Health Crisis: America is facing an extreme health crisis among children—and it isn’t the one the media has screamed about since 2020. Far deadlier than COVID-19, it is the fentanyl epidemic. 

• More than 300 children under age 18 overdose on fentanyl every day. Over the past three years, 1,494 minors have died of COVID-19.  

What does this have to do with the border? Most illicit fentanyl today is manufactured in Mexico and brought across our southern border with relative ease thanks to the Biden border crisis.  Read more about this here.

• In a speech about the border last week, President Biden tried to shift blame for the crisis to Republicans. 
• But former acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner Mark Morgan pointed out that “Biden took the most secure border in our lifetime, and handed it over to the cartels through his network of open-border policies.” 

Meanwhile: When not trying to shift blame, Biden is hiding the financial cost of the crisis and using charities to do it.  

Rewarding unemployment: Thanks to expanded Obamacare subsidies and unemployment benefits, unemployed people qualify for benefits that total tens of thousands of dollars more than they would earn if they were working.  

• A new report shows how your tax dollars are used to keep people unemployed—and exactly how expensive that is. 

Find out the details here.  

Perspective: The election for U.S. House speaker has been messy and far longer than expected. But it was a win for conservatives.

• “In the face of extreme establishment rhetoric and media spin, conservatives fought for their constituents, had a robust debate over how to fix Congress, and now have a stronger voice to make meaningful changes," said Heritage President Kevin Roberts.
  

Read Roberts’ full statement here.

What is the path forward for conservatives? Henry Olsen, a Washington Post columnist and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, was on “The Kevin Roberts Show” to talk about how Republicans can maintain a conservative-populist alliance. 

• He also shares his take on the five apparent factions of the GOP. 

Watch the podcast here. 

• The Left’s Latest ‘Public Option’ Scheme to Rig Health Care Markets 
• Federal Appeals Court Upholds Florida’s Transgender Bathroom Ban. Now What? 
• Congress Guts Budget Rules and Misses Chance to Cut Spending 
• The Attack on Legal Protection for the Unborn Moves to State Courts 
• BOLD-FACED LIE: Gun Control Groups Twist Heritage Foundation Data Out of Recognition in Court Documents 
• Benefit Cuts of 23%—and 4 Other Things to Know About the Government’s New Social Security Projections 
• Fact-Checking 5 Fibs From Biden’s Border Speech  

Heritage distinguished fellow Steve Moore joined Fox Business to explain how President Biden’s economic policies have left Americans $4,000 poorer. Watch the clip here. 

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