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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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- America is at a crossroads when it comes to limiting the influence of the major tech platforms, which hold tremendous sway over everything from the content of our debates to the socialization of our children.
- The Supreme Court on Monday heard hours of argument in two free-speech cases, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton.
- NetChoice, an industry group representing large tech companies, argued that laws enacted by Texas and Florida restricting the companies’ ability to demote or remove user content violated the First Amendment rights of social media platforms.
- The cases are an effort by the nation’s de facto social powers to exempt themselves from all interference by lawful political authority.
- Throughout oral arguments, the solicitor generals of Florida and Texas maintained that when the platforms demoted or promoted, hosted or banned, they were engaged in conduct, unprotected by the First Amendment, not in speech.
- Thus, it was perfectly constitutional for Florida to prevent social media sites from deplatforming candidates for public office or for Texas to prevent platforms from deleting posts based on viewpoints.
- Under the status quo, social media platforms enjoy near-limitless discretion to suppress whatever views they wish, for any reason whatsoever.
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- According to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker, the United States has given $46.33 billion worth of bilateral military donations to the Ukrainian government.
- Those who believe that Europe has in fact been doing considerably more than America in terms of supporting civil society and humanitarian causes in Ukraine are missing a critical fact of accounting. Every dollar the United States has given to Ukraine has been in the form of a grant with no expectation of repayment. $65 billion of what European Union institutions have pledged to Ukraine in financial bilateral commitments, however, are in fact loans.
- In terms of grants, the United States has given more to Ukraine in financial support, having contributed just under $26 billion in financial bilateral grants, whereas European Union institutions have only given Ukraine about $18 billion in grants.
- The United States cannot care more about a European war than Europeans do, and has in fact contributed more than its “fair share” already.
- Meanwhile, the primary threat to American interests lies in the Pacific, a theater routinely downplayed by the foreign policy elites in Washington. While Russia is an opportunistic power that may seek power and advantage episodically, it is far less of a threat to U.S. national security interests than China.
- Our defense spending should be focused on deterring China, and while we can continue to play a supporting role we should not be emptying our magazines against what is, if we’re being honest, a secondary threat against which the Europeans should be able to take the lead.
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- America’s political establishment has less respect for the U.S. dollar than our foreign adversaries.
- Last year, led by the chairman and ranking member of the relevant House and Senate committees, a bipartisan and bicameral bill was introduced that would hand another $300 billion to the Ukraine, this time in the form of the confiscated U.S. dollars owned by the Russian central bank and the Russian people.
- There are now renewed calls for this measure as both the budget battle at home and the war in the Ukraine drag on.
- U.S. statesmen understood then, as our adversaries do now, that the dollar’s reserve currency status is among our most important global assets, both economically and strategically.
- Eager to demolish this foundation of our global presence and dam that holds back inflation, the Washington uniparty is rallying behind the next step to gut the U.S. dollar.
- As more nations lose confidence in the dollar, they will sell their dollars. If enough countries do this, those trillions will come flooding home to America.
- If the uniparty in Congress and the Biden administration push the issue much further, it will mean a long walk off a short pier into an ocean of misery for the American people.
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