|
Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today. Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
|
- The Senate is currently considering a $118 billion supplemental appropriations package that would address the U.S. border crisis, the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Middle East, and more.
- After accounting for interest, the Senate supplemental spending package would cost roughly $1,200 per household.
- Pushing $118 billion in deficit spending when the nation is racing toward bankruptcy shows that too many in Washington are willing to mortgage the country’s future.
- Fortunately, it is not too late for legislators to do the right thing. They can reject the Senate’s fatally flawed proposal and use pending FY 2024 appropriations bills to put the flabby federal government on a diet.
|
- Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, must be grateful that the Justice Department will “surge additional law enforcement tools and resources” to tackle violent crime and carjackings in the nation’s capital. But he should also be embarrassed. The announcement is a tacit admission that the city’s chief prosecutor has failed abysmally at tackling crime.
- Last year in Washington, D.C., there were 274 homicides (a 35% increase over 2022), 3,470 robberies (a 67% increase), 6,829 car thefts (an 82% increase), and 13,349 thefts (a 23% increase).
- Overall, violent crime was up 39%, and all crime was up 26% year over year.
- Despite this crime tsunami, Matthew Grave’s office of 330 prosecutors has a declination rate of 67%. Graves tries to blame everyone but himself for this problem, from the crime lab to the courts to the police, the latter of whom he says bring weak cases to his office.
- He refuses to prosecute every case to the fullest extent of the law, pure and simple. As long as his charging policies remain the same, sending his office more prosecutors from Justice won’t make a difference.
- By hiring woke social justice warrior pseudo-prosecutors, refusing to send felon-in-possession firearms cases to federal district court, forcing his prosecutors to decline cases at intake because they aren’t “trial ready” the day after an arrest, and refusing to prosecute every violent gun-toting juvenile as an adult, Matt Graves has failed as the city’s chief prosecutor.
|
- For millions of people across the country, February is a time to reflect on the contributions black Americans have made to our rich national history. But for a handful of educators, the first week of this month is dedicated to amplifying year-round efforts to introduce the values of the Black Lives Matter movement into K-12 classrooms.
- One of those principles is to "disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure." But rebuilding—not destroying—the black family should be the top priority for people who claim to care about race and equality.
- What America needs today is a "Black Wives Matter" movement that reestablishes marriage as the foundation of black family life and increases the percentage of black children who are born to—and raised by—their married biological parents. At the core of this movement are three words: marriage before carriage.
- Rebuilding the black family requires a comprehensive and concentrated approach. That includes education. Middle and high school students need to learn about the three-step anti-poverty plan often referred to as the "Success Sequence"—finish high school, get a job, and marry before having children.
- A successful "marriage before carriage" campaign would also require a very different investment strategy for black cultural capital. Media, music, television, film, and social media would all need to be harnessed to promote a culture of marriage and family.
- Put simply, rebuilding the black family demands a transformation of black America's political priorities and cultural norms.
|
The Heritage Foundation is the nation’s largest, most broadly supported conservative research and educational institution. More than 500,000 members support our vision to build an America where freedom, prosperity, opportunity, and civil society flourish. Learn more.
|
|
|
|
