UPDATE Jan. 25‚ 2024 5:45 p.m.: The Maine House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee voted that the transgender custody bill LD 1735 “ought not to pass” Thursday. According to footage of the committee posted online‚ the motion that the bill “ought not to pass” passed 12-0. “My team and I are so incredibly grateful for every single person who wrote emails and shared it with their family and friends‚” Alvin Lui‚ president of the parental rights organization Courage Is a Habit‚ told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday. “This 12-0 defeat of this transgender trafficking bill was done in a blue state that allows 9-month abortions and 16-year-olds to obtain transgender drugs and surgeries without parental consent‚” Lui said. “This absolute win is only a glimpse of what can happen when Americans take action.” Original article: The Maine House of Representatives is considering a bill that would protect anyone who takes a child who identifies as transgender away from “non-affirming” parents in order to subject that minor to experimental transgender medical interventions. The legislation also would counteract laws protecting minors from such “treatment” in other states. The Maine bill‚ LD 1735‚ would prioritize “gender-affirming care” in custody disputes. It would prohibit courts from considering that a person applying for custody had taken a child from someone else with legal custody—such as parents—if that person removed the child “for the purposes of obtaining gender-affirming health care… for the child” from a state that restricts this experimental “care.” This means judges in custody cases would have to look favorably on anyone who removes a child from parents‚ so long as that person does so to help the child receive experimental transgender “treatments” that may leave him or her stunted‚ scarred‚ and infertile. Gender activists and their allies who have infiltrated health care organizations often insist that these interventions—which often amount to chemical castration—are essential to prevent gender-confused children from committing suicide. This twisted logic enables activists to claim that a parent’s disagreement on gender identity constitutes a form of “mental harm” to a child.  The idea that a father’s refusing to sign up his daughter for a path leading to the removal of healthy breasts and a healthy womb constitutes child abuse is so absurd‚ it requires multiple levels of doublespeak to justify. False terms such as “gender-affirming care” are necessary to cloak the truth of what is going on.  Yet the Maine bill goes all-in on this deceptive phrase‚ from the title (“An Act to Safeguard Gender-Affirming Health Care”) to the definition framing these interventions as “medically necessary health care that respects the gender identity of the patient‚ as experienced and defined by the patient.” Note that the definition doesn’t say that a medical doctor has to sign off on a diagnosis. The bill’s framing around “gender-affirming care” overlooks the testimony of doctors who warn that even the “social transition” of encouraging a boy to present as a girl “is a powerful psychotherapeutic intervention that radically changes outcomes.” Doctors also warn that children can’t possibly give informed consent for procedures that may sterilize them and put them at risk of long-term side effects such as decreased bone density and cardiovascular disease. Yet LD 1735 would make these interventions sacrosanct by treating any refusal of them as tantamount to child abuse. The bill would grant Maine courts “temporary emergency jurisdiction” in cases where the child must be protected “because the child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care.” This “temporary emergency jurisdiction” in custody cases already applies to child abandonment and to situations where “it is necessary in an emergency to protect the child because the child or a sibling or parent of the child is subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse.” The bill merely would add the inability to receive “gender-affirming health care” to this list of emergency conditions. LD 1735 also would prevent law enforcement in the Pine Tree State from arresting or helping to extradite a person for violating “another state’s law against providing‚ receiving or allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care in this state.” It would bar law enforcement from providing information to an out-of-state agency regarding any such “care” performed in Maine. The bill also states that “an out-of-state arrest warrant for an individual based on violating another state’s law against providing‚ receiving‚ or allowing a child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care is the lowest law enforcement priority.” The bill might enable situations such as the child sex trafficking of Sage‚ a girl who was encouraged to hide her transgender identity from her grandmother. According to her grandmother‚ Sage ran away after she was victimized in a boys’ bathroom at school‚ then ended up getting abducted‚ raped‚ and beaten. Sage had been taken across state lines from Virginia to Maryland‚ and a Maryland lawyer fought to keep Sage away from her grandmother. Last February‚ a Virginia bill aimed at preventing Sage’s tragedy from happening again died in the Old Dominion’s Democratic-majority Senate. “This bill would‚ in effect‚ make Maine a party to the trafficking of minors from other states‚” Jay Richards‚ director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life‚ Religion‚ and Family at The Heritage Foundation‚ told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. (The Daily Signal is The Heritage Foundation’s news outlet.) The Maine bill “would draw troubled teens from other states that have protected them from receiving ghoulish sex trait-modification drugs and surgery‚” Richards said. “There is no good evidence that such medical interventions help minors‚ and plenty of evidence of their harms.” Alvin Lui‚ president of the parental rights group Courage Is a Habit‚ also opposes the bill. “LD 1735 is a transgender trafficking bill that would permit the state of Maine to receive minors from other states seeking transgender treatments‚ such as breast binding‚ penis tucking‚ irreversible puberty blockers‚ cross-sex hormones‚ or mutilation surgeries‚” Lui told The Daily Signal in a written statement Wednesday. Courage Is a Habit has encouraged Americans to contact Maine legislators about the bill‚ whether they live in Maine or not. The Maine House Judiciary Committee plans to consider the bill Thursday. According to the pro-transgender Movement Advancement Project‚ 14 states have laws or executive orders to “shield” people who perform experimental transgender medical interventions from laws in other states. These laws may include the same sort of custody provisions that could protect kidnappers. Maine-LD-1735-Transgender-TraffickingDownload Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post BREAKING: Maine Bill That Protects Kidnappers Who Take ‘Transgender Kids’ for ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ Fails in Committee appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A major feature of the House Ways and Means Committee’s “tax” bill is an expansion of the child tax credit. This expansion was necessary to secure Democrats’ support for the corporate tax provisions in the bill‚ but the trade isn’t worth the cost. The welfare-related child tax credit provisions aren’t a minor extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017‚ but a massive departure from the status quo. Together‚ they move the country in the wrong direction on welfare policy after years of pro-family‚ pro-work progress. The problems with the committee’s bill are many. It would increase welfare subsidies for single parents rather than further promoting and strengthening married‚ two-parent households. It would undermine rather than strengthen work requirements in welfare. It would increase‚ not reduce‚ fraud and excess benefits. It would provide more welfare to illegal immigrants. Fundamentally‚ this bill accepts the tenets of President Joe Biden’s welfare agenda and‚ if it is not stopped this time‚ will need to be fixed when the rest of the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire in 2025.  Far from a program that incentivizes work and family formation‚ the Ways and Means Committee’s bill‚ by expanding so-called refundable child tax credits‚ would simply expand the traditionally flawed welfare state. The bill is based on the premise that more welfare money must be spent‚ primarily to subsidize single parents. Although the bill claims its aim is to provide “tax relief” to families with children‚ there is little “tax relief” in it for working families. Instead‚ over 90% of the “family benefits” would be new cash welfare payments to families who pay no federal income taxes and little or no Social Security tax. Nearly all family benefits in the bill are overt cash welfare payments‚ not “tax relief.”  If passed‚ the bill would greatly expand the Additional Child Tax Credit‚ which is a simple cash welfare benefit program that has nothing to do with taxes. The current ACTC program has a weak work requirement riddled with extensive fraud. The committee bill would deliberately weaken this already weak work requirement.  Under current law‚ parents ostensibly are required to work to obtain ACTC benefits; benefits increase as earnings increase. However‚ this work requirement is highly porous and readily evaded through fraud. In the current program‚ only 55% of benefits for single parents appear to go to eligible parents. Often‚ the custodial single parent will transfer eligibility for the benefit and the work requirement to relatives or other adults who don’t even live with the child.  The transferred benefit then is shared with the nonworking single parent. A work requirement that easily can be “transferred” to others is not a serious requirement. Regrettably‚ this bill takes an already porous‚ fraud-filled work requirement and would weaken it further by insisting that recipients need only work every other year instead of every year.   Another alarming aspect of the bill is its expansion of an existing problem: welfare payments targeted to illegal immigrants. Under current law‚ illegal immigrants who have children born in the U.S. (and many do) may claim cash welfare benefits from the ACTC. The committee bill would expand these cash welfare payments for millions of current illegal aliens and millions more who enter the country in the future—exacerbating a design flaw in the program.   The bill would substantially increase a means-tested welfare system that already costs over $1.2 trillion per year. Benefits in that system are already quite high. Under current law‚ for example‚ in 2023‚ a single mother with two school-age children earning $15‚000 per year also would receive $15‚476 in welfare benefits from the Earned Income Tax Credit‚ the Additional Child Tax Credit‚ and the food stamps and school nutrition programs. In addition‚ this family would be eligible for Medicaid coverage worth‚ on average‚ around $14‚950. Altogether‚ these standard welfare benefits would triple the parent’s income; total post-tax resources would come to around $44‚300. In addition‚ some (but not all) such families would receive Section 8 or other public housing aid worth around $10‚000‚ bringing total potential resources to around $54‚300. The Ways and Means Committee’s bill would add more cash welfare on top of this benefit pile. In this example‚ the single parent would receive an added $1‚875 in cash grants under the bill. This would bring the family’s total income to $46‚184‚ or $56‚184 if the family received housing aid. The problem isn’t simply the immediate benefit increase; rather‚ by camouflaging new welfare benefits as “tax relief” and failing to even hint at the welfare already received by its beneficiaries‚ the bill lays fertile ground for even more welfare expansions. A prominent goal of the Left is to remove work requirements from welfare and to restore the work-free‚ unconditional cash aid that existed before welfare reform.  Biden sought to advance this goal by creating a new “child allowance” that removed work requirements from the ACTC and greatly increased benefits. The Ways and Means Committee’s bill goes at least halfway toward fulfilling the president’s aims. The bill embraces the premises and goals of the Biden plan to greatly increase cash welfare payments (predominantly for single parents) while weakening or removing work requirements.  The bill sets the ground for a future “compromise” that would fully enact the Biden “child allowance” program. From this perspective‚ the committee’s bill represents an enormous political and policy victory for Biden.  The welfare portion of the bill directly and explicitly repudiates the principles of successful welfare reform‚ which have governed the welfare system since the mid-1990s. Welfare reform instituted in 1996 by a Republican-led Congress‚ with broad bipartisan support‚ established work requirements and time limits in the dominant welfare program: Aid to Families with Dependent Children‚ known as AFDC. Over 90% of recipients in this program were single-parent families. A principal aim of welfare reform was to halt the rapid and alarming disintegration of marriage. Family collapse had been steadily advancing for decades. Work requirements reduced the utility of being a single parent on welfare and raised the relative utility of being married to a working husband. As a result‚ the rapid decline in married families halted; non-marital teen births and abortions fell rapidly. Overall‚ there have been 10 million fewer abortions due to the changes initiated and promoted by welfare reform. Yet‚ the Ways and Means Committee’s bill would increase cash welfare subsidies to single parents relative to married families and weaken work requirements that predominantly affect single parents. It threatens family formation. Overall‚ the welfare portion of the bill would overturn the principles that conservatives have stood for in welfare and family policy for three decades. If enacted into law‚ it would be a major victory for the Left and a heavy blow for American families.  It also would be a big step backward on the road to reform of America’s broken welfare system. Have an opinion about this article? To sound off‚ please email letters@DailySignal.com‚ and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state. The post House Panel’s Welfare Expansion Fails American Families appeared first on The Daily Signal.

For all our liberal elites' bluster about "right-wing extremists" supposedly making up stories to discredit the politicians they dislike‚ our elites have lately been giving us plenty of evidence to support our "stories." In another addition to the list of Biden 2024 gaffes‚ Wisconsin Democratic Gov. Tony Evers had an...

This has gone from being funny‚ to sad‚ to downright criminal. Joe Biden’s cognitive decline is once again on display‚ this time in an undeniable way. We all forget things from time to time regardless of age or mental acuity; there is nothing wrong with this. However‚ confusing people in front of you with other people who aren’t even in the room is something else altogether‚ so is attempting to shake hands with folks who aren’t there. During a recent press conference‚ Biden confused Alejandro Mayorkas with Xavier Becerra. Sources say Becerra wasn’t even in the room when Biden misidentified Mayorkas. Biden’s latest cognitive misfiring came directly after Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with Biden’s mental state. Before you watch the moment the incident occurred below‚ always remember that some people in this country still think Biden is a better choice than President Trump. Take a look: WATCH – Biden can’t recognize his own Cabinet Members‚ thinks Alejandro Mayorkas is Xavier Becerra (who wasn’t even in the room). This happened minutes after Karine Jean-Pierre insisted there is nothing wrong with his mental health. pic.twitter.com/GDZbFHKplZ — The First (@TheFirstonTV) January 23‚ 2024 Dr. Carol M. Swain discussed Biden’s cognitive decline and the left’s latest trick: “Two observations here. I find it fascinating how the left is working overtime to shift the conversation away from President Biden’s clear struggle with cognitive decline by working overtime to label Trump “dementia Don.” These people are masterful at knowing how to use the algorithms to get their diversions to trend. Biden is physically and mentally unfit for office. If these were normal times‚ the 25th Amendment would have been invoked against Biden months ago. Unfortunately‚ the existence of an incompetent DEI vice-president means we are stuck with unknowns running the nation.” Two observations here. I find it fascinating how the left is working overtime to shift the conversation away from President Biden’s clear struggle with cognitive decline by working overtime to label Trump “dementia Don.” These people are masterful at knowing how to use the… pic.twitter.com/B0AdahmrsC — Dr. Carol M. Swain (@carolmswain) January 24‚ 2024 Daily Mail provided a transcript of the mixup: ‘I also like to thank the gender policy advisor‚ my gender policy adviser‚ Jen Klein‚’ he said‚ before improvising a line. ‘Where’s Jen sitting? There you are‚ Jen‚’ Biden‚ 81‚ said‚ pointing to his right. ‘Thank you. And Secretary Becerra‚ sitting right next to her‚ for the leadership in this task force‚’ he continued‚ name-checking Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Ted Cruz had this to say: “Biden’s mental deterioration is massive. Democrats are trying to argue that Trump has the same issue‚ but that is totally untrue. They are only saying it to protect Joe Biden. Trump would destroy Biden in a cognitive test‚ and it isn’t even close.” Biden’s mental deterioration is massive. Democrats are trying to argue that Trump has the same issue‚ but that is totally untrue. They are only saying it to protect Joe Biden. Trump would destroy Biden in a cognitive test‚ and it isn’t even close.https://t.co/hdWGvGlJCR pic.twitter.com/vK251pnJ4R — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 25‚ 2024 Nancy Pelosi says she’s “not gonna spend too much time on Donald Trump’s cognitive disorders‚” then confuses him with Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/iqIjtrb4Ja — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 24‚ 2024 Despite the obvious‚ left-wing outlets like Newsweek continue to claim that it is President Trump who is unwell: Tim O’Brien‚ journalist and author of TrumpNation‚ said he noticed that Trump was not “cognitively together” before the book was released in 2005. “I flew around with him in his plane and walked his golf courses with him 20 years ago… Not very cognitively together then‚” O’Brien said on X‚ formerly Twitter. “Much less cognitively better now.” They’re laying all the groundwork…..how soon until they roll in Michelle? What do you think of that? NATIONAL POLL : Would You Vote For Michelle Obama For President in 2024?