Fake ‘Emergency’ Spending in Washington Winds Up Costing Us All

• In recent weeks, the Biden administration has submitted two supplemental spending requests to Congress. The first is $106 billion for “security” items, and the second is $56 billion for “domestic” programs.
• That’s a $162 billion wish list of spending increases. The budgetary approach taken by the administration and many members of Congress is, to put it mildly, profoundly irresponsible.
• By seeking to place all $162 billion of requests in the “emergency” category, the administration hopes to dodge the bipartisan spending limits agreed to this spring. That means the entire amount would be financed through deficit spending.
• Unless something changes, the worst is yet to come. The gross national debt is now $33.6 trillion. Major programs such as Social Security and Medicare face unfunded liabilities of over $75 trillion. That means the national hole is over $800,000 per household.
• If Congress can’t break its reliance on deficit spending, the country will face a future of elevated inflation, higher taxes, slower wage growth and more economic uncertainty.

Schedule an Interview: David Ditch

Iowa Leads the Way on Education Freedom

• In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, families bear the twin burdens of inflation and indoctrination.
• Parents continue to witness their children being taught divisive, radical ideologies that portray their country as intrinsically racist, place social justice above fundamental subjects such as reading and math, and even divide children by race. All this while academic proficiency drops off a cliff.
• Just two years ago, not a single state had universal school choice. Today, nine do.
• To understand how groundbreaking this education renaissance is, just look at the state of Iowa. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) began 2023 by signing into law the Students First Act , which allows all Iowa families to receive funds in an education savings account, or ESA, to attend the school of their choice.
• Iowa’s law is the nation’s third universal education choice program , following closely behind West Virginia and Arizona’s 2022 ESA expansions. Six other states have since adopted similar — and, in some cases, more expansive — policies this year: Utah, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina.
• Parents should be in the driver's seat of their children's education. Yet right now, too many families are confined to a system that doesn’t align with their values or the specific needs of their children.
• Iowa is among those states breaking away from the monopoly enjoyed by the education establishment. Their road map is now available for more states to follow.

Schedule an Interview: Lindsey Burke

Gone with the Wind: Cancellation of Offshore Turbine Project a Boon for New Jersey

• Danish wind company Ørsted did New Jersey residents a favor when, despite the state’s tax incentives, it withdrew from its Ocean Wind 1 and 2 offshore-wind projects due to financial difficulties.
• Democratic Governor Phil Murphy’s offshore-wind plans are not only unsightly — they’d leave residents with an ugly gap in their wallets, amounting to $8,000 per person. Whales and birds also stand to gain if offshore wind abandons the Garden State.
• But New Jersey residents cannot yet breathe a sigh of relief. Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, a partnership between Shell New Energies U.S. LLC and EDF Renewables North America, plans another wind farm off the coast of Atlantic City.
• Reliance on wind power raises costs of electricity because the wind does not always blow, and each wind farm needs to be backed up by another source of energy, generally a natural-gas power plant. It would be less expensive to run the natural-gas power plant continuously than to combine it with the wind farms.
• Furthermore, wind power increases America’s dependence on China.
• Wind-power proponents make it appear that offshore New Jersey wind is a done deal. But Ørsted has shown otherwise. Let’s hope that Ørsted‘s exit is the canary in the coal mine and that other wind farms will also withdraw.

Schedule an Interview: Diana Furchtgott-Roth