When economic freedom advances, prosperity follows.

That critical relationship is the underlying finding of The Heritage Foundation’s 2026 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual benchmark study that assesses and compares economic policy environments of countries around the world. The latest edition of the Index points out, yet again, that what really matters is the direction and orientation of policy—in other words, the change at the margin.

It is notable that the United States recorded the greatest improvement in the 2026 Index “amongst advanced economies.” America’s score has risen by over 2.5 points from last year, reversing the precipitous decline in economic freedom under the Biden era and marking the most significant improvement since 2001.

But the U.S. can still do even better than that.

Indeed, that is why now is the time for Congress to advance a principled economic agenda that will further restore America’s economic freedom and amplify it by adopting a series of conservative policy recommendations that will ensure the critical interplay of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.

The pragmatic first step toward putting into action such an economic agenda is to use the power of budget reconciliation to enact much-needed spending reforms in the coming weeks.

As detailed in The Heritage Foundation’s recent special report “Setting the American Opportunity Agenda,” it is imperative that Congress use the power of budget reconciliation to enact spending reforms that will deliver relief for the American people. In doing so, Congress will signal a continued commitment to the pro-growth economic agenda that has seen tremendous success under the Trump administration.

In keeping with President Donald Trump’s economic agenda to restore and enhance America’s entrepreneurial growth and prosperity, Congress must not stand in the way of spending reforms that will lower taxes, further decrease regulation, and unleash the abundance of American energy and the prosperity that will follow.

As Daniel Kowalski, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, who is the principal author of the special report, noted, “The American people expect reforms that reinforce economic security, uphold the rule of law, and ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent responsibly.”

It is in America’s national interest to pursue an economic agenda that lowers costs, supports families, and fosters the economic freedom necessary for flourishing. As it stands, the Republican Party controls the House of Representatives, Senate, and White House. In a moment such as this, Congress must use budget reconciliation to reform health care, welfare, and taxation to enact meaningful reforms. The options outlined in the Heritage Special Report will save the American people $1.5 trillion in the coming decade.

As America’s score has risen on the Index of Economic Freedom, the use of budget reconciliation is another pragmatic opportunity to further reverse the five-year economic decline facilitated by the previous administration’s misguided and failed “Bidenomics.” At this critical juncture, Congress must use budget reconciliation to act on this.

The bottom line is that many Americans want to raise families, educate children, and grow businesses without constant government interference. But these pursuits are unachievable when dealing with soaring prices.

Even if every American citizen valued marriage and family, it is not possible for most Americans to follow through when the cost of living exceeds the limits of a paycheck. Instead of penalizing the choice to marry and start a family, Congress must use budget reconciliation to move closer to a society that encourages marriage. Our society should support American families by allowing them to enjoy education, the free market, rule of law, private property, limited government, and all other fruits of economic freedom.

Economic freedom is not an end in and of itself. Economic freedom and the prosperity that follows are best measured by the experience of Americans working hard to serve their families and communities.

Economic freedom should not be measured by the stock market and gross domestic product alone, but by the preservation of strong families, communities, ordered liberty, personal responsibility, and the dignity of work.

Congress must use budget reconciliation to enact spending reforms that will allow the American people to pursue these fruits of economic freedom.

Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action President Kevin Roberts recently underscored that “Congress should now build on [its] momentum through a Reconciliation 3.0 package that advances affordability, accountability, and opportunity for the American people while continuing to strengthen America at home and abroad.”

Indeed, now is the time to act in order to ensure that economic freedom and prosperity flourish in our nation.

In a classic move of a leftist turning the tables to paint themselves the victim after an attack against a conservative, actress Amanda Seyfried claims she had to get a bodyguard due to the backlash she received for bashing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk after his assassination.

The post Actress Amanda Seyfried Paints Herself the Victim, Claims She Needed a Bodyguard After Attacking Charlie Kirk appeared first on Breitbart.

President Trump is navigating a narrow path through a minefield of foreign and domestic opposition to his preferred trade position on the USMCA. Ironically, or not, on the issue of ending the USMCA we likely have more allies in the labor unions and Bernie Bros than we do amid the congressional republicans. President Trump was […]

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What makes an American an American? Hillsdale College professor Matthew Spalding joined Heritage Foundation Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan on Monday to answer this question and to discuss Spalding’s new book, “The Making of the American Mind.”

The Declaration of Independence offers a unique answer to this question, Spalding told Morgan.

He laid out certain principles that undergird the document and ought to unite Americans.

How the Declaration Defines the American Mind

Spalding mentioned the most famous line in the declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Spalding claimed Americans often do not appreciate the depth behind these lines.

“It doesn’t say ‘We have some personal, subjective values we would like to share with you for your affirmation,’” Spalding said.

The Founders declared their belief in stringent, objective truths that are evident or not. There is no “my truth” or “your truth”; rather, there is only “the truth”—a truth that guarantees the rights of man and later proved necessary to abolish slavery in the states.

Second, “Prudence, indeed, will dictate.”

In the modern age, Spalding claimed, people tend to think in binaries: “It’s all good or it’s all bad. It’s one thing or the other. We can’t think in nuance. We can’t make prudential judgments.”

This was not the thought process of the Founders. The virtue of prudence was to guide the unfolding American project.

Third is the very last line of the declaration: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

This Spalding called a “perfect sentence … an oath to each other.”

But there is also the word “sacred,” which indicates a theology that underwrites the declaration.

Spalding claimed that there are five references to God in the declaration. By the time the reader reaches the fifth, he is left with a certain understanding of the Founders’ God.

“The [Founders’] God is the God of divine providence that intervenes in the lives of men…more than the deistic second version of the modern world,” Spalding told Morgan.

What Unites Us to This Founding?

According to Spalding, the declaration is what binds Americans today to their founding.

“That is what unites us. That’s what makes us a country,” Spalding said. “We are dedicated to universal truths about human liberty. That’s what makes America exceptional. It’s what makes America great and worthy of our affection.”

When we lose the principle of liberty as an objective and divine truth guided by virtue, we lose our nation.

“If you lose on that, you’re going to lose everything anyway.”

According to Spalding, John C. Calhoun had to first attack the declaration to defend the institution of slavery. Likewise, the progressive movement beginning in 1912 also sought to eradicate the declaration and its underwritten principles.

Whoever wins the battle over these principles “is going to win America.”

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the declaration and beyond, there will be many birthdays to celebrate.

“The 250th anniversary of the Constitution is 11 years from now. So, between now and then, there are constant 250th anniversaries of all the steps to get there.”

Spalding said each of these birthdays presents an opportunity to learn about our country and “think of the patriotic moments” that bind us to our Founding.

“That’s how you make people love their country,” Spalding said.

At least four Muslim members of the Texas Republican Party shared their experience at the state’s Republican convention over remarks they described as Islamophobic.

“When they say Sharia-free, that means Muslim-free, no practices of Islam,” Mohamed Hussein, an attendee, told The Texas Tribune. “No one is calling for the state to implement Sharia laws.”

Hussein said he was in disbelief that he was told to convert or leave—for the first time in his life.

“Unity Drives Victory,” a slogan touted by the governor on press releases, placards, lanyards, and even the elephant he procured to march through the convention hall, became a rallying cry for the state’s leaders and party nominees.

If the party becomes fractured, Republicans could lose to the Democrats and their U.S. Senate nominee, state Rep. James Talarico.

On Saturday, the last day of the convention, outgoing GOP Chair Abraham George addressed two Muslim delegates from the stage, whom members tried to expel from the convention because of their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group the GOP and Gov. Greg Abbott have deemed a terrorist threat.

“I would strongly advise you to leave our caucus,” George said, The Texas Tribune reported. “There is a Democrat convention happening in a couple weeks. Join them. There’s no place in America for you.”

Also on Saturday, Hussein attended a panel from the Judeo-Christian Caucus moderated by Dr. Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist pastor and the president of Recover America, an organization that engages ministers and pastors in politics.

Speakers told the audience that immigrants who don’t believe in Judeo-Christian values will erode those values and create problems for America.

Scarborough accused Muslims of lying to win political power. According to The Texas Tribune report, state Sen. Bob Hall also said Muslims are “required by Sharia to lie” to “stay below the radar of being aggressive.”

Hussein replied that the attendees were told lies about Sharia throughout the convention, and that he was practicing Sharia peacefully at that very moment, The Texas Tribune reported.

“When they tell you that we’re compelled to lie, they are putting your Texan neighbors in an impossible position where nothing that we can say or do can absolve us from the crimes that they are accusing us of,” Hussein told the crowd. “That is not just. The Bible commands you to be just, and that is not American.”

Sharia is generally interpreted as the framework, or laws, for how Muslims should live their lives. The code calls for fasting, daily prayer, modest dress, and charity.

Sharia law, however, has attracted controversy over its perceived ties to strict enforcement of religion, female genital mutilation, hatred toward non-Muslims, and more.

In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Scarborough clarified, saying that “if you’re going to embrace the values and the teachings that you’re advocating for, there’s no place in America for you. That’s not assimilation. That’s taking over.”

A CAIR Chapter Founder

Hussein, who moved to Houston in 1992 with his family from Egypt, was in attendance at the convention with Tarek Hussein, his father, the founder of CAIR’s Texas-Houston chapter.

Tarek Hussein attended as a registered delegate.

Part of the scrutiny from Republicans toward the Muslim community, particularly the segment affiliated with CAIR, comes after the organization has faced criticism over its funding ties, mission statement, and recent actions.

Recently, CAIR has been accused of using its tax-exempt status to infiltrate American institutions with Sharia values and officials. The organization has also faced scrutiny for allegedly having direct ties to unindicted co-conspirators of Islamic terror attacks.

CAIR, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the governors of Texas and Florida, has also been the subject of congressional hearings this year.

The Department of Health and Human Services opened an investigation into the organization’s use of federal funds tied to Afghan refugee resettlement programs and alleged associations, examining millions of dollars in grants.

CAIR did not return the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Actress Anne Schedeen, best known for her role as the matriarch Kate Tanner on the late-80s sit-com "ALF," passed away at the age of 77 over the weekend and her family remembered her for having a "burning hatred for Trump."

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Actor Jeremy Allen White has praised the United Kingdom implementing a ban on social media, including apps like TikTok and YouTube, for children under 16.

The post ‘The Bear’ Star Jeremy Allen White Praises U.K. Banning Social Media for Children Under 16 appeared first on Breitbart.

The Trump administration has struck another blow against DEI, this time issuing a lawsuit against a “first of its kind” racial reparations program in Illinois.

In 2019, the city of Evanston, Illinois, approved a “Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program” that was set to hand out tens of millions of dollars to residents—or the descendants of residents—who had allegedly been discriminated against.

What’s notable, and suable, about the Evanston reparations program is that the awardees of cash payments from the city government didn’t have to prove that harm was caused to them or their ancestors.

Instead, eligible recipients have been limited to black adults who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, along with their children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren.

The Department of Justice noted that the “city has not identified any specific acts of discrimination that violated the constitution or a statute that these payments are intended to remedy.”

The program went into effect in 2021, the height of the Great Awokening, and has distributed a considerable amount of money.

“The city has already distributed over $7 million using revenue from a local tax on legal marijuana sales—to hundreds of people in $25,000 increments to be used for home repairs, down payments on property, and interest or late penalties on property in the city,” The Associated Press reported.

A group of white residents who descended from those who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 filed a lawsuit in 2024 that the city tried to have dismissed. After the city blocked a federal investigation into the matter, the Department of Justice intervened and is challenging the program under the equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement that there are “sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination,” but that this program was “racial discrimination, pure and simple,” and was simply “illegal.”

There’s a lot to unpack in this story, which has wider implications for the racial reparations movement.

Unlike other successful reparations cases in the past, this one is based on vague historical grievances rather than direct claims of actual harm. It’s very much in line with the DEI craze that poisoned so many institutions in the past decade.

What Evanston’s plan amounts to is a kind of upside-down racial aristocracy. In the old days in the Old World, members of the aristocracy were often both free from taxation and the beneficiaries of stipends from the government just for existing.

That’s essentially what this is except that instead of claiming hereditary privilege from exploits—real or imagined—of ancestors, one now may claim oppression privilege—real or imagined—from ancestors.

Thus, any pretense to equality under the law is obliterated.

It’s worth noting that those receiving the cash payments in Evanston don’t even have to show current economic hardship or deprivation. Wealthy black residents can now gain access to a program that is denied to poor residents of different racial groups.

Is this charity, a lifeline to those in need with a legal grievance against their government, or simply a racial spoils system?

According to The Associated Press, one of the pioneers of the Evanston program, Robin Rue Simmons, pointed to “redlining” and other financial practices that affected black Americans in the past, preventing them from acquiring home loans. However, she didn’t point to specific cases in the city that needed to be remedied.

The truth is that redlining did exist in America, but it was a broader phenomenon that often affected poor whites and other people who were intentionally kept out of affluent neighborhoods.

Why wouldn’t their descendants now be financially rewarded too?

The problem with the modern racial reparations movement is that it’s grounded in flimsy and ultimately toxic ideology that reached its zenith in the early years of President Joe Biden.

The argument being shouted by nearly every prominent institution, nearly every legacy media outlet, nearly every corporate entity, was that the United States was uniquely and structurally racist, especially toward black Americans. To correct for the nation’s entire racist, unjust history discrimination was needed to fight discrimination. Colorblindness, even in terms of the law, was construed as racism.

And so, you got broad efforts to create racial reparations, to discriminate in hiring to create politically correct outcomes, and a whole host of other policies that certainly straddled the line of illegality.

The elite cultural winds were so strong for this movement that all save a few lonely voices were willing to draw a line and resist this madness.

But the tide has turned, at least for now.

Many cities have quietly dropped their push for reparations, no doubt in large part due to threats of lawsuits from the Trump administration.

Some city and state leaders may even be breathing a sigh of relief that they got away with merely virtue signaling. Many of the proposed reparations programs were a fast ticket to fiscal insolvency.

A proposal put forward in 2023 by San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee suggested giving every black resident $5 million among a grab bag of other privileges. The minimum cost of just that single payment to the current black San Francisco residents at that time was estimated by the Hoover Institute to be “about $175 billion,” more than half the current budget of California.

So, the legal, cultural, and fiscal headwinds are against racial reparations. Does that mean the issue is dead?

No.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and soon to be former Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, called for Democrats in Congress to prioritize reparations.

And with far-left mayors taking over major cities, it would be a mistake to think that the issue is simply dead.

We’ve had a brief, sober moment of common sense on the reparation issue. But don’t count on the lunacy—or the dream of sponging a few more dollars from taxpayers to pay supporters—going away any time soon.

Regulatory actions taken in Nigeria have caught the attention of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee for potentially affecting American investments, with Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL) addressing a letter to the country's ambassador to the United States.

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