That’s Awkward: The Department of Commerce’s recent report on the economy showed that gross domestic income (GDI) shrank in the past six months. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen might finally have to confess that the country is in a recession, explains Heritage research fellow EJ Antoni. 

• “According to … Yellen’s own words from last year, the economy is back in recession,” writes Antoni. 
• “That’s no surprise to half of Americans who believe we’re currently in a recession, but the data refute President Joe Biden’s claim that the economy is ‘strong as hell,’” he says. 

Read the article here. 

No Surprise: People who break the law to enter our country are more likely to commit crimes here. 

• “The Left advocates for soft-on-crime prosecutors who are backed by [George] Soros’ funds and for sanctuary cities, but this is a deadly combination,” writes Heritage research assistant Hannah Davis.   
• Criminals can enter the country and commit crimes—knowing they’ll get off scot-free.  

Read more here.  

Stonewall: Heritage on Thursday filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon to gain access to records regarding the number of abortions it has paid for. The Oversight Project filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for these documents a year ago. 

• “Its refusal to respond to our FOIAs on covered abortions seems to indicate (the Department of Defense) has something to hide,” says senior legal fellow Sarah Parshall Perry. 

Read our exclusive coverage in The Daily Signal. 

Dysfunctional: College accreditation was originally designed as a voluntary process to assure quality.  

• Now, accreditation “creates barriers to entry for innovative start-ups in the higher education market, while being a poor gauge of program quality and the skills students gain (or fail to gain) while attending college,” write Heritage’s education experts. 

Read about how Congress can fix accreditation with these three key reforms. 

• Biden Played Politics with Abortion and National Defense. Tuberville Is Right to Fight It—Kevin Roberts 
• How Congress Can Reform Banking Regulations to Reduce the Cost of Bank Runs—or Prevent Them Altogether—EJ Antoni, Parker Sheppard and Peter St Onge 
• HHS Should Not Make It Harder to Investigate Crimes—Roger Severino 
• Should America Continue To Accept Asylum Seekers?—Lora Ries 
• Blinken Cuddles Up to Communist China—Diana Furchtgott-Roth 
• ‘God Save the Queen, Man’: With Biden, Talk of 25th Amendment Is Muted—Jarrett Stepman 
• How Fathers Can Help Their Families—Derrick Morgan 
• COVID-19 Origins: Biden Administration Stalls, but Independent Evidence Is Piling Up—Robert Moffit 
• The Uprising: Families Clash With Schools Over LGBTQ Propaganda—Sarah Parshall Perry 
• How ‘Sound of Freedom’ Movie Can Be Disruptive Force to End Child Sex Slavery—Virginia Allen 
• California Creates Baby-Selling Market Through ‘In Vitro Fertilization for All’—Emma Waters 
• The Military Recruiting Crisis Is Getting Worse—Tom Spoehr 
• George Soros’s Prosecutors Wage War on Law and Order—Cully Stimson and Zack Smith 

Heritage Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan and John Stossel discuss the 2023 Index of Economic Freedom and the new low that the United States reached in this important ranking. Watch the discussion here.   

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