Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.Please reply to this email to arrange an interview.

Education
Choice Scores Another Win with Utah’s New Multi-Use Scholarship  <[link removed]> - “This is a huge win for parents and students in Utah. Utah understands that parents need to have more control over their children’s education. This multi-use scholarship empowers families to choose the learning environments that align with their values and best fit the needs of their children. Education choice is spreading across the states, with Utah being the latest state to pass an education choice law this year. Other states that don’t yet have a strong education choice program should take note.” Heritage Expert: Jason
Bedrick <[link removed]>
 NOT GUILTY: Jury Clears Catholic Father Targeted by Biden DOJ <[link removed]> - The DOJ had charged Houck with two counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act when, outside a Pennsylvania abortion clinic, Houck allegedly pushed a pro-abortionist activist who was allegedly antagonizing his son. A jury acquitted Houck of both DOJ charges on Monday. “We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome,” Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation, said in a statement Monday. “Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them.” Heritage Expert: Mary
Margaret Olohan <[link removed]> and Sarah Parshall Perry  <[link removed]>
Biden Administration Is Playing Deceitful Shell Game to Claim Fewer Illegal Border Crossings <[link removed]> - The Biden administration is getting ready to claim that its new immigration “parole” process is a success—drastically cutting down the number of immigrants
illegally crossing the southern border between ports of entry. What it won’t tell you is that it’s playing a crooked shell game—simply taking the same illegal aliens and shifting the processing burden to different locations while still releasing the same number or more into the U.S. And contrary to the administration’s claims, there is no expanded deterrence mechanism to curtail illegal immigration under this parole program. In fact, the program doesn’t make the process more safe, orderly, or humane; it continually floods the system, keeping aliens vulnerable to abuse, trafficking, and exploitation. Heritage Expert: Erin
Dwinell <[link removed]>
The
Fed Is Punishing Americans for the Problems It Created. It’s Time to Rein It In. <[link removed]> - First, Fed policy has a lag, meaning its effects are not felt until some time after its implementation—often months. To determine what today’s interest rate policy should be actually requires knowledge of future conditions—an impossibility. Thus, the Fed is doomed to mistime its attempts. Second, there is a political incentive to time interest rate decisions for the benefit of politicians. Despite a veil of independence, the Fed has lost credibility as a nonpolitical institution. The solution is for Congress to remove this dual mandate from the Fed so that its only goals are price stability and the moderation of long-term interest rates, not promoting full employment. Thus, when the government wants to spend money it doesn’t have, the Fed would have no excuse to create the money for the Treasury and thereby cause rampant inflation <[link removed]>. And by removing an artificial boom from overspending, the subsequent bust is also eliminated, smoothing out the fluctuations of the business cycle instead of exacerbating them. Heritage Expert: EJ
Antoni <[link removed]> 
 Ranked-Choice
Voting Should Be Ranked Dead Last as an Election Reform <[link removed]> - Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a confusing, chaotic “reform” being pushed by mega-liberal political donors and other activists. It fundamentally changes the election process, effectively disenfranchises voters, and allows marginal candidates not supported by a majority of voters to be elected. It is a confusing and opaque process that robs voters of the ability to re-educate and re-examine the top two vote-getting candidates in a run-off election when one candidate does not initially win a majority, and it diminishes the ability of voters to make informed, knowledgeable choices of who would best represent them. Voters and state legislators—regardless of political affiliation—should oppose RCV as an ill-advised, imprudent election “reform” that would confuse and hurt voters. Heritage Expert: Hans von Spakovsky
What Jerry Seinfeld’s “Black Card” Can Teach Lawmakers About the Debt Limit <[link removed]> - Already, the U.S. has accumulated $31.4 trillion in federal debt—the equivalent of $242,000 per household. If the federal government’s borrowing were subject to the same constraints as ordinary households and it actually had to repay its borrowing, every household in America would suddenly have two mortgage or rent payments each month, instead of just one. (At $220,000 in 2021, average mortgage debt was slightly lower than each household’s share of the federal debt). But unlike ordinary households—and unlike even exclusive Black Card holders—the federal government can simply vote to raise or temporarily waive its debt limits. If, however, policymakers were to agree to meaningful spending reductions and pro-growth policy reforms in exchange for a specified increase in the debt limit, they could help avoid a fiscal crisis and start reducing the second-mortgage equivalent of federal debt that looms over every household in America. Heritage Expert: Rachel Greszler <[link removed]>        
Helping
200 Teachers Abandon Indiana’s Largest Teachers Union <[link removed]> - On December 20th, I helped my 200th teacher leave the Indiana State Teachers Association <[link removed]> (ISTA). This behemoth of a pyramid scheme charges Indiana teachers $1,000 per year to lobby for progressive political goals at the state and national level—while claiming to be integral in salary negotiation and legal defense. Over the last five years, I’ve enjoyed the privilege of assisting teachers in navigating past the smoke and mirrors to leave the scam masquerading as an essential service for teachers. While the ISTA continues to lament <[link removed]> teacher wages in the Indiana Statehouse, they siphon money from the salaries of teachers who gain nothing of value from the transaction. Daily Signal Investigative Columnist: Tony
Kinnett <[link removed]>
Misguided
and Socialist Policies Contribute Mightily to Rash of Layoffs, Bleak Economic Outlook <[link removed]>– While the unemployment rate remains low, that’s because millions of Americans remain on the sidelines not looking for work. There are still an estimated 2.8 million <[link removed]> Americans who aren’t working nearly three years after the onset of the COVID-19 shutdowns. Those who are employed are working far fewer hours <[link removed]> at significantly lower inflation-adjusted <[link removed]> wages <[link removed]>. Americans lost <[link removed]> $2 trillion of wealth from their 401(k)s last year. It’s clear that the Left’s big-government tax-and-spend agenda continues to fail. But the worst consequences may be the ones we will never see: the innovative new technologies that would have changed lives that are instead crowded out to fund wind turbines or the community-enriching small businesses that are never established because federal policy pushed capital into electric-vehicle subsidies instead. That’s all just collateral damage in the Left’s battle to control what Americans buy, what they produce, and how they live. Heritage Expert: Preston
Brashers <[link removed]>

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