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


 

<[link removed]>
<[link removed]>
Biden Pension Bailout Protects Union Elites—Not Workers and Retirees  <[link removed]>– This is a taxpayer-funded bailout of the worst kind. The Special Financial Assistance Program hands over tens of billions of dollars to the private union pension plan administrators—some of whom are the same people that ran those pensions into the ground—and even uses taxpayer money to keep paying their salaries. The fact that private-union pensions have been allowed to promise $757 billion more in benefits than they set aside to pay is reckless and should be illegal. Millions of people worked decades for what they thought would be a secure pension, but was instead a bill of goods that only propped up unions’ power. 96% of workers and retirees  <[link removed]>with multiemployer pensions are in plans that are less than 60% funded. It is only a matter of time before virtually all union pension plans fail, and the CBO has noted <[link removed]> that even the overwhelming majority of plans that receive bailouts will still become insolvent after 2051 when the taxpayer funds run out. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler  <[link removed]>
 
Close enough in education choice no longer good enough <[link removed]> – Those defending discrimination in education received a well-deserved comeuppance last month—from two quarters. The first, a lesson in constitutional law, matches nicely with the second, the creation of expansive opportunities for parents to choose how and where their children learn. This combination will define K-12 education for the next century. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling <[link removed]> in Carson v. Makin was the first blow to prejudice, this time against religious discrimination. The Court ruled in favor of Maine parents who have no assigned public school in their local areas and so chose religious schools for their children—presenting a challenge for special interest groups who oppose school choice. Heritage Expert: Jonathan Butcher <[link removed]>
 
Fact-Checking Clarence Thomas’ Fact-Checkers on Vaccines and Abortion <[link removed]> – The mainstream media has attempted to fact-check Justice Clarence Thomas, alleging that in a recent Supreme Court opinion <[link removed]>, he falsely claimed that COVID-19 vaccines in part were developed using aborted fetal cells. Immediately, many of these fact-checkers themselves were fact-checked <[link removed]> because they were wrong to say that Thomas himself made the claim. In his June 30 opinion dissenting from the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear a religious challenge to vaccine mandates, however, Thomas merely was citing a claim made by one of the parties to the case. But that’s only the start of what the fact-checkers got wrong. Here’s what happened. Heritage Expert: GianCarlo Canaparo <[link removed]>
 
Nuclear Energy Pact Advances US-Romania Partnership, but More Can Be Done <[link removed]> - For the
United States, which in recent years has not played a major role in the construction of new nuclear plants overseas, energy diplomacy through small modular reactors presents an opportunity to renew and reshape its role in advancing nuclear energy abroad and at home. From a broader geopolitical perspective, Washington’s greater engagement with Romania, a “stalwart NATO ally,” has become more important than ever. During his visit to that ally last October, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin underscored that the two nations have built a relationship that’s based on “mutual trust, respect, and the political will to advance our common defense objectives.” Heritage Expert: Anthony
Kim <[link removed]>
13 People, Outlets Censored by Twitter for Questioning Gender Ideology <[link removed]> - Of the many topics
the radical left has tried to make verboten, there is none more contentious than gender ideology. At the mere suggestion that a man cannot become a woman or that there are only two genders, the Twitter harpies take flight to seek and destroy their target. Twitter is all too happy to support the mob in its quest for domination. Here is a list of 13 individuals and outlets censored by Twitter for questioning gender ideology. Heritage Expert: Douglas Blair <[link removed]>
‘We’re Being Invaded,’ Local Texas Leaders Say as Border Crisis Worsens <[link removed]> -
The flood of illegal migrants coming across the border has gone from an emergency to an invasion, local Texas officials say. Leaders from Kinney County, which borders Mexico, and from several other Texas counties gathered Tuesday to declare they are under invasion. “If we keep our open border, we’re not going to have a nation,” Tully Shahan, a Kinney County judge, said at a press conference, held at the Kinney County Civic Center in Brackettville, Texas. Heritage Expert: Virginia Allen <[link removed]>
5 Monumental Cases That Highlighted the Supreme Court’s 2021-2022 Term <[link removed]> - The
Supreme Court has just finished what will likely go down as one of the most momentous and memorable terms in history. In addition to the court deciding many blockbuster cases from abortion to the limits of the power of the federal bureaucracy, Justice Stephen Breyer retired, now-Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in to replace him; there was an unprecedented leak of a draft opinion, protesters showed up at justices’ homes in several attempts to intimidate them, and an armed man made a serious threat
to one of the justice’s lives based—in part—on that leaked draft opinion. This term saw major victories for religious liberty and Second Amendment rights. There were also important decisions about the powers possessed by administrative agencies. Heritage Expert: Zack Smith <[link removed]>

-