Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview. 



Justice Breyer is retiring from the Supreme Court. What’s next? <[link removed]> – Breyer’s announcement will allow him to participate in all the Court’s cases this term, including cases involving
abortion, the 2ndAmendment, and racial preferences. This gives President Biden ample time to vet his eventual nominee and, assuming he announces his nominee as soon as the term ends, give the Senate (and its slim Democratic majority) enough time to confirm a successor before the Court’s term begins again in October and before midterms. As is the case with all Supreme Court confirmations, the confirmation process is likely to be difficult. This might give a slight edge to Judge Jackson Brown, since she has been through that process twice before including last year when she was elevated from the district court to the appellate court. Heritage Expert: John Malcolm <[link removed]> and Thomas Jipping <[link removed]>
 
Federal Reserve indicates interest rate hike arriving in March <[link removed]> – The Federal Reserve appears to be acknowledging that it is partly to blame for the highest inflation in almost 40 years. Even as government policies suppressed supply of goods and services throughout the pandemic, governments
stimulated demand by printing and distributing massive amounts of borrowed money. The Federal Reserve “financed” this spending by creating more dollars to purchase over $3.2 trillion of federal debt. Our central bank also nearly doubled its stake in mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), purchasing more than $1.2 trillion and pumping up housing costs in the process. Meanwhile, President Biden claims his “Build Back Better” tax-and-spend package will “transform the economy.” In reality, it represents an embrace of radical, socialist policies that will exacerbate increases in prices, labor shortages and supply chain disruptions Americans are facing. Heritage Expert: Joel Griffith <[link removed]>
 
Florida’s Governor Makes Smart Proposal to Go After Election Crimes. So Corrupt Media Attacks Him <[link removed]>. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a good idea with his budget proposal <[link removed]> to create an “election crimes agency” that would “investigate election crimes and irregularities and make referrals for further legal action
directly to a statewide prosecutor.” Ensuring the integrity of elections and protecting voters from fraud is simply too important to leave the investigation and prosecution of crimes that subvert elections to the whims of local prosecutors. All too often, they lack the training or aren’t interested in pursuing such cases. This problem has gotten worse with the election of rogue prosecutors <[link removed]> with funding from the radical left <[link removed]>, such as Monique Worrell and predecessor Aramis Ayala in Florida’s Orange and
Osceola counties. Such prosecutors  aren’t interested in actively prosecuting many serious crimes, including election fraud. It should come as no surprise that the DeSantis proposal is drawing ire from left-wing journalists and activists, who repeat their theme that election fraud isn’t a serious issue and doesn’t merit any sort of
concentrated attention and mitigating effort. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]>
 
Amid COVID-19’s Toll on Schools, Now More Than Ever, Students Need More Education
Options <[link removed]> – Reports from many districts say that full-time virtual learning regardless of a child’s learning needs, have resulted in steep learning losses. The school closures that teacher unions either caused or applauded are just some of the reasons students need more learning options today. Fortunately, state lawmakers are already moving on the issue. South Carolina lawmakers are considering an education savings account <[link removed]> proposal, similar to the accounts available to students in neighboring North Carolina <[link removed]> and in nearby Tennessee <[link removed]>. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]>
 
Fire Public Broadcasting <[link removed]> – Public broadcasting ceased long ago to reflect the views of the American public. Today, in fact, it serves coastal elites who disdain the public. Its most recent controversy is but the latest reminder of its insufferable toadyism toward Acela-corridor views — and why it should finally be weaned from the taxpayer’s dime. Yes, I know that NPR <[link removed]> and PBS <[link removed]> claim that the percentage of their budget that is borne by the taxpayer — grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and “federal agencies and departments” — is in the single digits. That is misleading, as it fails to account for local radio affiliates that get gobs of taxpayer money. But let’s take them at their word. In that case, it shouldn’t be hit so hard if we tell public broadcasting to just rely on its membership model and sponsors. Asking conservative Americans to contribute to public broadcasting’s coffers is, on the other hand, a form of despotism. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.” The dead white man from Virginia may no longer be quoted by the public broadcasters, but he still wrote the Declaration of Independence. Heritage Expert: Mike Gonzalez <[link removed]>
 
Meet 1.6 Million ‘Redditors’ Who Want to Abolish
Work <[link removed]> – Something called “r/antiwork” is one of the most active forums on the popular social media site Reddit. It promotes itself as “a subreddit for those who want to end
work <[link removed]>,” yet tries to argue it isn’t against jobs or labor. But while the forum seeks to veil itself with semantic word games, its Marxist leanings <[link removed]> quickly become apparent. Further down, the FAQ section suggests that the subreddit isn’t against work per se, just against work under capitalism. This is classic Marxism <[link removed]>, aiming the people’s enmity towards capitalism and promising a better world should the economic philosophy disappear. As Karl Marx wrote in “Das Kapital,” “Capital is dead labor, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.” Heritage Expert: Douglas Blair <[link removed]>
 
Welfare for the rich foundations <[link removed]> – Our new study illuminates exactly how taxpayers are forced to pay more than the foundations of billionaires through the near-inscrutable process by which universities bill out the overhead—or indirect—costs of academic
research. But far too often, the research they commission is clearly designed to support the private foundations’ left-leaning agendas. Congress should reduce federal research spending and taxes so that more money is invested in organizations that compete in the marketplace of innovation—not the marketplace of writing grant applications. Heritage
Expert: Jay Greene <[link removed]>
 
San Jose passes first-of-its-kind gun control measure <[link removed]> – California already has plenty of options to disarm the truly dangerous and hold people accountable for criminal or negligent actions. San Jose’s gun insurance mandate imposes one more substantial burden on lawful gun owners without having the capacity to save a single life or even affect financial outcomes for most gun violence victims. Worse, the new gun ownership tax wrongly places the financial burden of criminal gun use on the shoulders of law-abiding citizens who choose to lawfully exercise their constitutional rights. If San Jose wants to take gun violence seriously, it can start by tracking down its share of California’s 23,000 residents who are known to illegally possess firearms, and by replacing its many rogue prosecutors who refuse to enforce existing laws.  Heritage Expert: Amy Swearer <[link removed]>

-