Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues
today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Heritage Foundation VP Reacts to Virginia Election Results <[link removed]> – Virginians showed up on Election Day to send a clear message by rejecting the Democrats’ big-government socialism and instead electing a conservative who promises to pursue policies that empower parents and workers. Congratulations to Glenn Youngkin on a hard-fought victory. There was a stark contrast between the candidates on many issues, but perhaps none more important than education. At a time when the left wants to give more control to government bureaucrats and school boards, conservatives made a winning argument that parents should be in charge of their children’s education. Now is no time to rest—parents should continue to advocate on behalf of their children by speaking out against restrictive COVID rules, divisive critical race theory, and radical gender ideology. The Heritage Foundation looks forward to working with Gov.-elect Youngkin and his administration to put Virginia back on track after years of reckless policies. Commonsense conservative solutions on the economy, education, and law enforcement will make Virginia thrive again. Heritage
experts: Tim
Murtaugh and Tommy
Binion
3 Things to Know About Second Amendment’s Return to Supreme Court <[link removed]> – If gun control advocates were correct about their Wild West hypothesis, surely the last two decades would have been an increasingly violent mess. But the data clearly do not bear that out. Violent crime rates continued a general downward trend while gun homicide and other gun crime rates remained consistently low after plateauing around 2011. It turns out that ordinary, law-abiding citizens absolutely can be trusted to “bear” arms in public, just like the plain text of the Constitution envisions. Hopefully, the Supreme Court soon will vindicate the tens of millions of American citizens currently deemed to have “insufficient cause” to exercise their constitutional rights. Heritage expert: Amy
Swearer
Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in 2 Texas Heartbeat Act Cases. Here Are the Top Takeaways. <[link removed]> – The outcome in the Nov. 1 cases will have little to no effect on the outcome in Dobbs v. Jackson Whole Women’s Health, set for oral argument on Dec. 1. If the Supreme Court decides to ditch 50 years of abortion precedent and overturn Roe v. Wade—and some conservatives have posited there are enough votes from the justices to make it happen—all state abortion lawmaking ability and all related regulations would be sent to the states for determination of what can and cannot be done within their own boundaries on this hot-button issue. But if the Supreme Court keeps Roe v. Wade alive, Texas may be out of luck, as the Texas Heartbeat Act restricts exercise of a constitutional right. The justices’ line of questioning seemed to betray their desire to let the abortion providers’ case move forward. In either case, the Texas Heartbeat Act—and not Roe v. Wade—might well be the law sent to history’s dustbin. Heritage experts: Sarah Perry <[link removed]> and Tom
Jipping <[link removed]>
9 Examples That Show Why Democrats’ Revised
Spending Bill Is Still Awful <[link removed]> – The so-called Build Back Better package would empower Congress, federal bureaucrats, and left-wing activists; reduce business investment that the economy badly needs; make inflation worse; and almost certainly add to our dangerously high national debt. Just because the bill uses gimmicks to appear smaller than it was before doesn’t change the fact that it would do great harm to America. Heritage expert: David
Ditch <[link removed]>
‘Our Broken Elections’: Who Broke Them and Why, and How to Fix Them <[link removed]> – Unfortunately, many on the left are attempting to make election fraud easier by fighting laws that require an ID, a commonsense reform overwhelmingly supported by the American public. They’ve pushed to get noncitizens and jailed inmates to vote, and they oppose all efforts by election officials to certify the citizenship of registered voters through federal databases and other means. And they’ve sued states that have tried to clean up their voter rolls by removing individuals who have died, moved away, or are registered
multiple times in several states. The changes that were rammed through for the 2020 “COVID” election, including switching to universal all-mail elections or dramatically increasing the use of absentee mail-in ballots, are unwise and dangerous. Absentee ballots are the tools of choice of vote thieves
because they are the only ballots cast outside the supervision of election officials and outside the observation of poll watchers, destroying the transparency of the election process that is a fundamental hallmark of a healthy democracy. Absentee or mail-in ballots also have a much higher rejection rate than votes cast in a polling place since there are
no election officials present in someone’s home to answer questions or resolve any problems a voter may be having. Heritage expert: Hans von
Spakovsky
Why Is Defense Authorization Bill
Languishing in Senate? <[link removed]> – Senate Democrats—seemingly taking their cues from the president—are allowing legislation central to protecting the country to languish without action. More than three months ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee passed its
version of the National Defense Authorization Act by a wide, bipartisan margin of 23 to 3. Like most truly bipartisan bills, the act has its shortcomings and its bright spots, and hopefully in a conference between the House and Senate, the bill can be further polished. There are problems with the proposed changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, women being included in the Selective Service, expansion of domestic violence restraining
orders, and a few other issues. But none of that can proceed until the Senate acts. Heritage expert: Frederico Bartels <[link removed]>
Philadelphia Charges Again Rebut ‘No Election Fraud’ Claims <[link removed]> – The case against Myers is still pending. What we don’t know yet is just how big this voter-fraud conspiracy was. One election official has pleaded guilty to stuffing ballot boxes in his precinct, and another has been charged with stuffing ballot boxes in three different precincts. Both cases involved fraud in multiple elections with bogus votes being submitted for local, state, and federal candidates. Myers obviously is
presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, as is Beren. But assuming all of these charges are true, the real question is whether Myers’ clients—the local, state, and federal candidates—had any knowledge of what he was doing or whether any of their campaign funds used to pay Myers for his political consultancy were used to pay these bribes. We will have to wait to find out the answers to
these questions. But for anyone who doubts that fraud occurs in our elections—particularly in Philadelphia—this should be a wake-up call to the seriousness of this problem. Heritage expert: Hans von
Spakovsky <[link removed]>
Premiums, Choices, Deductibles, Care Access, and Government Dependence Under the Affordable Care Act: 2021 State-by-State Review <[link removed]> – Since taking effect, the Affordable Care Act has more than doubled premiums in the individual market while cutting the number of participating insurers by
one-third. It also led insurers to hike plan deductibles and narrow their provider networks while at the same time significantly increasing the number of people dependent on government-run health care. To reverse those trends, Congress should build on promising improvements made possible by the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda and consider the Health Care Choices Proposal, which would lower costs, increase choices, and protect the
vulnerable. Heritage expert: Ed Haislmaier

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