women based on biological sex—not self-identified gender. To lose that foundational truth is to lose the heart of the law itself.” “And why does that matter?” she went on to ask. “Because growth in sports is about more than medals. It’s about pushing ourselves mentally and physically, developing character, working hard, failing with grace, and winning with integrity. Sports are the training ground for life. And if we allow Title IX to be redefined, we risk losing not just championships—but the next generation of women leaders.” Gaines noted how public opinion on transgender athletes has shifted recently and believes the new clothing collection will encourage people to proudly express their principles. “Three years ago it was not popular to say that men and women are different,” she said. “But now, having a brand that proclaims it proudly just gives people the courage, the boldness, the bravery to say what everyone already knows to be true.” Gaines began collaborating with XX-XY Athletics when it launched in March 2024. The company was founded by Jennifer Sey, an ex-gymnast opposed to transgender-identifying men competing in women’s sports.  Sey, who got into the textile and brand management business working for Levi Strauss & Co., decided to found XX-XY in response to clothing companies like Nike and Lululemon embracing pro-transgender marketing collaborations with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as a woman, and Nikki Hiltz, a biological female who identifies as “non-binary.” Gaines noted that, under the leadership of President Donald Trump, “The Department of Justice and the Department of Education have taken bold steps to restore Title IX to its original intent.” She has expressed her dissatisfaction with previous administrations’ reinterpretation of the legislation. “Under the Obama and Biden administrations, this landmark civil rights law was gutted in the name of “inclusion,” Gaines said. “Democrats redefined Title IX to accommodate radical gender ideology, allowing men who identify as women to compete in women’s sports, access women’s locker rooms and displace the very people Title IX was meant to protect.” Gaines hopes her new clothing collab will inspire others to protect women’s sports. “Title IX opened the doors for women in sport—and we’re not giving that up. Be bold, wear your values, and have faith and courage for the girls who need us to be strong for them. This collection is for real athletes who love America.”

President Donald Trump departed for the annual NATO summit at The Hague on Tuesday, hoping to claim another major foreign policy victory as most NATO allies have already agreed to his demand to boost defense spending after the president called out the European nations for “freeloading” and taking advantage of American military protection. NATO countries, except Spain, agreed in preliminary talks to increase defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product, a significant increase from the previous 2% target that many allies struggled to meet. The spending commitment is divided into two parts: 3.5% for traditional military spending, such as air defense and recruitment, while the remaining 1.5% can include infrastructure like roads and bridges that troops could use. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has resisted the spending increase, arguing that it would strain the country’s extensive welfare state. “We fully respect the legitimate desire of other countries to increase their defence investment, but we are not going to do it,” Sanchez said. In 2024, Spain’s defense expenditure as a share of GDP stood at a measly 1.28%, the lowest of any NATO country. However, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte struck an optimistic tone early Tuesday morning when President Trump shared a private message from him that read: “You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy, but we’ve got them all signed onto 5 percent!” “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” Rutte said. “Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win.” Trump told reporters he doesn’t believe the United States needs to reach the 5% target itself, given that the United States is far separated from many threats NATO faces and does not have a need to invest in wartime infrastructure to the same degree. Rutte, a Dutch politician who has served as secretary general of NATO since October 2024, has expressed strong support from NATO for recent U.S. military actions against Iran, rejecting suggestions that American strikes violated international law. “This is a consistent position of NATO: Iran should not have its hands on a nuclear weapon,” Rutte told reporters ahead of the summit. “I would not agree that this is against international law — what the U.S. did.” Trump is expected to meet with various world leaders at the summit. He said he would “probably” see Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country continues pushing for admission into the alliance. Trump’s meetings “will focus on issues of shared concern and reaffirm the United States’ strong ties with our allies and partners,” an administration official told Fox News. The summit was initially set to focus on the alliance’s position in the Russia-Ukraine war, but the Trump-brokered Israel-Iran ceasefire is expected to be the main topic of discussion.

'I like sports so this should be a good time'

Should've never left The Trump Train

'I’m committed to life and safety'

Medicare’s financial condition is worsening—and it’s time for our ever-reluctant Congress to start the arduous legislative task of making much-needed changes to the program. In its 2025 report, the Medicare Board of Trustees is unambiguous: “The sooner solutions are enacted, the more flexible and gradual they can be. Introducing reforms early would give affected individuals and organizations- including health providers, beneficiaries, and taxpayers- more time to adjust their expectations and behavior.” The trustees provide a wealth of data. According to their report, overall Medicare spending will jump from $1.2 trillion this year to more than $2.3 trillion in 2034. Meanwhile, the hospital insurance trust fund, part of the program that pays for hospital services, will become insolvent in 2033, meaning that it will not be able to disburse all its promised benefits. At that point, there will be an automatic 11 percent cut in hospital benefit payments, annual cuts and deficits deepening year after year, guaranteeing seniors’ reduced access to vital hospital care. Given that prospect, Congress has no choice but to act. Lawmakers have never allowed the program to become insolvent. So, the question is not whether Congress will act, but how. It could adopt the conventional response: higher payroll taxes on working families, cuts in Medicare benefit payments for seniors, or some ugly combination of both. Or it could take a different approach, one that aims to improve the program and build on what works. Either way, change is inevitable, but, as the trustees advise, that change is much easier to manage when it is gradual and well-planned.     But rapid acceleration of the costs of the supplemental medical insurance trust fund (the fund that pays for Part B physician and Part D prescription drug benefits and services) poses even more challenges. Fueled overwhelmingly by taxpayer dollars, the supplemental medical insurance fund is today the main driver of Medicare spending. And over the next five years, Part B costs will average 8.8 percent, while Part D costs will grow by 7.1 percent, both galloping far ahead of the projected 4.2 percent growth in the economy (as measured by gross domestic product). For government spending to outrun the growth of the economy that supports it is obviously “unsustainable,” and, as economist Herb Stein famously remarked, what is unsustainable will stop. Unlike Part A (the hospital insurance trust fund), which is financed by workers’ payroll taxes, about three-quarters of supplemental medical insurance fund costs are yearly financed by an automatic drawdown of funds from the Treasury—in other words, by direct taxpayer subsidies. In 2024, 16.1 percent of all federal personal and corporate income taxes were allocated to funding this program. By 2030, that number will jump to 22 percent, and by 2040, it will hit 28 percent—thus crowding out funding for defense, energy programs, and many other federal budget priorities.   Over the next 75 years, Medicare’s “unfunded obligations,” additional taxpayer funds required beyond the program’s dedicated revenues and premiums, will amount to more than $60 trillion. That’s the amount of money required to honor the promises made to Medicare beneficiaries in today’s dollars—a real and debilitating debt. Discussions of budgetary concerns or debt often overlook the unfunded obligations of Medicare and other expanding entitlement programs. Beneficiaries’ premiums account for only about 25 percent of these rising costs, but seniors will face big premium hikes and even bigger out-of-pocket increases. The standard monthly Part B premium, for example, is projected to increase from $185 today to $347 in 2034. Washington’s standard response to rising Medicare costs is to toughen up on price controls or provider payment rules, sometimes bluntly and other times through elaborate adjustments in Medicare’s complex administrative payment formulas. While designed to appear “scientific,” these formulas are, of course, nothing of the sort. Regardless, the price control strategy produces the same result as does hiking costs: making it more difficult for seniors to access care. For Medicare Part A, according to the trustees’ most realistic projections, “By 2040, simulations suggest that over 40 percent of hospitals and 50 percent of skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies would have negative total facility margins, raising the possibility of access and quality care issues for Medicare beneficiaries.” In short, a catastrophe. For Part B (and, specifically, physician services), the trustees report a steady decline in physician reimbursement under the Medicare’s bizarre physician fee schedule. Medicare physician payment is a mess that, as The Heritage Foundation advises, requires major surgery. In 2011, Medicare doctors were paid 82 percent of the prevailing private rates. By 2023, that fell to 71 percent, and this year it will have declined to 64 percent. The Trustees warn, “Absent a change in the delivery system or a level of update by subsequent legislation, … [we] expect access to Medicare participating physicians to become a significant issue in the long-term.” Now is the right time to avoid the long term.   Congress and the White House can start by reforming the manageable defects of the increasingly popular Medicare Advantage program, which now covers well over half of all Medicare beneficiaries.   Top of the list should be fixing the program’s payment to health plans. This can be done by disentangling private plan payment from traditional Medicare’s inefficient administrative payment system and instead basing payment to health plans on straight market-based competitive bidding among plans to offer Medicare benefits. Government payment would reflect real free market competition and would result in genuine savings to beneficiaries and taxpayers alike. In tandem with this payment change, Congress and the White House should remove incentives for fraud and take the guesswork out of trying to pre-assess how much to pay plans with a large number of older and sicker enrollees by instead paying plans additional amounts at the end of the year based on the real extra costs of their older and sicker enrollees. This too would yield substantial savings. Meanwhile, Congress should eliminate stupid statutory restrictions on benefits, allowing beneficiaries to have tax-free health savings accounts, direct primary care programs, drug coverage in Medicare Advantage medical savings account plans, and Medicare Advantage hospice coverage.   In response to the Medicare trustees’ latest warnings, Congress can “kick the can” down the proverbial road. But they have been doing that for far too long. Annual deficits, debt, and Medicare’s programmatic problems continue to mount—and Congress is running out of road.     The post Medicare Needs Major Reform—Sooner Rather Than Later appeared first on The Daily Signal.

House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered a plain message at his weekly press conference Tuesday: Congress must pass the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act by Independence Day, July 4. Johnson, R-La., has labored over the legislation since before President Donald Trump’s election in November, and it would fulfill major campaign promises, such as extending the president’s first-term 2017 tax cuts before their expiration at the end of the year and funding border security and defense. “We just had a big House Republican Conference meeting, our weekly meeting, and I said, ‘Make sure your schedule is flexible.’” said Johnson, who added he thinks the Senate will pass the bill on “Friday, maybe Saturday.” That echoes Trump’s message on Truth Social on Tuesday morning that “NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE.” Both houses of Congress are scheduled to break on Friday for recess until July 7, but Johnson says that passing the bill is of the highest priority, even if that means getting home right before the fireworks start flying on the night of July 4. “There’s nothing more important that we should be involved in, we can be involved in than getting the one big, beautiful bill to the president’s desk,” he said. .@SpeakerJohnson: The One Big Beautiful Bill "funds President Trump's Golden Dome to bolster long-range missile defense capabilities… It accelerates the modernization of our nuclear deterrence… and it revitalizes our defense industrial base." pic.twitter.com/YFEdt76Wg6— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 24, 2025 But that won’t be easy. The Senate has already made significant changes to the House’s bill, such as making more tax cuts permanent, lessening the severity of the reversal of Biden-era green energy incentives, and reducing the substantial increase in the cap on state and local tax deductions on federal taxes. “I remain very optimistic that there’s not going to be a wide chasm between the two products, what the Senate produces and what we produce,” said Johnson.  Another speed bump on the way to passing the package through both houses is how Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has ruled against supposedly extraneous provisions of the bill.  Under the Senate’s “Byrd Rule,” the parliamentarian—essentially, the chamber’s rule keeper—can throw out provisions that she does not think belong in a 10-year budget framework.  McDonough has been gutting many proposed cost-saving reforms, such as having states share more of the cost of food stamp programs if they have a higher payment-error rate. Senate Republicans are currently working to tweak provisions so that they can survive the parliamentarian’s judgments. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told The Daily Signal that it’s too soon to tell whether these changes will delay passage of the bill and make it more difficult to get over the finish line and to the president’s desk. “Well, they’re going back and forth on that now,” he said.  “We knew that process would eventually happen, and they’re in the middle of that process, and it could go on for a few more days, and then we’ve got to evaluate it. It’s too early to evaluate. Right now, I want to see a final product from the Senate.” The post Johnson Warns Lawmakers Action on ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Could Push Back Start of July 4 Recess appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A member of Congress introduced a bill Tuesday asking the secretary of state to consider designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist organization.   The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) brands itself as a 501(c)(3) Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., but according to Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., the group is “a terrorist organization.”   “I think in this time of conflict in the Middle East, and this time in which Muslim terror groups are operating with impunity in our cities and on our college campuses, it is important that we stand up and say, ’Enough is enough’ and we designate these organizations as the evil organizations that they are,” Fine told The Daily Signal.   If passed, Fine‘s eight-page bill directs the secretary of state, currently Marco Rubio, to review the work of CAIR and consider whether the organization meets the appropriate criteria to be labeled a foreign terrorist organization. The State Department has designated groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram as foreign terrorist organizations.   CAIR states on its website that its mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.” But Fine says the group is an “orchestrated Muslim terror front intended to legitimize Muslim terror and to shut down critics of it.”   Fine criticized the organization’s executive director, Nihad Awad, for public comments he made following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In December 2023, a video began circulating on social media in which Awad says he “was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in.”   CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad at AMP Convention: I Was Happy to See the People of Gaza Break the Siege on October 7; They Were Victorious; the People of Gaza Have the Right to Self-Defense – Israel Does Not #Hamas #Gaza #Palestinians @CAIRNational @NihadAwad pic.twitter.com/WDbSRjFJo0— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) December 7, 2023 “If I was a Muslim, I wouldn’t want an organization that says that Oct. 7 made them happy to represent me,” said Fine, who is Jewish. On June 10, CAIR designated Fine as an “anti-Muslim extremist,” citing “his unceasingly violent rhetoric directed at Muslims and Palestinians.”  CAIR did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment. While serving in the Florida state legislature in 2024, Fine introduced a resolution urging Florida’s state and local government agencies to cut all ties with the CAIR, arguing that the group had a history of connection to terrorist organizations. The resolution passed through Florida’s Republican controlled House. Fine won his seat in Congress in a special election on April 1. In early 2009, the FBI ended its relationship with CAIR and directed FBI field offices to cut all ties with the Muslim group’s local chapters. The FBI’s decision followed reports that the CAIR was linked with a network that was supporting Hamas.   On its website, the Muslim group denies that it is a part of a “front-group for Hamas,” and acknowledges that because Hamas is on U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, it would be “illegal” for CAIR to be “affiliated with or in any way supporting” Hamas.   If CAIR were to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization, it would likely “lose their nonprofit status, and I think they would have a very difficult time fundraising,” Fine said.   Fine says the Council on American-Islamic Relations brands itself as the NAACP for Muslims.   “I want American Muslims to find a civil rights organization that doesn’t believe in terrorism,” Fine said, adding, “and I think American Muslims deserve that, but this is not that organization.”   If Fine’s bill passes Congress, the secretary of state, working with the attorney general and the secretary of the Treasury, would be required to conduct a formal review of CAIR and submit its findings to Congress.   The post EXCLUSIVE: Lawmaker Seeks Foreign Terrorist Organization Designation for Council on American-Islamic Relations appeared first on The Daily Signal.