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Biden’s inflation quickly making Americans poorer <[link removed]>
– The sailor’s lament “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink,” is reminiscent of how most Americans must feel today about their cost of living. For instance, there are plenty of homes and apartments across the country, but good luck finding one that’s affordable — inflation and interest rate hikes under President Biden have made that all but impossible. Those two factors have made the average worker in America $4,200 poorer on an annual basis. While White House officials are quick to cite the recent rapid increase in nominal wages, they somehow always leave out the fact that prices have risen even faster than wages, so that the average American’s larger paycheck actually buys less than it did before. The decline in real (adjusted for inflation) wages amounts to $3,000 per year. Heritage Experts: EJ
Antoni <[link removed]> and Peter St. Onge <[link removed]> 
 
The Biden-⁠Harris Administration’s National Security Strategy <[link removed]> - The President’s National Security Strategy—meant to guide the administration’s efforts to counter pressing external dangers—is comprised of a litany of the administration’s accomplishments and a recitation of progressive domestic issues, packaged as threats to the security of the United States. Within the strategy’s 47 pages, only four deal with China and Russia, and but one----a mere 830 words of 23,000---describes the role of the U.S. military to counter external threats. The other 42 pages are devoted to such topics as the challenges from climate change, pandemics, food insecurity, and domestic terrorism. If Americans were looking for a National Security Strategy capable of guiding the nation’s security efforts for the next two years, they will be sorely disappointed by this document. The absence of detail of how the Biden Administration will counter adversaries in cyberspace is a perfect exemplar of the overall deficiencies of the strategy. The strategy is maddeningly vague on the topic of how the U.S. will work with states, localities, and the private sector to deter malicious actors in cyberspace, nor is there any discussion of consideration of changes to NSPM-13 and its effectiveness in allowing Cyber Command to respond and persistently engage adversaries. Heritage Experts: Dustin
Carmack <[link removed]> and Erin Walsh <[link removed]> 
 
17th Amendment weakened balance of power between states, federal government <[link removed]> – The 17th Amendment was the result of the rise of “Progressivism,” pushed by intellectuals and social reformers who believed that our constitutional system of government
was outdated and needed to be reformed. It was designed to enhance the authority of the central government and expand the size and power of a federal bureaucracy that could orchestrate the changes they believed would lead to a new utopia, while diminishing the power of state governments to contest those changes. When the 17th Amendment was combined with the 16th Amendment, which gave Congress the power to “lay and collect taxes on incomes,” and which was ratified earlier that same year, the federal government had the ability to drastically increase its spending and power without considering the interests of the states or the effects on the sovereign authority of the states. The 17th
Amendment critically altered the balance of power between state governments and the federal government, to the detriment of the states. Heritage Expert: Hans von
Spakovsky <[link removed]>  
 
Biden’s Abuse of Power Causes CBO to Raise Cost Estimate of Private Pension Bailouts by $4.5
Billion <[link removed]> – The Congressional Budget Office released a report on Sept. 30 that says President Joe Biden’s changes to the rules of a recent taxpayer bailout of select private union pension plans will add $4.5 billion in costs <[link removed]>, bringing the taxpayers’ tab to $90.4 billion over the 2022-2032 period. And that’s likely just the tip of the iceberg. Ordinarily, $4.5 billion in additional spending as a result of administrative action would elicit scrutiny and challenges. After all, Congress—not the administration—has the powers of the purse, and the Biden administration’s Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has directly altered the law passed by Congress. But this $4.5 billion giveaway has been swept under the rug amid the administration’s massive student loan giveaway <[link removed]> plan and an
estimated $1.1 trillion in  <[link removed]> executive action spending. The American Rescue Plan <[link removed]>, passed by Democrats through reconciliation in March 2021, provided a taxpayer bailout of the worst-funded private union pension plans, granting them one-time lump sum payments to keep those plans afloat through 2051. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler <[link removed]>  
 
Liz Truss Advances Tax Cuts, Deregulation to Revive U.K.’s Economy <[link removed]> – Indeed, history shows us that freedom and prosperity go hand-in-hand as the human spirit thrives on virtuous liberty. The proven path to preserving and enhancing opportunity, prosperity, and individual well-being is the path of freedom. Quite unacceptably, here at home, America’s economic freedom is in growing peril as President Joe Biden’s spendy, bloated government <[link removed]> continues to corrode our economic
freedom through the cost, size, and intrusiveness of government. More than ever, now is the time to act on that reminder to restore America’s economic freedom <[link removed]>, as well as
Britain’s. Heritage Expert: Anthony Kim <[link removed]>  
 
South Korea Needs to Embrace a More Expansive Role in Asia <[link removed]> - South Korea’s newly inaugurated President Yoon Suk Yeol is likely to take greater steps than his predecessors to expand South Korea’s
role in the Indo–Pacific region in order to counter Chinese attempts to coerce Southeast Asian and Pacific Island nations. Yoon is likely to do so in a low-key manner, however, by not depicting his actions as “anti-China,” perhaps making it more difficult to discern whether his policies will truly be different. That said, Yoon’s actions will need to match his bold statements. The real test of his policies and South Korean fortitude will come when Beijing attempts to pressure Seoul into acquiescing to Chinese demands. Heritage Expert: Bruce
Klingner <[link removed]>

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