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The Final Version of the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act <[link removed]> - The final version of
the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) improves military readiness, eliminates the vaccine mandate for service members, and removes many “woke” requests from earlier versions, though some bad policies—such as watered-down bans on Chinese semiconductors—remain. Lawmakers should focus on warfighting and lethality and reject issues unrelated to those areas. Overall, the final NDAA is a bill that conservatives can support. This Factsheet presents the wins and losses. Heritage Expert: Maiya Clark <[link removed]>

 

Producer
Price Index Still Expected To Be Devastatingly High <[link removed]> – Wholesale inflation has slowed but not stopped. Although today’s PPI reading is expected to be below 8%, it is still devastatingly high. Before Biden took office, the index had never been higher than 3.4%. Prices continue to rise for businesses and those prices will be passed on to consumers. PPI has run hotter than CPI for every month of Biden’s presidency, meaning businesses have not been passing all their cost increases along to consumers. That disproves Biden’s claim of corporate greed causing inflation, but it also means future CPI increases are already baked into the cake. Energy and borrowing costs for businesses are expected to skyrocket in 2023. Short-term measures like tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve only papered over the systemic problems Biden and the Fed have created in the economy. Wholesale inflation is far from over. Heritage Expert: EJ Antoni <[link removed]>

 

As crackdown on taxpayers looms, feds’ own improper payments go unchecked <[link removed]> - Congress has given the IRS <[link removed]> $80 billion to hire 87,000 more agents with the hope of bringing in about $200 billion in additional tax revenue over the next 10 years. But last year alone, the federal government spent far more than that — $279 billion — on improper payments. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler <[link removed]>

 
Rachel Levine Enlists Doctors as Evangelists to Preach the Gospel of Transgenderism <[link removed]> - Of course, his sermon did not speak the plain truth of what he meant. He couched his pseudo-religious view—that there is a parallel realm of reality where biological males such as himself are really female (and vice versa) and that biology is a lesser reality to be warped in pursuit of this higher
realm—in scientific terms, citing studies about a phenomenon that is imperfectly understood. Levine made his remarks in a Sept. 22 video message to doctors at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Pediatrics, urging them to become “ambassadors” for what he described as “gender-affirming care <[link removed]>.” Heritage Expert: Tyler O’Neil <[link removed]>
 
Pentagon Report on China’s Military Highlights Nuclear Buildup That Could Overtake America <[link removed]>
- These updated estimates also remind Americans that we don’t know when China will stop this nuclear expansion, and that it would be unwise to assume the regime will stop at 1,000 warheads by 2030 or even 1,500 by 2035. Given China’s ambitions <[link removed]> to become a top military power and supplant the U.S. on the world stage, what’s to stop it from soaring past parity with the U.S. and trying to achieve nuclear superiority? Yet the United States currently doesn’t have the nuclear forces designed to deter a Chinese nuclear threat of this size. The size and composition of the U.S. nuclear deterrent was designed around 2010, based on assumptions of a more benign threat environment than the one we see today. Heritage Expert: Patty-Jane Geller <[link removed]>
 
Same-Sex Marriage Bill Threatening Religious Freedom Heads to Biden’s Desk: Here are the 39 Republicans Who Voted for
It <[link removed]> - Perry explained he had to vote on the bill almost immediately. “I calculated incorrectly … that my long-standing support of traditional marriage would be understood, and I didn’t want to vote against interracial marriage.” Remarking on the upcoming Senate vote, Perry said: “Now they’re going to offer some kind of amendment… but this literally destroys religious freedom.” Twelve Senate Republicans <[link removed]> who previously supported the bill joined all 50 Senate Democrats in voting for its final passage last week. Among these Republican senators were Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitt Romney of Utah. Heritage Expert: Tyler O’Neil <[link removed]> and Gillian Richards <[link removed]>

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