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Beware the Strings Attached to All That Government Spending – For everyone already fearful of even higher inflation — or worse, 1970s-style stagflation — adding another $4.6 trillion in federal spending (including the $1.1 trillion infrastructure and $3.5 trillion reconciliation packages) only exacerbates these concerns. Moreover, specific policies would add fuel to current fires. It’s already hard enough to find workers with a record-high 10.9 million job openings in the U.S., but the proposed infrastructure package calls for simultaneously increasing the demand for infrastructure workers while limiting the supply of such workers to strictly unionized workers — making roughly one out of every eight construction workers eligible for construction projects. Heritage experts: Joel Griffith and Rachel Greszler

5 Things You Need to Know About the Paid Family Leave Program in Progressive’s $3.5 Trillion Package – Now would be a terrible time for a federal takeover of paid family leave. The COVID-19 pandemic and the record-high 10.9 million job openings are making employer-provided paid family leave all the more common. Instead of implementing a one-size-fits-all federal program, policymakers should seek to build upon the recent increase in more flexible, generous, and accommodating employer-provided policies. One way to do that is through the Working Families Flexibility Act, which allows employers to give lower-wage, hourly workers the choice of accumulating “comp time” instead of pay for their overtime hours. Another way to help workers—including the self-employed and gig-workers—is to enact Universal Savings Accounts so that Americans can save in a single, simple, and flexible account that they can tap whenever they want for whatever need arises. Heritage expert: Rachel Greszler

5 Supreme Court Cases to Watch in the 2021-22 Term – Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization: This is the most important abortion case in the last 30 years. Essentially, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity to reconsider—and potentially overrule—its wayward decisions Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In 2018, Mississippi enacted the Gestational Age Act, which prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of gestation except in cases of medical emergency or severe fetal abnormality. The state legislature set forth two findings in the law: 1) 75% of all nations do not permit abortions past 12 weeks’ gestation, and 2) an unborn human’s heart starts beating after five to six weeks’ gestation and by nine weeks all “basic physiological functions are present.” It’s hard to overstate the potential impact of this ruling, whether it be a decision upholding the lower courts’ decisions and reaffirming Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which would be a huge blow to the pro-life movement, a moderate ruling that would gradually diminish prior abortion precedents, or a broad decision completely overturning its prior decisions. Heritage expert: Zack Smith

Biden’s Del Rio Bridge Crisis: Far More Than Just Optics Problem – The Border Patrol agents have been abandoned, scapegoated, and thrown under the bus by their own departmental secretary and now, vilified by the president of the United States. They have been condemned, had careers ruined, and had reputations irreparably harmed in an effort to deflect from the out-of-control catastrophic crisis at our southern border. Meanwhile, the White House ordered the Del Rio bridge area to be cleared out in advance of a nearby Black Lives Matter protest this weekend. They wouldn’t want things to look bad. This week in Del Rio was just a peek into the 2021 border catastrophe. The images of large numbers of illegal aliens under the bridge have been an annoyance to the Biden White House. They will do what they always do with self-inflicted crises—lie, blame someone else, wait it out, and distract with something new. Don’t look away, America. Heritage expert: Lora Ries

6 Takeaways From Findings of Arizona Election Audit – Those who are claiming this audit reports settles all questions about the 2020 election in Arizona clearly have not read the entire report. It is not a surprise that the hand recount basically matches the prior count in the election, since such a recount only counts the ballots cast - it does not verify the eligibility of the individuals casting the votes or account for other mistakes and errors made by election officials. The discrepancies, errors, and other potential problems revealed by the audit, such as votes potentially cast by individuals in multiple counties and from addresses where they no longer lived, raises serious questions about the election process in Maricopa County and the competence of its election officials. The margin of potential errors is within, or may exceed, the margin of victory. While the report does not indicate the outcome of any election would change, this is a serious issue that warrants close scrutiny. Heritage expert: Hans von Spakovsky

Biden Flouts Federalism, Undermines Florida Law on Masks for Schoolchildren – This entire scenario certainly fits in with the long line of examples of why it has been such a mistake to federalize education policy in America. As schools across the country become more reliant on federal money, they begin to lose all semblance of local control. The move to undermine Florida’s policies is also in line with the tenor of Biden’s speech announcing national vaccine mandates. Biden said he had lost “patience” with the individuals and states who have decided not to conform to his policy views and will unleash the power of his office on them. “If they’ll not help, if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way,” the president warned. That will happen whether the policy is constitutional or not. As Biden clearly indicated when he announced an extension of the COVID-19 eviction moratorium that was later struck down in court, constitutionality was not of particular concern to him. Heritage expert: Jarrett Stepman

Rethinking Old Tactics to Advance School Choice – If the goal of the private school-choice movement is to get more programs adopted, the empirical evidence is clear that the historical practice of courting Democratic policymakers has not been effective. Indeed, it has likely been counter-productive. Proponents of school choice should make a values-based appeal for choice that could attract more families, and elevate choice as a solution to some of the most pressing education policy fights of the day. Heritage experts: Lindsey Burke and Jay Greene