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Workers in These States Would Pay Most Under Biden’s New Business Tax <[link removed]> – Taxpayers across the income spectrum <[link removed]> should expect they ultimately will pay for the left’s deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act <[link removed]>. But the new taxes would fall more heavily across specific industries and parts of the country. The largest tax in the bill, the new “book minimum tax <[link removed]>,” accounts for $222 billion <[link removed]> of the more than half a trillion dollars of expected new tax collections. The book minimum tax would hit manufacturing disproportionately. Due to their states’ large manufacturing bases, workers in Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, and Kentucky would endure the biggest economic hit from the new tax. Manufacturing accounts <[link removed]> for about 26.6%,
18.9%, 18%, 17.1%, and 17.4% of the economies of these five states, respectively. Heritage Experts: Joel Griffith <[link removed]>, Preston Brashers <[link removed]>, and EJ Antoni  <[link removed]>
 
GOP Lawmakers Vow Probe of FBI Raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago <[link removed]> - Through myriad actions (abusing FISA and not vetting the Steele Dossier; not thoroughly investigating Hillary Clinton for possessing/distributing classified information from a private server; whistleblower allegations that high-ranking FBI officials tried to shut down the Hunter Biden laptop investigation; labelling parents who protest COVID
restrictions and CRT in schools as potential “domestic terrorists”; and more), the FBI has left itself vulnerable to the charge that higher-ups within the FBI are acting in a partisan manner to reward their political allies (Democrats) and punish their political enemies (Republicans). This is a very frightening and dangerous thing since the FBI is the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country, and the public perception that the FBI is acting in a purely partisan manner undermines respect for the rule of law. If/when the Republicans take control of either house of Congress, they should conduct a thorough series of oversight hearings to uncover whether political bias now infects the FBI. Congress should demand answers, and not accept stonewalling “nothing to see here, just trust us” answers. Heritage Experts: John Malcolm <[link removed]> and Cully Stimson <[link removed]>
 
Prepare to pay more under the so-called Inflation Reduction
Act <[link removed]> - here’s nothing to reduce gasoline and electricity bills. Nothing to increase American energy production. Nothing to spur innovation. Instead, it will increase taxes on average Americans, exacerbate inflation, hike prescription drug prices and swell federal debts. Why? Here’s a sampling of what’s in that $369 billion: $500 million condoning President Joe Biden’s abuse of the Defense Production Act to purchase things like heat pumps that people don’t want. $750 million to hire more bureaucrats for the Departments of Interior and Energy. $9 billion apiece for climate agricultural programs (read: diets to reduce bloating in cows) and home electrification (because regulators are making it harder for homes to have natural gas heating and appliances). $27 billion for state and local governments to procure zero-emissions technology. $60 billion for “environmental justice,” which means anything from electric Post Office trucks to whatever “educational program” a climate extremist can imagine. Heritage Expert: Katie Tubb <[link removed]>
Measuring Biden immigration policy by the ‘but for’
standard <[link removed]> - Applying the "but for" test, it is credible to argue that, absent Mayorkas’s disembowelment of Customs and Border Protection's and Immigrant and Customs Enforcement's morale, purpose, and
resources, Pascual-Reyes might not have been able to sneak back into our country to murder a mother and her son and torture her daughter. What is evident after a year and a half of Biden and Mayorkas’s dereliction of duty is that, not only is ICE not deporting "those who do not [in the opinion of Mayorkas] pose a threat," it is failing even to find and deport illegal immigrants like Pascual-Reyes and Fuentes "who are a threat to our national security, public safety, and border security." But for the deliberate decision of
Mayorkas not to secure our southern border, it is possible that one 10-year-old girl in Ohio would not have been raped and impregnated by her mother’s illegal immigrant boyfriend. It’s possible that 53 immigrants would not have been baked alive in a trailer. It’s possible that tens of thousands more crimes perpetrated by people illegally present in the country could have been avoided. These are, to a greater or lesser extent, preventable crimes. "But for" the Biden administration’s open borders policy, all Americans would be safer. Heritage Expert: Simon Hankinson <[link removed]>
Europe Needs to Go All in on Diversifying Oil and Gas <[link removed]> – The United States and the European Union should also move quickly to strengthen ties in the gas sector. This would guarantee a further reduction in dependence on Russian gas, alleviating the threat of Moscow's geopolitical pressure. Further, the White House should push to strengthen the southern flank of NATO. Europe will need to get additional fuel from Africa (including Libya), the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. It makes sense to have a more secure and defensible flank for these energy corridors. It would also serve as a check on Russia, whose influence in the eastern part of Libya has been deeply destabilizing. Finally, more pipelines, such as the proposed EastMed gas pipeline <[link removed]>, would be helpful. EastMed would connect Israel to Cyprus, Greece, and Italy; Jerusalem and Rome support the project. A Trans-Caspian pipeline could also help deliver additional energy to Europe. The Three Seas Initiative should include traditional gas and oil projects to help speed the process of improving European energy security. Heritage Expert: James Carafano <[link removed]>
Census errors will distort elections, funding for next
decade <[link removed]> - In a shocking report, the U.S. Census Bureau <[link removed]> recently admitted that it overcounted the populations of eight states and undercounted the populations of six states in the 2020 census. All but one of the states overcounted is a blue state, and all but one of the undercounted states is red. Those costly errors will distort congressional representation and the Electoral College. It means that when the Census Bureau reapportioned the House of Representatives, Florida was cheated out of two additional seats it should have gotten; Texas missed out on another seat; Minnesota and Rhode Island each kept a representative they shouldn’t have, and Colorado was awarded a new member of the House it didn’t deserve. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]> 
Biden Administration Extends Attack
on the Free Market in New Rules on Student Debt  <[link removed]>- Instead of addressing the college debt crisis, the Biden administration has proposed new rules <[link removed]> designed to punish for-profit colleges and stick taxpayers with billions of dollars in debt forgiveness. Taxpayers deserve accountability from the Department of Education, not carrots and sticks that interfere with a free marketplace for higher education. The rules, proposed last month, do two things. They make it easier for students to get out of their contracted obligations, enabling more mistakes and opening the door to fraud. And they crack down on proprietary colleges, even while claiming the new rules apply to all institutions. The cost to taxpayers will be in the tens of billions of dollars. But that’s small change compared with the rest of the nearly $2 trillion in student debt that the rules do not affect. Heritage Expert: Adam Kissel <[link removed]>
 
Biden Executive Order on Abortion Access Is Misleading and Full
of Misinformation  <[link removed]>– Thus, despite the anticipation of the executive order, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will likely report back that states wanting to expand access to abortion
for women enrolled in Medicaid outside of their state can only do so by using their own state dollars with no federal match.  States like Oregon <[link removed]>, California <[link removed]>, and Washington <[link removed]> already appear willing to divert state taxpayer dollars away from critical state priorities to fund abortions for out-of-state residents. When the Biden administration refers to “reproductive health care,” it means abortion <[link removed]>. Period. The public should not be confused that it means anything else. It hopes the executive order will miraculously present a new pathway to fund abortions. Yet, under any of the scenarios, such action would be incredible. For policymakers, this only further underscores the importance of protecting—and strengthening <[link removed]>—the Hyde Amendment. Heritage Expert: Nina Owcharenko Schaefer <[link removed]>
The Smithsonian’s Latino exhibit is a disgrace <[link removed]> – Congress – and especially the growing number of Hispanic Republicans in Congress – should refuse to spend taxpayer dollars on this phony narrative. Because the National Museum of the American Latino is already authorized, Congress would have to explicitly specify in the appropriations law that none of the funds could be used for the museum. America has suffered enough from concocted narratives of racial and ethnic division and oppression. The price we pay is real and paid too often in blood. American Hispanics have a rich history, sometimes of oppression, frequently of struggle and often of triumph — just like every other people who ever came to American shores and chased the American dream. We should refuse to allow our history and our stories to be subordinated and falsified on behalf of a radical-left agenda like the one the Smithsonian is pushing. Heritage Expert: Mike Gonzalez <[link removed]>

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