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From the right: Debt-Limit Deal = GOP Win

"Things looked bleak for House Republicans five months ago," notes the Washington Examiner's editorial board. Yet they "defied expectations, and passed their own debt limit legislation." True, the deal "is not a blowout in Republicans’ favor." But it still "has to be considered a Republican win": It cuts "$55 billion in spending this year and $81 billion next year," simplifies "the permitting process" for oil and gas and "requires the Government Accountability Office to track the costs of all regulations." It also "secured stricter work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, clawed back $1.4 billion in Internal Revenue Service funding, and ended Biden's student debt limit payment pause." If Republicans are "unhappy" with this deal, they need to "win more elections."

COVID journal: The Flattening-the-Curve Hoax

"Remember when government officials told us that we needed just a brief shutdown of economic and social activity to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID transmission?" asks John Hinderaker at Powerline. "In fact, two weeks of curve-flattening turned into a year and a half of fascist control," and now former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx has admitted in her memoir that the rhetoric around "flattening the curve" was "just the first step leading to longer and more aggressive interventions." Those "destroyed many thousands of businesses and devastated a generation of young people," fumes Hinderaker. "President Trump deserves blame for not standing up to [Anthony] Fauci and Birx, who ostensibly were working for him." The result: "The great public health disaster of modern times."

Conservative: Corporate USA Awakes to Woke

"It seems like every day there's some new case of a corporation willingly tying its brand to some spectacularly controversial figure, group, or idea," writes National Review's Jim Geraghty. But "the odd thing is that these branding choices keep spurring boycotts and blowing up in companies’ faces" — witness the dramatic fall of Bud Light from the most-drunk-beer-in-America slot after it backed trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. "Are corporate boardrooms watching? Are they willing to learn the hard lesson being taught by America's consumers?" Indeed, "why does everything have to be a lecture these days?" People "don't like being lectured, particularly if they suspect the lecturing is coming from some left-wing 20-something or 30-something marketing executive who can barely conceal his or her contempt for the existing customer base."

Albany watch: How New York Ate Its Rich

"New York State is giving away the goose that laid the golden egg — its highest-earning taxpayers," warns John Ketcham at City Journal. The state's "share of national tax returns with incomes over $1 million declined throughout the 2010s." In the wake of "a 2021 tax hike on top earners, 8 percent of taxpayers earning over $25 million fled." New York City is no longer the choice for "those in the top income decile whom the state depends on for around 73 percent of income taxes." Nor will more "imprudent" spending bring back high-earning taxpayers, and, in any case, lawmakers consistently "set unrealistic assumptions for the state's ability to pay for these programs." "None of it bodes well" for Gov. Hochul.

Culture critic: Whither Black Lives Matter?

"The last week hasn't been an easy one for Black Lives Matter," observes Noah Carl at UnHerd. "In recent days, public filings have revealed that a major group within the movement is ‘bleeding cash,’ while further allegations have surfaced concerning misuse of donation funds." That group, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, raised $90 million after George Floyd's death, but new reports show that its revenues fell 88% last year and that it ran an $8.5 million deficit. "Whether BLMGNF will in fact go bankrupt remains to be seen," but the "more important question is how it managed to raise so much money in the first place. Evidently, donors don't bother with due diligence when the foundation has a reassuringly woke-sounding name."

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board