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Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today. Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
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- The harm social media does to kids has been well documented. On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing centered around Big Tech’s failures to protect kids from sexual exploitation on social media platforms.
- This hearing is taking place against the backdrop of mounting evidence of a direct link between social media and negative mental health impacts on children and teenagers.
- A 2023 study by University of North Carolina neuroscientists found that habitual social media use may be rewiring the brains of children as young as 12 years old. Similarly, a March 2022 study by Cambridge University discovered a direct relationship between increased social media use and a decrease in life satisfaction in young adolescents.
- While these studies show alarming trends, we also know the real-life consequences from talking with parents who have seen firsthand the effects of social media on their own children.
- This hearing highlighted the need for Congress and even state lawmakers to establish a robust policy framework to keep kids safe online.
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- Among the major pieces of legislation up for grabs in Congress is the inappropriately named “Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act,” which the powerful House Ways and Means Committee passed Jan. 19 with bipartisan support. The bill could receive a House floor vote as soon as this week, although there is considerable debate within the GOP caucus.
- The package contains a combination of corporate tax breaks and other provisions affecting individuals, with changes to the child tax credit as a central point of debate.
- To offset the cost of the tax credits—91.5% of which is spending done through the tax code and not tax cuts—the bill targets the employee retention credit. That tax credit is a relic of the COVID-19 pandemic, and its continued existence is both a scam itself and a target for scam artists.
- Unfortunately, the irresponsible approach that Congress is taking would lock in the scam tax credit’s debt increase and merely change who gets to “benefit” from the cash, rather than just doing the responsible thing and ending the budget-busting scam.
- As is often the case, legislators are using children as a shield to deflect criticism of policy flaws, even though children face the heaviest cost of Washington’s adding to the debt.
- Rather than rushing to vote on the tax package in its current form, House Republicans should produce a bill that adheres to conservative principles and not simply turn the employee retention credit scam into yet another gimmicky “pay-for.”
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- A proposed Senate border security compromise includes significant funding to help illegal immigrants enter the country and would codify President Biden’s open border policies into law.
- Congress should reject these border insecurity requests rather than continue to fund the demise of our nation’s sovereignty.
- The bill would give illegal aliens work permits immediately when they are released at the border. Giving out work permits on arrival would lock into law the already existing massive incentive to come here illegally.
- The proposal would reportedly stop the Department of Homeland Security from giving parole to aliens who cross into the United States between ports of entry. Sounds good, but that’s like enforcing vehicle speed limits only where there are no paved roads—because Biden’s bogus programs actually allow inadmissible aliens to fly to U.S. airports and then apply for parole.
- Finally, in a sop to immigration activist attorneys, the proposal would also reportedly provide taxpayer-funded defense lawyers to illegal aliens under 18 or with special needs to fight against their deportation.
- In the end, the White House’s supplemental request for $13.6 billion to continue funding NGOs and mass migration should be a nonstarter. The Senate shouldn’t further compound the border crisis by also codifying Biden’s and Mayorkas’ egregious open border tactics.
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