Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.
Why Biden’s Student Loan Bailout Is Unfair <[link removed]> – The administration has stuck its thumb in the eye of the millions of working Americans who don’t hold college degrees but who will bear the cost of this federal largesse <[link removed]>. The administration is also rubbing salt in the wounds of those responsible borrowers who worked their way through college to avoid debt or who worked hard to pay off their college debt after graduating. The millions of Americans who graduated from college, lived modestly, and did without fancy dinners and vacations so they could diligently repay the debt they agreed to pay back are surely wondering why they will get no such rebate. Those responsible Americans are left standing there, holding the bill like chumps. They have good reason to feel insulted. So should the Americans who eschewed college altogether because they thought it was a bad value proposition—which the Biden administration has tacitly admitted through the very move to cancel debt. The plan is an unfair <[link removed]>handout to Big Education, which will gladly keep
raising tuition, and a politically favorable constituency of relatively wealthy, more highly educated voters. Heritage Experts: Lindsey Burke <[link removed]> and Adam Kissel <[link removed]>
Biden's Student Debt Cancellation Robs Hard-Working Americans, Will Make Inflation Even Worse <[link removed]> – Working and middle-class Americans who chose not to go to college, or who responsibly paid off their student loans, should not be forced to pay off the loans of others. Biden’s loan cancellation scheme forces them to do just that. It will rob working Americans in order to pay off the college degrees of individuals who are statistically more likely to earn more in their lifetimes simply by possessing a college degree. This is radically unfair, and it’s the epitome of putting special interests ahead of working Americans. We also know from the last 34 months of ‘pausing’ student loan repayments that this type of policy is inflationary. Cancelling $10,000 in student loan debt per borrower contradicts the so-called Inflation Reduction Act and will cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Heritage Experts: Lindsey Burke <[link removed]>, Adam Kissel <[link removed]>, and EJ Antoni <[link removed]>
The State of Play in Ukraine 6 Months After Russia Invaded <[link removed]> – Wednesday,
Aug. 24, marks six months since the start of the Russian-Ukraine war. It is also, by a strange twist, Ukraine’s Independence Day, when Ukrainians celebrate their independence from the former Soviet Union. The ultimate outcome is still obscure. But what is unfortunately quite clear is that this tragedy still has several acts to play out and that thousands more will die, including innocent Ukrainian civilians. A stable Europe helps give America access to other parts of the world, denies critical strategic space for the malicious actions of Russia and China, and delivers strategic partners that contribute to common defense and security. For those reasons, it is in the national interest <[link removed]> of the U.S. that Russia fail in its illegal war. Heritage Expert: Thomas Spoehr <[link removed]>
The Constitution isn’t broken, but law professors are a broken record <[link removed]> – The professors’ criticism of the Constitution is one that is, by now, a cliché on the political left: It is “undemocratic.” (We confess to being surprised that they didn’t say it was also “fascist” and “racist,” but perhaps those
essays are in the works.) And yet, the professors seem to fear true democracy. They want to unshackle Congress from the restraining influence of judicial review, but that isn’t the most democratic option on the table. Heritage Experts: Paul Larkin <[link removed]> and GianCarlo Canaparo <[link removed]>
Voter Fraud Cases Continue to Occur, Putting Fair and Free Elections in Jeopardy <[link removed]> - Vulnerabilities to fair and free elections will continue, and perhaps even get worse, if states don’t prioritize efforts to secure the integrity <[link removed]> of their elections. These cases demonstrate some of the myriad ways fraudsters can take advantage of vulnerabilities that occur within the electoral process. Since maintaining election integrity is an issue that affects all citizens, state legislatures should respond by taking reasonable steps to protect the votes of the American people. Americans deserve to have an electoral process that they can trust. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]>
Highway Robbery: Biden Administration Uses Infrastructure Spending for Partisan Political
Benefit <[link removed]> - Politicizing infrastructure is just the latest in a long line of ways that the left has taken advantage of opportunities presented to them when Republicans go along with expansions of the
federal government. The left has mastered the art of playing the long game. For more than a century, the progressive movement has relentlessly sought to centralize power and control in Washington. Time and again, compromises made by the center-right for the sake of short-term political considerations have led to permanent new programs and bureaucracies for the left to take advantage of. Some Republicans were willing to give win after win to the left in infrastructure negotiations for the sake of getting more “free” highway money for their states. Others have been willing to go along with the return of pork earmarks <[link removed]>, or with trading modest increases to defense spending in exchange for huge increases <[link removed]> to nondefense spending, in the annual appropriations process. The nation is in the grip of inflation fueled by <[link removed]> federal spending and is rapidly heading towards bankruptcy <[link removed]>. Heritage Expert: David Ditch <[link removed]>
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