Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues
today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Economic Slowdown Shows That Americans Continue
to Suffer From Biden’s Misguided Big-Government Policies <[link removed]> – Supply chain issues are wreaking havoc through the entire production process— crippling the manufacturing sector and creating empty shelves. Misguided policies on the federal, state, and local level caused these supply chain problems, including COVID restrictions that stunted processing facilities, slowed down factories, and made life miserable for those in the transit business. California compounded the problem with its crackdown on older diesel trucks and attempted ban on independent owner-operators of trucking rigs. The proposed federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate on 80 million workers threatens to magnify these problems by potentially driving millions Americans out of their jobs. In addition to a slowing economy, the cost of living—especially housing, energy, and food—continues to squeeze families. Meanwhile, businesses this year found themselves in competition for workers with the federal government’s generous unemployment benefits. Labor force participation over the past year for men is at an all-time low, and for women at lows not seen since the mid-1980s. Heritage expert: Joel Griffith <[link removed]>
4 Reasons Why Liberal Politicians Should Abandon Federal Takeover of Paid Family Leave <[link removed]> – As different factions of liberal lawmakers battle over what socialist policies to keep and which to abandon, spending $500
billion for a paid family leave program that barely would move the needle on low-income workers’ access to leave should be among the first to go. Policymakers instead could expand access to paid family leave without spending a single dime more. Congress could pass the Working Families Flexibility Act so
that lower-wage workers may choose to accumulate paid leave. Lawmakers also could enact Universal Savings Accounts and make it easier for companies to provide private disability insurance benefits that cover most situations during which workers need to take leave. Heritage expert: Rachel Greszler <[link removed]>
Amid Controversy Over Virginia Public Schools,
Religious Private Schools See Surge in Enrollment <[link removed]> – Leaders at a number of private schools in Northern Virginia described both increasing admissions and applications in their schools, attributing this growth to their dedication to classical and religious education. Calvary Road Christian School Administrator Kevin Lewis suggested to The Daily Signal that parents are departing public schools because they have “lost faith in the decisions school boards made” when public schools repeatedly closed schools over the past few years. “Parents don’t want the schools to address topics that
should be left to parents, such as sexuality,” added Lewis, whose private, Christian school is based in Alexandria. The school’s administrator also suggested that parents want an environment that more closely aligns with their values and a “morally safe place, where standards of behavior” and academics are
higher. Heritage expert: Mary Margaret
Olohan <[link removed]>
Democrats’ Proposed Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains Likely Unconstitutional <[link removed]> – Democrats have proposed partly funding some of their multitrillion-dollar spending plan with a tax on the “unrealized capital gains” of anyone who makes more than $100 million per year or is worth at least $1 billion. That proposed tax is likely unconstitutional. To understand
why, we first must understand how such a tax would work. The tax targets “unrealized capital gains,” which are oxymorons that exist only in the minds of tax law enthusiasts. A capital gain is the profit you make when you sell an investment asset for more than you paid for it. Once that profit is in hand, a tax lawyer would call it “realized,” and the IRS would take its share. If, however, your investment increases in value and you choose not to sell it, you have an “unrealized” capital gain, because the “profit” exists only on paper. Under the
Democrats’ proposed tax, the IRS would take its share even if that money isn’t in hand. Heritage expert: GianCarlo
Canaparo <[link removed]>
U.S. benefits from stronger bond between Seoul and Tokyo <[link removed]> – The U.S. can’t win by taking sides in the finger-pointing that has strained Japanese-Korean relations in the past. But Washington can’t ignore these past troubles either. The friction that hinders full-throated cooperation across the economic, security, and diplomatic space hurts us, undermining the U.S. goal of partnering to secure a free and open Indo-Pacific where trade, energy, peoples and prosperity flow on a peaceful current from the Northeast Asia across the expanse of the Indian Ocean to the doorways of Middle East and Africa. If historic progress is going to be in this endeavor, America cannot be hands-off. In an era when Americans don’t seem to agree on much, investing in the trilateral relationship offers one opportunity for a common agenda. Past administrations of both parties have made progress when working quietly behind the scenes, engaging and pressing both Tokyo and Seoul to find paths forward. We have both seen that firsthand. We have also seen that, when the U.S detached itself, bilateral relations deteriorated. Heritage expert: Jim Carafano <[link removed]>
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