The Daily Signal

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is the latest in a string of left-wing mayors to institute a proof-of-vaccination mandate. Starting on Saturday, anyone 12 or older who wants to eat at a restaurant, go to a concert, or see a movie in the nation’s capital will have to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., is one of 19 lawmakers to sign a letter asking Bowser to reverse her decision. Norman thinks Bowser’s mandate will have adverse consequences for people living in or visiting the District of Columbia.“It’s a draconian overreach of government,” Norman says, adding: “This has been a nightmare for so many of the people that are trying to put food on the table, and they’re getting hit with cost increase after cost increase. There is a limit.”Norman joins the show to discuss Congress’ efforts to prevent the mandate from taking effect—and the consequences for the city’s businesses and residents if it does.We also cover these stories:  According to the Department of Labor, the inflation rate hit a 39-year high in December. A new study out of California suggests that the omicron strain of COVID-19 is far less severe than previous strains of the virus. A D.C. administrative agency announces a policy that could serve as a model for government lists of Americans who object to vaccinations on religious grounds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s a country few Americans have heard of, but Kazakhstan is going through political unrest that should make everyone sit up and take notice. With Russians on the doorstep and a bevy of strategic resources on the line, there’s a lot at stake."[Kazakhstan] has about 40% of the world's uranium. It has lots of oil and gas and big U.S. companies like Chevron are deeply involved in Kazakhstan," explains Luke Coffey, director of the Allison Center for Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.Coffey joins the "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss why Kazakh unrest matters to the U.S., and what we should be doing about it.We also cover these stories:  President Joe Biden says if Senate Democrats don’t get their way on voting legislation, the filibuster needs to end. Dr. Anthony Fauci clashes again with Sen. Rand Paul as Fauci accuses him of endangering his life by criticizing him. Sen. Mitch McConnell says there will be consequences if Senate Democrats change the filibuster. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Writer, commentator, and editor Bethany Mandel only wanted to provide alternatives to the woke books being provided to children in school. So she was shocked when Facebook took down her page advertising such alternatives due to “disruptive content.”"There was no warning," Mandel says of Facebook's action. "They told us that our ads were low quality or disruptive content, but they never actually defined what about them was low quality and disruptive content. ... This is a wholesome new children's book [series] that you can buy for your children for Christmas. It couldn't have gotten less dangerous and more innocuous than our ads. We're literally just selling children's books."Mandel joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss how Facebook censored her, and the importance of having alternatives to the left's woke education materials.We also cover these stories:  Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., ask D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to drop the city's vaccine mandate.   Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell releases a memo predicting Democrats will “try to use fake hysteria to break the Senate and silence millions of Americans’ voices so they can take over elections and ram through their radical agenda.” Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, says he will not willingly appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friday was a critical day for American liberty. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases to determine whether or not a stay would be issued against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates. The high court heard arguments on the Biden COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees, and also on the mandate requiring health care workers to be vaccinated. “The courts seem inclined to strike down the mandate, probably on the lack of authority ground, that OSHA, the agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, doesn't have the statutory authority to do what they did,” says Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice.The center filed a lawsuit on behalf of The Heritage Foundation in November challenging the 100-plus employees vaccine mandate. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)Sekulow joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to break down the arguments made before the high court on Friday, and explain how he thinks the justices might rule.Also on today's show, we read your letters to the editor and share a good news about a bakery that came to the aid of stranded drivers during a snowstorm in Virginia. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re just one week into 2022 and already political debates are heating up in Washington over election integrity, the Senate filibuster, and spending, among other things.It’s clear that 2022 will be a significant year in the fight for American liberty. Jessica Anderson, Heritage Action for America executive director, says conservatives will face at least three major battles in the year ahead. “The fight to protect the sanctity of life, I think, is going to be in the forefront of so many voters minds, really, throughout the year,” Anderson says. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case will determine not only whether or not Roe v. Wade is overturned, but also affect the lives of millions of unborn babies. In addition to the issue of abortion, Anderson says, election integrity and President Joe Biden’s liberal agenda more broadly are significant issues to follow in 2022. Also on today’s show:  Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris deliver speeches about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.  Former President Donald Trump says Biden used his speech about Jan. 6 to distract from his failings as president. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis takes action to limit America’s dependence on China. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Fraud over failure.” That’s what prosecutors argued Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes chose, according to former prosecutor and Heritage Foundation legal fellow Zack Smith. Holmes was accused of defrauding investors with promises of new medical technology that would have revolutionized health care. Smith joins "The Daily Signal Podcast" to discuss the ins and the outs of the trial.We also cover these stories: Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announces the state will give up to $7,000 in educational funding to families who face unexpected school closures. Americans fled high-tax states in droves last year, choosing instead to lay down roots in states with lower tax burdens. French President Emmanuel Macron says that French people who will not get vaccinated are “irresponsible” and "not citizens."  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The true agenda of what has become known as the "transgender movement" is to abolish sex, according to author and self-declared feminist Kara Dansky. Dansky, author of the new book “The Abolition of Sex: How the ‘Transgender’ Agenda Harms Women and Girls," not only takes issue with the objective to destroy the concept of sex, but also with the use of the term ‘transgender.” The term “transgender” was invented, but the “word has no coherent meaning whatsoever,” Dansky says, adding that “every single person on the face of the planet, all 8 billion of us, are either female or male, and that's it.”Dansky joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the history of the term “transgender” and what she thinks the movement's ultimate objective might be. We also cover these stories: Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., says he is very hesitant to consider changes to the filibuster rule sought by many in his party. A federal judge issues a preliminary injunction preventing the Navy and the Defense Department from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In November, a record number of 4.5 million employees quit their jobs.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to children’s education, parents know best, Laura Zorc says. As the mother of four kids herself, Zorc has been fighting for education reform since 2013, when her home state of Florida began adopting Common Core education goals. She successfully rallied a group of parents to stand against the federally funded learning standards. Now, she is training parents across the nation to be advocates for their own children in the classroom.“Just because we send our kids to these government public schools, that does not mean the moment they walk through those front doors that we hand over our rights as parents,” Zorc says. Zorc is the founder of Building Education for Students Together (BEST), an organization that equips parents to run for school board and stand against the far-left policies infiltrating classrooms across America. She joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the importance of parental involvement in the field of education and how parents can begin utilizing the resources offer by BEST, a project of FreedomWorks. We also cover these stories: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announces he plans on forcing a vote to change rules regarding the filibuster. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, calls on the Biden administration to distribute monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of COVID-19. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announces he will no longer be posting videos to YouTube, accusing the platform of repeatedly censoring his content.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shortly after taking office as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson recruited a retired finance and strategy expert to become the agency’s chief financial officer.Irving Dennis, appointed by President Donald Trump in late 2017, stepped into the job and quickly discovered the mess he inherited. Dennis spent 37 years at Ernst & Young, a major accounting firm. He would use that private-sector experience to fix HUD.In a new book, “Transforming a Federal Agency: Management Lessons from HUD’s Financial Reconstruction,” Dennis recounts the roadblocks he faced at HUD and the bureaucratic barriers he overcame to set the agency on a better course. His story shows there’s an alternative to the financial mismanagement that plagues federal agencies—and how he fixed one of them.Dennis spoke to The Daily Signal about his experience. Read a lightly edited transcript on DailySignal.com or listen to the interview on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Top 5 of 2021 Day 5: During this Christmas season, we're sharing some of our favorite interviews of the year to allow our team to take time off for the holidays.Kevin Roberts is the new president of The Heritage Foundation. Roberts says he is eager to advance the conservative movement and address some of the most pressing issues facing our nation today. “The top three [critical issues that we are facing right now] are education, education, and education,” Roberts says, adding that conservatives will miss an “opportunity of a lifetime” if we cannot come together and address what is “broken about the education system.”  The immigration crisis at America’s southern border and the “administrative state, the power of the executive branch to do the legislating rather than the legislative branch [doing it]” are also critical issues Roberts says he looks forward to working to fix. Roberts is coming to the Washington, D.C.-based think tank after serving as president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, Texas. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)He joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss his vision for the future of The Heritage Foundation and the conservative movement. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices