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Biden nears 100 executive orders estimated to cost taxpayers almost $1.5 trillion – President Biden's executive actions have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion so far and that's taking into account the recent student loan executive action, which could cost up to $1 trillion. But earlier this year, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office produced an analysis showing that less than ten of Biden's earlier executive actions cost taxpayers already more than $500 billion, so it could be up to $1.5 trillion in cost to taxpayers. This is just on executive actions, not legislation going through Congress and being signed into law and being debated, it's just pure executive actions taken by Biden costing taxpayers up to $1.5 trillion. The impact on inflation would be significant because all of this new spending that the executive branch is doing, that Biden is doing by fiat. That means more money getting pumped out into the economy that's being financed by the Federal Reserve, which means the printing presses are on, which means that it adds to the inflationary pressures. Heritage Expert: Matthew Dickerson
Sanctuary cities, border crisis costs, and a rude awakening – This is typical of many on the left. They push for a supposedly compassionate, globalist utopia. Then, when reality sets in and their pie-in-the-sky agenda comes crashing down, they cry for help and bailouts. It has never been clearer: The border crisis is not just a border town issue. We face an unprecedented, all-encompassing national security, fentanyl, crime and economic crisis that is seeping into every single state and community across the nation. The Biden administration and the left must reverse their agenda. Heritage Expert: Erin Dwinell
‘Zuckerbucks 2.0’: Lawmakers Eye Private Money to Get Out Vote in Milwaukee Elections – Two dozen states banned the use of private money to finance election operations in response to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pouring part of his $400 million fortune into the 2020 election process. Wisconsin wasn’t one of them. Now, an initiative to boost voter turnout called Milwaukee Votes 2022 involves some private partners, including a Democrat-aligned political communications company known as GPS Impact. A spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson told The Daily Signal that GPS Impact is “one of several” partners in the initiative, which Johnson announced this week at a press conference. Heritage Expert: Fred Lucas
Youngkin administration overhauls Virginia transgender student policies – What Gov. Youngkin has put in place is a good first start. Despite the hysteria from leftist activists and the media, this modest policy requires parents to have the right to make decisions with respect to their children. We’ve seen far too many school systems around the country--such as in New Jersey and Kansas and California—order teachers to hide information about students from their families. Parents and families have a right to know what is happening with their children in school, especially concerning health information. Youngkin’s model policy contains provisions that would protect minor-aged children from radical gender ideology and offers ways in which schools can adopt policies that offer reasonable accommodations for young people who are confused about their sex, while keeping parents informed and involved. Heritage Experts: Jay Richards and Jonathan Butcher
It’s Time to Roll Back Campus DEI Bureaucracies – State legislators should also move to prohibit colleges from requiring job applicants to submit “diversity statements.” These statements require would-be employees to demonstrate their faith to the reigning creed. The modern incarnation of the loyalty oaths of the ’50s, mandatory diversity statements are proliferating on campuses and now accompany something like one in five academics positions. Such requirements strengthen the hold of the DEI officialdom, allowing universities to discriminate on political grounds when hiring faculty and staff. At private institutions, potential responses are less straightforward. Congress could certainly adopt provisions related to higher-education research or funding which limit the amount of money that eligible institutions can spend on DEI staff. Advocacy groups and think tanks should do their best to expose the amounts spent on DEI and to expose examples of pernicious impact. Heritage Expert: Jay Greene
Biden’s energy plan encourages global instability – When America is producing affordable and abundant energy not only for herself but for her allies around the globe, then Columbia’s enemies think twice before stepping out of line. American energy dominance is not only pro-American but pro-peace. Inexpensive American energy is a key pillar to geopolitical stability. But that pillar was knocked down and the subsequent stability rent asunder by President Joe Biden’s “green” energy boondoggles and anti-energy policies. Canceling pipelines, imposing additional taxes and regulations on coal, oil, and natural gas, promising to end these three industries in just a few years, and stonewalling new leases for drilling are just some of the ways he has hamstrung one of America’s greatest strategic assets. America cannot even keep the lights on here at home, with multiple states experiencing severe energy shortages in recent days. That projects weakness, not strength. Heritage Expert: EJ Antoni
What the Constitution Can Give Us – American conservatism faces an array of difficult if not intractable challenges and problems. Progressives dictate revolutionary claims about gender, race, economics, and policing while dismissing American history as just racism, sexism, and homophobia. Moreover, they control the commanding heights of culture, education, social media, influential corporations, and the federal bureaucracy. Conservatives still win elections about half the time, but confront incredible obstacles in governing because of this political, cultural, and educational imbalance of power. To meet these challenges, American conservatism must first define what precisely it wants to conserve. That project must, ultimately, begin with the Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution and the legal, political, and moral order these documents protect, guarantee, and depend on Heritage Expert: Richard Reinsch
Iowa in the middle of the pack on new Education Freedom Report Card – Among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., the Heritage Foundation’s newly released 2022 Education Freedom Report Card ranks a middling 22nd in education freedom. Although Iowa comes in ninth in terms of school choice on the Heritage Report Card, the current options are limited in scope, and pale in comparison to those available in states like Arizona, which offers a universal education savings account program to all families. In Iowa, low- and middle-income families have access to the School Tuition Organization Tax Credit, which provides more than 12,000 students scholarships to attend 143 private schools of choice. But the benefit is modest, providing an average scholarship of just $1,400, or 12% public school per-pupil spending. Heritage Expert: Lindsey Burke
Chinese F-35 Part Shows the Pentagon Needs to Fix its Supply Chain Visibility Problem – Increasing supply chain visibility is no small challenge. Private companies are often unwilling to share their proprietary business data with the government, and supplier relationships are constantly changing anyway, making it hard to capture a complete supply chain picture. However, advances in technologies like blockchain and artificial intelligence make gathering, updating, and monitoring supply chain information on this scale more feasible than it was even a few years ago. The Defense Department has a responsibility to explore how these technologies could fix its supply chain blind spots, and Congress should use its powers to make sure this happens. Defense supply chain visibility will be challenging, but it is now possible. Given our high-stakes strategic competition with China, pursuing it is more important than ever. Heritage Expert: Maiya Clark