Fellow Conservative,

Good Saturday Morning! This week, congressional leadership has continued negotiations with the administration to iron out a budget deal around both the debt limit and spending levels. Unfortunately, liberals in the House refuse to cut spending, accept any offsets for new spending or provide meaningful reforms to our debt ceiling.

> > > Are you a member of our Sentinel Program? Sign up today to be a part of a 20,000+ army of conservative activists across the country. When you sign up, you’ll be able to join us for a Sentinel-exclusive event in Austin, Texas on August 17. You’ll hear from policy experts, political leaders, and figures in the conservative movement.

Both the Trump administration and congressional leaders are still working out a budget deal. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are going back and forth on hiking up the debt ceiling and increasing spending. The administration is negotiating a deal that includes $1.1 trillion in options to offset spending increases, but Pelosi called this a “non-starter” on Friday. Liberals in the House are continuing down a dangerous path of unwarranted spending by pushing against spending reforms, which will continue to put our fiscal house in jeopardy.

> > > Still with us? If you need a refresher, check out our toolkit to get caught up on the debt ceiling and spending fight.

Heritage Action is lobbying against a deal that raises the debt ceiling without necessary spending reforms. The American people deserve true accountability, and our economy can no longer be the victim of politics, bickering or reckless increases in spending. We must hold our leaders accountable to their promise to cut spending. Call your member to voice your concerns over a spending bill that would increase the debt ceiling without necessary spending reforms.

Last Thursday, the Democrat controlled House voted to pass the Raise the Wage Act, which would increase the federal minimum wage to $15/hour over the next six years. If this legislation becomes law, it would put up to 3.7 million Americans out of work, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

> > > Read our factsheet on a $15 federal minimum wage here.

This legislation would ultimately erase the economic gains largely created by pro-growth policies like tax cuts and deregulation. With this bill, House Democrats are more concerned with optics than they are about creating genuine financial stability.

Despite its passage in the House, it is unlikely to be taken up in the Senate.

Jessica Anderson, vice president of Heritage Action, and Lindsey Burke, director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, co-wrote an op-ed detailing the hypocrisy of teachers unions and their almost unanimous support of the Left-wing agenda and politicians. The most recent example being their full-throated endorsement of the abortion industry.

They write: “The NEA has long pretended to be non-ideological while taking teachers’ hard-earned money to support liberal politicians and enforce a leftist agenda, inside and outside the classroom. Now that the union explicitly promotes abortion and dubious “social justice” ideology, it’s time for teachers, parents and policymakers to recognize the true nature of these deep-pocketed special interest groups and fight back.” Read more here.

That’s it for this week, but don’t forget to call your members of Congress asking that they reject the deal to raise the debt limit without reforms to spending.

Thank you for your commitment to conservatism,
Tim, Jessica and the Heritage Action team

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