Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Government Spending
Isn’t ‘Zero Cost’ <[link removed]> – 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 expert: Joel Griffith <[link removed]>
Afghanistan blame game testimony by our military leaders didn't yield answers America needs <[link removed]> – What was most interesting about the stylized ritual of the Washington blame game on the Hill was what wasn’t said. None of the officials testifying were willing to detail the full scope of the military advice given to the president. After the hearings, no one is better equipped than before to parse the precise role of the president of the United States in the greatest military and geo-political setback since Vietnam. In part this reflects the tension of how American civil-military relations are structured to work. On the one hand, it is difficult for a president and his military advisors to have an open and frank exchange of views, if Monday-morning quarterbacks get to pick apart these discussions after the fact. On the other, the Pentagon leadership also needs to be frank and honest with the Congress, as the body exercises its oversight of the armed forces. Heritage expert: Jim Carafano <[link removed]>
Holding Biden accountable for the disastrous Afghanistan
withdrawal <[link removed]> – Throughout this mess, President Biden has done everything from blaming his military advisors to the intelligence community to former President Donald Trump for his disastrous decisions. At the same time, he has also strangely taken credit for how great he thinks the withdrawal went. The bottom line is, President Biden is the commander-in-chief, and the decisions were ultimately his to make. It’s not just the president who is pointing fingers, however, there is a lot of that going on throughout the administration. An independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress but not comprised of any current members of Congress is needed to sort out the facts and get to the truth. Then the president, as well as those who so ill-advised him, must be held accountable. Only through honest fact-finding and true accountability, not whitewashing and hand slapping, will we have any chance at discouraging future administrations from making such wrongheaded, blatantly political decisions that cost American lives, America’s safety,
and America’s projection of strength and stability around the world. Heritage expert: Jim Carafano <[link removed]>
Arizona State University and Offerings at the Temple of the Woke <[link removed]> – In describing the
current opt-in diversity programs, a professor in ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College says, “We should make a more concerted effort to embed social justice and equity concepts throughout [student orientation] so it’s not just like a 20-minute thing that somebody has to just check off the list.” We are right to ask what is
happening on campus when professors and students are taking barbaric ideas such as perpetuating racial discrimination seriously. That college officials are ambiguous to, oblivious of, or—hopefully not—allied with, critical race theory is a sign of cultural regression: School officials and professors are leading us back to an era marked by prejudice. Generations of Americans had been living with the understanding that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the civil rights movement led Americans away from racially discriminatory policies, attitudes, and behaviors. If ASU wants “to be welcoming,” the university should encourage the pursuit of truth, not skew every course with a perspective
based on skin color. For now, university officials have found scholars from many disciplines, including music, to lead the march back to prejudice. Heritage expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]>
-
