With just hours left before a midnight government shutdown deadline, Republicans and Democrats are nowhere near an agreement in the Senate. “We are only hours away from a government shutdown, and the Democrats have a very clear, binary choice,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters at a Tuesday press conference.  Republicans will soon bring to the floor a seven-week stopgap funding bill to extend current spending and buy time for the bill-by-bill appropriations process. But Democrats, who repeatedly voted for almost the exact same spending levels under President Joe Biden, are complaining that they haven’t had their demands heard. “What we’ve seen in particular in this instance is essentially no involvement from the get-go, no markups, no discussion, no anything. It was just driven to the floor—boom,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told The Daily Signal. But Republicans beg to differ, with Thune arguing that Democrats are only voting against the continuing resolution as an attack on President Donald Trump. “What’s changed is President Trump is in the White House,” Thune told reporters after noting the numerous times Democrats had supported extending Biden-era funding in the past. “This is something that has been done routinely. As I said, 13 different times when the Democrats had the majority. But we are not going to be held hostage.” Republicans will need at least seven Democrat caucus votes in the Senate in order to bring their bill to the floor. Yesterday, Democrat leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., emerged from their meeting with Trump and their Republican counterparts no closer to an agreement. Ahead of the funding vote, Democrats have made a whole host of demands: undoing recently passed cost-saving Medicaid reforms, hamstringing the White House’s ability to rescind certain federal funding, and extending expiring Obamacare health care premium tax credits, which were enhanced during the previous administration. Republicans, arguing that there’s no reason to acquiesce to Democrat demands simply to pass a short-term stopgap funding bill, have rejected the idea of making a deal. “We shouldn’t have any negotiations—only when the government is open. So I’m not for that at all,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters Tuesday when asked if he would rule out negotiating the expiring tax credits with Democrats. Thune similarly drew a line in the sand, refusing to entertain the idea of buying Democrats’ votes with a deal. “There isn’t anything here to negotiate. This is a routine funding resolution to keep the government open so that we can continue our appropriations work and fund the government in the old-fashioned way,” he said. Thus, it appears Democrats will be presented with a binary choice—allow the funding extension to be considered on the floor or send the nation into a government shutdown. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) When Schumer spoke to reporters Tuesday, he made no indication he would be persuaded to vote for the funding bill without major concessions. “I think we believe that this is an issue worth fighting for,” Schumer said as he laid out his health care demands. “We hope the Republicans avoid the shutdown, but if they do it, it’s because they didn’t even negotiate with us until the last minute.” But if Schumer and his fellow Democrats do not provide the necessary votes to pass the funding bill, Republicans seem content to keep forcing vote after vote until they crack. “We’re going to continue to vote on the clean CR that was sent to us from the House,” Whip Barrasso told reporters, before replying in the affirmative when asked if they would re-vote if necessary. He added that “there are not going to be votes between sundown tomorrow and sundown Thursday” due to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The post Hours Before Shutdown Deadline, There Is No Deal in Sight appeared first on The Daily Signal.

I’ve witnessed many moments of “America is back” catharsis this year, but few have been quite as inspiring as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth‘s declaration that he will strive to make every unit the efficient killing machine that he’d be proud to see his own son enlist to join. Speaking at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, Tuesday, Hegseth didn’t just discard what he rightly described as the “debris” of wokeness at the War Department—he also laid out a clear litmus test as he looks to whip the military into tip-top shape: what he called the new War Department golden rule. “Would I want my eldest son, who is 15 years old, eventually joining the types of formations that we are currently building?” the secretary asked. “Do unto your unit as you would have done unto your own child’s unit,” he said. “Would you want him serving with fat or unfit or undertrained troops? … Or in a unit where standards were lowered so certain types of troops could make it in?” “The answer is not just, ‘No,’ it’s ‘Hell, no!'” Hegseth said. Speaking as the father of a young boy, I wholeheartedly agree. Americans viscerally grasp just how important it is for the military to be able to effectively kill the enemy when the calculus boils down to the question of who dies, my son or the enemy’s son. That’s the fundamental question when war breaks out, and no amount of woke sermonizing will get moms and dads to say they’d rather see the “first black woman commander” or the “first transgender admiral” more than welcoming their son home alive from proud service in combat. Hegseth instinctually grasps that the real problem with wokeness in the military isn’t that it’s offensive or that Americans didn’t vote for it, though both of those complaints are true. The real problem is how corrosive this ideology is to the fundamental mission of the War Department: preventing war from breaking out, or, failing that, winning as quickly and decisively as possible. The War secretary noted his platoon motto: “Those who long for peace must prepare for war.” This motto derives from the deep wisdom of the ages, from the horrific and gruesome tortures that ancient Assyrians, Romans, Aztecs, and others carried out on their victims and from the unsettling fact that human nature does not change. We are not fundamentally different from the people who conquered and enslaved their enemies, and neither are the people who wish us ill across the globe. The wars and rumors of wars in far-flung parts of the world, coupled with the deep divisions here at home should jolt us out of the complacency that takes peace for granted. It is from Hegseth’s deep conviction that “our fellow citizens … deserve peace” that he draws his motivation—”they rightly expect us to deliver” the kind of strength that prevents war. “Should our enemies choose foolishly to challenge us, they will be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department,” he declared. It is in this context, to meet that unsettling but high calling, that Hegseth casts aside the “debris” of woke. “For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,” he lamented. This trend echoed the far-left activist takeover of the federal government, where organizations dedicated to critical race theory, gender ideology, climate alarmism, and the preference for technocratic government sent their staff and policy ideas into the Biden administration like a woke octopus, leveraging the bureaucracy to force their ideology on the American people. Hegseth rightly noted that this change ended up “promoting risk-averse go-along-to-get-along conformists.” “We became the Woke Department,” the secretary said. Yet under President Donald Trump, that’s changing. “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship,” Hegseth declared. “No more debris.” This means setting high standards for troops of both sexes and all races, creeds, and persuasions. “We must restore a ruthless, dispassionate, and commonsense application of standards,” Hegseth explained. “Standards must be uniform, gender-neutral, and high. If they’re not standards, they’re just suggestions—suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed.” The War secretary also explained that everyone in the military will be held to high standards—from the lowest private to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No longer will a young man who must do physical training every day answer to someone above him who isn’t required to keep himself lean and mean. “It’s like the broken windows theory of policing,” the secretary explained. “If you let the small stuff go, the big stuff eventually goes.” It all boils down to that War Department golden rule: “I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape … or under a leader who was the first but not the best.” The Left may complain, but military moms and dads will sleep better at night, knowing their sons and daughters are more likely to be stronger now, and more likely to survive if—God forbid—war does darken our shores yet again. A focus on lethality, not dudes in dresses, is what we really expect from our armed forces, and I am proud to see it on display at Quantico today. The post FROM WOKE TO WAR: Pete Hegseth’s Vision Sets a Clear Path for a Muscular and Effective Military appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Zohran of Mamdani Has Big Plans When He Receives His Kingdom

A new poll found that a majority of Americans continue to support deportation of illegal aliens despite a campaign in the mainstream media to criticize enforcement.The Siena/New York Times poll found that 54% of respondents supported deportation, while only 43% opposed it, for a net approval rating of 11%.'Sanctuary cities knowingly release illegal alien public safety threats to the streets every day. That's where the problem is.' Men overwhelmingly favored deportation, 65% to 33%, while far more women opposed the policy, 45% to 51%. White Americans also overwhelming favored deportation, 62% to 37%. Black Americans opposed the policy by a margin of -25%, and Hispanic Americans were the most against deportation, with a margin of -38%.As compared to previous results from the same poll before the election in 2024, support for deportations dropped slightly from 56% to 54%, while opposition to deportation increased from 37% to 43%.The Siena poll also found Democrats to be slightly favored over Republicans in the generic ballot for the midterm election among registered voters."Probably enough for Democrats to retake the House in 2026 — even with GOP gerrymanders in Texas and elsewhere — but far from the blue wave environments of 2006 and 2018," wrote Fox News Radio analyst Josh Kraushaar.As compared to the same poll in April, Democrats had not improved or declined in the general ballot, while Republicans had gained slightly by one percentage point.RELATED: Activists blame Trump for bounty hunter 'kidnapping' of mom of 3 for deportation — feds say it was a hoax for cash The poll found that President Donald Trump's approval rating had slightly improved since April by one percentage point to 43%.Trump's border czar Tom Homan has said that the Trump administration will be increasing deportation operations in sanctuary cities like Chicago, Illinois. "You can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country," he said. "President Trump's prioritized sanctuary cities because sanctuary cities knowingly release illegal alien public safety threats to the streets every day. That's where the problem is."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with pro-Israel American social media influencers at the Israeli consulate in New York City on Friday following his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.At the meeting, Debra Lea Schwartzben, a New York-based influencer who founded a Turning Point USA college chapter and has worked as a marketing coordinator at Fox News, asked Netanyahu what is to be done in the event that evangelical support for Israel begins to wane.There appears to be a generational shift under way in the evangelical community. A 2024 report from Tel Aviv University's Center for the Study of the United States revealed that whereas in 2018, 68.9% of American evangelicals under 30 said they supported Israel, that number plummeted to 33.6% in 2021. Despite that significant drop, support reportedly stabilized from 2021 to 2024.According to the findings of a new survey released by the Quinnipiac University Poll, 47% of all American voters think that supporting Israel is in the national interest; 41% disagree; and 12% declined to opine.'We're going to have to use the tools of battle.'"Evangelicals are the reason that Israel has been supported in public sphere outside of just Jews," said Schwartzben. "With Charlie's assassination and with the ... trajectory that we see with, like, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, I guess I'm curious about what's another game plan if we lose evangelical support for the state of Israel. What's our backup plan to be strong, like, outside of the diaspora?"In his reply, Netanyahu apparently referred to Owens, Carlson, and other such "Christian influencers" using the terms "woke right" and "Woke Reich," noting that "these people, they're not any different from the woke left. I mean, they're insane. They're loonies. But they're actually meeting on some of the things.""We have to secure that part of our — the base of our support in the United States," continued Netanyahu. "That is being challenged systematically."Blaze News has reached out to Netanyahu's office for clarification about his meaning of "woke right" as well as to Owens and Carlson for comment.RELATED: 'Woke right' smear weaponized by liberal interlopers against MAGA conservatives, populists — and Arby's? Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesIsraeli officials and advocates for the Jewish state appear to be growing increasingly concerned over the so-called "woke right," a flexible term that has been used by liberals as a smear against various conservatives but appears in the context of Netanyahu's Friday remarks to specifically denote isolationists on the right and those critical of Israel and/or Middle Eastern military interventions.Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, for instance, cautioned Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in an open July 13 letter — shortly after Kirk and Megyn Kelly raised the question of whether Jeffrey Epstein may have been a Mossad asset — about platforming Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and other so-called "conspiracy theorists," claiming that the named Americans "are not conservatives; they are full-blown wokists just wearing different costumes.""I'm asking you: please stay true to your strong moral compass and speak out against antisemitism, whether it comes from the woke left or the woke right," added Chikli.Karys Rhea, a former associate producer at the Epoch Times and delegate for Israel365 Action, told the Tel Aviv-based "ILTV News Podcast" in December that members of the so-called "woke right" say that "they are part of the America First movement. They're very clear about that. They consider themselves patriots, usually proud Christians, people who are anti-censorship, pro-faith, pro-family, anti-globalism, anti-Marxism, anti-elitism. But people have observed that it seems like both their beliefs and their actions say otherwise"The beliefs that Rhea insinuated were disqualifying for an American conservative and qualifying for the "woke right" label appear to largely center on criticism of Israel.Rhea added that Tucker Carlson is the "godhead" of the "woke right."Author Danny Burmawi recently suggested in the pages of the Times of Israel that "while the left vilifies Israel in the name of anti-imperialism and social justice, the woke right attacks Israel through the language of nationalism and religious betrayal. They see in Israel a foreign parasite, an ethnostate hijacking U.S. resources, dragging America into endless wars, and manipulating domestic institutions. They accuse the 'Zionist lobby' of corrupting Christian values, spreading cultural degeneracy, and controlling the media."After suggesting that the so-called "woke right" is both state- and NGO-backed, Netanyahu said on Friday, "We have to fight back. How do we fight back? Our influencers."Netanyahu further told the influencers, "We're going to have to use the tools of battle."The prime minister clarified that the weapons he had in mind were not swords or drones but social media, emphasizing the importance of TikTok and Elon Musk's X."We have to fight the fight, okay? To give direction to the Jewish people and give direction to our non-Jewish friends or those who could be ... our friends," added Netanyahu.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Democrat lawmakers have rejected Republican attempts to keep the government open amid a looming shutdown, demanding an extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller slammed Democrats for refusing to support a "clean, routine government funding bill because it doesn't give free healthcare to illegals."'The approximately $66.4 billion in federal expenditures attributable to illegal aliens is staggering, and constitutes an increase of 45 percent since 2017.'Neera Tanden, the former domestic policy adviser under the Biden administration, accused Miller of pushing a "total and complete fabrication.""This is a lie. It is a violation of law for the ACA premium tax credits to go to illegal aliens," Tanden wrote in a post on X.ACA's eligibility standards require an individual to be a U.S. citizen or a lawfully present noncitizen, which can include asylum-seekers, refugees, and those granted employment authorization. The Biden administration relaxed criteria for various categories of immigration status, allowing more foreign nationals who were previously considered unlawfully present to qualify for status that may be eligible for ACA tax credits. Additionally, multiple studies have uncovered that federal tax dollars do reach illegal aliens through the health care system.RELATED: Democratic governor hands tax dollars to illegal aliens for college tuition while state drowns in debt Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesThe Congressional Budget Office found in October 2024 that the Biden administration had cost state and federal taxpayers $16.2 billion to cover Medicaid emergency services for illegal aliens since taking office.Paul Winfree, president and CEO of the Economic Policy Innovation Center, told Fox News Digital in March that California has been "exploiting an existing loophole within law" to use billions of dollars in reimbursements from the federal government to provide illegal immigrants with Medicaid."Medicaid spending is supposed to be jointly financed by the federal government and states. However, states are increasingly designing Medicaid money-laundering schemes that result in massive federal expenditures without any state financial obligation," an EPIC report claimed. "The state of California, colluding with insurance companies who cover Medicaid beneficiaries, has created one of the most outrageous ones yet, a money-laundering scheme that results in California obtaining more than $19 billion in federal money without any state contribution over the period from April 2023 through December 2026."California's Department of Healthcare Services claimed EPIC’s report was “misleading.”RELATED: Did your state just sue the Trump administration to keep benefits flowing to illegal aliens? Here's the list. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesA 2023 study from the Federation for American Immigration Reform found $66.4 billion in federal expenditures on illegal aliens, including $23.1 billion in medical spending."The approximately $66.4 billion in federal expenditures attributable to illegal aliens is staggering and constitutes an increase of 45 percent since 2017. This amounts to roughly $3,187 per illegal alien, per year," FAIR reported.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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