Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Manchin-Schumer-Biden Taxes Would Hit Both Rich and Poor Americans <[link removed]> - President Joe Biden promised
on Thursday that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act wouldn’t raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 a year. But, in fact, the bill would increase taxes collected from the American people by more than half a trillion dollars, affecting both rich and poor alike. The massive tax and spending bill—negotiated by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.—centers around green energy subsidies and regulations, drug pricing regulations, an extension of expanded Obamacare subsidies, added funding to the IRS for audits and enforcement, and new taxes. Heritage Expert: Preston Brashers <[link removed]>
The UK Cracks Down While the US Doubles Down on ‘Gender Affirming’ Care <[link removed]> - American lawmakers need to follow the lead of another country and
put the brakes on “gender affirming” procedures for children. Health officials in the United Kingdom are acknowledging the damage being done by pushing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones onto children at exactly the same time as the Biden administration is demanding that education and health professionals endorse these “affirmative” treatments or face penalties. The contrast between the direction of gender-related policies in the United States and the U.K. could not be starker. The U.K. is shuttering its sole “gender clinic,” Tavistock, following a comprehensive review, while the U.S. is opening scores of new gender clinics, following the refusal of the American Academy of Pediatrics to conduct a review of the evidence. Heritage Expert: Jay Greene <[link removed]>
Now is not the time for South Korea to go nuclear <[link removed]> - Polls show that South Koreans increasingly favor both bringing U.S. tactical nuclear weapons back to the Korean Peninsula and developing an indigenous nuclear capability. But the shift in public opinion seems grounded more on national prestige than strategic considerations. The newly inaugurated Yoon Suk Yeol administration, like its predecessors, has declared it will not pursue an indigenous nuclear weapons program. But senior officials privately express concern about the U.S. commitment to defend South Korea. Still, there has been little discussion of the details of either option. Heritage Expert: Bruce Klingner <[link removed]>
Kansas Voters Reject Removing ‘Right’ to Abortion From State Constitution <[link removed]> - The voters of Kansas have decided: Their state constitution
does provide a right to abortion. “It’s a great day for Kansans,” state Sen. Dinah Sykes, a Democrat, told The Daily Signal after voters rejected a pro-life ballot question in results late Tuesday night. “I think we just need everyone who was engaged with this to stay engaged and we can show that we can do great things,” Sykes said as a pro-abortion crowd celebrated at a watch party in Overland Park, just over 60 miles east of the state capital of Topeka. Heritage Expert: Virginia Allen <[link removed]>
With Ground War Bogged Down, Ukraine Should Turn to Sea to Speed Russia’s Defeat <[link removed]> - The war in the Donbas region
between Russia and Ukraine is settling down to a series of small attacks and tenacious defenses. Deliveries of U.S. and allied military equipment are key but not in the quantities necessary to make them decisive. All this points to the conflict taking the form of a war of attrition. This plays to Russia’s strengths, and the coming winter will test allies’ resolve to sustain the flow of critical munitions and economic sanctions while restrictions on Russian oil and gas will chill European industrial output and homes. Heritage Expert: Brent Sadler <[link removed]>
The Latest Federal Takeover of Elections Violates Federal Law <[link removed]> - Democrats haven’t stopped trying to take over elections, they just have new tactics to do
so under voters’ noses. Employees throughout the federal government who are carrying out President Joe Biden’s executive order directing them to get involved in state elections are likely all violating the Anti-Deficiency Act, besides interfering in the election process and using federal resources in what seems to be a get-out-the-vote operation for the party in power in the White House. And the administration is doing everything it can to hide its activities in violation of the federal open records law. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]>
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