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Biden’s Explicit Promise To Defend Taiwan Is Bad Policy - During his visit to Japan, when asked whether the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily, President Joe Biden responded, “Yes, that’s the commitment we made.” He said a very similar thing involving this “commitment” during a CNN town hall last October. The president is mistaken in two ways. One, the U.S. has no such “commitment.” And two, making such a promise is unnecessary and unwise. Heritage Experts: Walter Lohman and Dean Cheng
Job Openings Remain at Record High, Hurting Millions of Americans - While employers are responding to worker shortages by raising wages and offering new benefits, most Americans workers are actually poorer. In real terms, the average worker has lost $1,800 in earnings over the past year. Unfilled job openings are particularly troubling heading into the summer season when many businesses count on increased employment, especially among young Americans. The outlook for this age group is particularly troubling, as employment among workers ages 20 to 24 has declined by more than any other age group, with these young workers accounting for 75% of the net decline in employment since February 2020. Heritage Experts: Rachel Greszler and Joel Griffith
DOJ asks federal appeals court to reverse order lifting travel mask mandate -The courts have repeatedly struck down the Biden administration’s unlawful COVID-19 mandates and restrictions. The federal courts have enjoined the CDC eviction moratorium, the OSHA vaccine mandate, and the public transportation mask mandate. The Justice Department’s decision to appeal the mask mandate ruling is odd since the Transportation Safety Administration did not seek to renew it when it expired on May 3. TSA apparently realizes what CDC and the Justice Department do not: the executive branch has no legal authority to require passengers on trains, planes and buses to wear masks. Heritage Expert: Doug Badger
The Xinjiang Police Files Should Prompt Action Against Uyghur Genocide - It is surreal to have photographic evidence of the victims of Beijing’s genocidal campaign—long known to those of us who work in this field. We have listened to the testimony of survivors and analyzed the satellite imagery of camps uncovered by journalists and experts. We didn’t need convincing. We had no doubt the atrocities were happening. But these photos offer something new. Gazing at those photos, it is impossible to deny the humanity of each and every Uyghur. And it is impossible to deny what the CCP is doing to them today. Heritage Expert: Olivia Enos
The Numbers Are In: Trump’s Tax Cuts Paid Off - The Congressional Budget Office’s May 2022 forecast shows that the government now expects to bring in more tax revenue in the decade following the 2017 “Trump tax cuts” than it had projected prior to the December 2017 passage of tax reform. It doesn’t look like the tax cuts—which government scorekeepers said at the time would cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years—have been anything like the fiscal nightmare that some on the left would lead us to believe. Heritage Expert: Preston Brashers
U.S. Navy’s edge on China dwindling and lawmakers don’t care - The Navy’s advantage over our biggest military adversary, China, is dwindling rapidly. Yet some House leaders overseeing national defense don’t seem too worried about it. Earlier this month, the chairs of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee and the House Armed Services Committee followed up with a misleading, albeit reassuring, qualitative comparison of the two navies with a comforting assurance that our allies will help fight our wars to safeguard our interests. Spoiler alert: They never have, nor will they ever. Heritage Expert: Brent Sadler
There’s Nothing Equitable in Union Pension Bailouts Unmentioned in Biden’s ‘Equity’ Report - It goes without saying that bailing out bad actors is not equitable. So, it’s no wonder the Biden administration left any mention of a nearly $100 billion selective bailout of private union pension plans out of its “Advancing Equity Through the American Rescue Plan” report. To date, 37 multiemployer pension plans have requested between $4 million and $35 billion each, with 25 of those plans already approved to receive $6.5 billion of an estimated $97 billion in taxpayer money. These never-before in U.S. history, no-strings-attached taxpayer bailouts of private multiemployer or union pension plans are part of the American Rescue Plan—despite the fact that this decadeslong problem has nothing to do with COVID-19. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler
OPRF to implement race-based grading system in 2022-23 school year—No parent wants their child stereotyped and judged based on the color of their skin instead of their choices and behaviors. The surveys we reviewed in our volume The Critical Classroom demonstrate that parents reject racial bias. This school proposal rejects the core American ideals of equality under the law and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says individuals cannot be discriminated against based on their race or ethnicity. My book, Splintered: Critical Race Theory and the Progressive War on Truth, explains the importance of this law and how the provision stands in stark contrast to critical race theory's victimhood culture. School officials must judge children based on their hard work and merit and not adopt lower academic standards, which will leave students unprepared for school and life. Heritage Experts: Jonathan Butcher and Mike Gonzalez
Health Care: Time to Go on Offense—The Biden Administration’s health care policies are failing Americans. Sixteen months into the Administration, the three major government health programs—Obamacare, Medicaid, and Medicare—are all worse off today than before. The Administration’s policy solutions do little to address the root causes and in many ways make matters worse. The only effective way to resolve persistent problems in health care is to leverage the power of personal choice and market competition. Congress should lay the groundwork for a more patient-centered, market-based health care system. This system would give individuals and families greater control of their health care dollars and decisions while also reducing costs and improving quality through increased competition and transparency in the health care sector. Heritage Expert: Nina Owcharenko Schaefer