Six days before a local runoff election last year in Frisco, a prosperous and growing suburb of Dallas, Brandon Burden paced the stage of KingdomLife Church. The pastor told congregants that demonic spirits were operating through members of the City Council.....

What Burden said that day in May 2021 was a violation of a long-standing federal law barring churches and nonprofits from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns, tax law experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Although the provision was mostly uncontroversial for decades after it passed in 1954, it has become a target for both evangelical churches and former President Donald Trump, who vowed to eliminate it.

Burden’s sermon is among those at 18 churches identified by the news organizations over the past two years that appeared to violate the Johnson Amendment, a measure named after its author, former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Some pastors have gone so far as to paint candidates they oppose as demonic.

What Burden said that day in May 2021 was a violation of a long-standing federal law barring churches and nonprofits from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns, tax law experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Although the provision was mostly uncontroversial for decades after it passed in 1954, it has become a target for both evangelical churches and former President Donald Trump, who vowed to eliminate it.

Burden’s sermon is among those at 18 churches identified by the news organizations over the past two years that appeared to violate the Johnson Amendment, a measure named after its author, former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Some pastors have gone so far as to paint candidates they oppose as demonic......

Lawrence Swicegood, executive director of Gateway Media, said this month that the church doesn’t endorse candidates but “inform(s) our church family of other church family members who are seeking office to serve our community.” Page told ProPublica and the Tribune that “these candidates were named for information only.”

Eleven days after responding to ProPublica and the Tribune in October, Morris once again told his church that he was not endorsing any candidates during the last Sunday sermon before early voting. Then, he again displayed the names of specific candidates on a screen and told parishioners to take screenshots with their cellphones.

Americans received some encouraging economic news yesterday, with new data showing economic growth bouncing back over the summer. After disappointing data from the first part of the year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that the GDP grew at a 2.6% annualized rate, exceeding expectations.

Several Republican leaders responded to the good news by pretending not to notice it, but HuffPost noted that some prominent GOP lawmakers took the time to downplay the data.

Economists said the third-quarter GDP report showed an overall healthy economy, with strong consumer spending and business investment, along with hints of slowing inflation. Republicans still pooh-poohed it. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, claimed Thursday that “economists have dumbed down economic projections to reflect [Biden’s] struggling policies.”

.....Five years ago, Trump’s Commerce Department released a similar GDP report, and it showed — you guessed it — 2.6% quarterly economic growth. (As it turns out, that 2.6% figure was a preliminary estimate that was later revised down to 2%, but let’s put that aside for now.)

The then-president eagerly boasted about the data, telling reporters, “2.6 is a number that nobody thought they’d see for a long period of time.” The Republican complained that news organizations hadn’t talked enough about it, adding, “2.6 is an unbelievable number.”.....

But five years later, the question for Republicans remains the same: If 2.6% quarterly growth was amazing under Trump, why isn’t it similarly “shocking” under Biden?

President Joe Biden recently warned the public that Social Security and Medicare would end up on “the chopping block” if Republicans make gains in this year’s midterm elections, and as regular readers know, plenty of prominent GOP voices — from Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson to New Hampshire’s Don Bolduc to Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia — have bolstered Biden’s claims.

It was against this backdrop that a member of the House Republican leadership broached the same subject yesterday morning. Bloomberg reported:

Representative Steve Scalise, the number two House Republican, defended his party’s approach to Medicare and Social Security, which has become a campaign issue ahead of US midterm elections in November. It’s a mis-characterization to say the GOP plans to “cut” the programs, Scalise said on “Fox News Sunday.”

As part of the on-air appearance, host Shannon Bream asked the Louisiana congressman about the proposed budget plan from the Republican Study Committee, which Scalise is a member of. As Politico noted, the plan, among other things, included proposals for “raising the eligibility ages for each program, along with withholding payments for individuals who retire early or had a certain income, and privatized funding for Social Security to lower income taxes.”

Yesterday was an opportunity for Scalise to distance himself from the document and its recommendations. He did largely the opposite. “That budget talks about shoring up and strengthening Social Security. That’s not ‘cutting’ Social Security,” the House minority whip said. He added, “We’ve broad forward legislation to stave off cuts to Medicare. We want to stave off cuts to Social Security. Democrats haven’t supported any of that. They want the programs to go bankrupt.”

For now, let’s put aside the question of which party cared more about the future of Social Security — a debate Republicans obviously can’t win. Let’s instead consider the two key elements of the broader debate.