“This is an urgent message! If you do not respond within 24 hours, we will be forced to terminate your account and foreclose on your assets!” You’ve probably received voicemails or emails like this that sound simultaneously threatening and vague. Chances are the messages came from scammers hoping to scare you enough that you’d be tricked into making a mistake like providing sensitive information or sending them money. It’s not just overly trusting elderly widows, though, who are susceptible to these tactics. Over the years, some congressional Republicans have proven that they’re easi ..read more

In response to the Great Recession of 2007, politicians resorted to their favorite pastime: recklessly spending other people’s money. Instead of dealing with the real issue—runaway government spending and power—we quietly traded the specter of a debt crisis for the slow burn of an inflation crisis. Today, however, we have both. Instead of casting the money printers into the fire, the Federal Reserve revved them up and paved the way to the present economic crisis. With the debt ceiling debate, we have the same choice before us today—and we may not get a third chanc ..read more

As Congress debates a deal to increase the debt limit, here are four things Americans should know: 1. Immediate spending reduction in Biden-McCarthy deal is infinitesimal; long-term reductions are small and uncertain. Faced with a $1.571 trillion deficit next year, and $20.3 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years, the deal brokered by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy includes only $12 billion (that’s $0.012 trillion) in spending reductions next year. Moreover, the roughly $1.3 trillion in alleged cuts over the 10-year horizon represent only 1.7% of total ..read more

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s and President Joe Biden’s debt ceiling deal is nothing for conservatives to write home about. The legislation is short on fiscal sanity and long on profligate government spending. Here are some of the highlights, but mostly lowlights, of what negotiators from both sides hammered out, and over which legislators are now fighting. First, let’s dispense with the fallacious nomenclature. This bill does not meaningfully cut spending—it merely provides a slight reduction in outlays this year by $12 billion and claws back $28 billion in unspent COVID money. Saying this b ..read more

Ohio college students should thank Jerry Cirino. The Republican state senator has written a bill designed to spare those students instruction in the type of sordid thinking that sees all of life in terms of group power dynamics, cancels opposing views, preaches color consciousness, and discourages merit. In other words, Cirino wants to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, requirements from Ohio’s public university system. One of the nation’s largest, with 14 four-year research universities, 24 regional campuses, 23 community colleges, and 13 graduate schools ..read more

The current version of the federal debt ceiling deal does a bad job addressing student debt, despite the fact that the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation schemes will cost the taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars. While the yearslong student loan “pause” will finally end, the biggest schemes are left untouched. The debt ceiling deal is therefore a model of fiscal irresponsibility and missed opportunities in this area. The only good thing in the bill is an end to the unlawful series of pauses of student loan repayment. Since 2020, borrowers of federal stude ..read more

Adherence to the rule of law is essential for economic growth and personal liberty.REF The maintenance of a stable order of rules, transparent and accountable legislative and regulatory processes, and rules announced in advance and consistently applied enables individuals to make plans and have confidence that they will carry them through to fruition. The rule of law enables private individuals to anticipate other people’s behavior, including governmental officials, so that they can make their own plans, pursue their individual ends in life, and coordinate their activities with others in the e ..read more

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued rules in 2011REF (2011 rule) and 2019REF (2019 rule) regarding the right of conscience of health care workers. On January 5, 2023, HHS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (2023 proposed rule)REF on this subject that would partially rescind the 2019 rule but retain the framework created by the 2011 rule. The proposed rule would eliminate certain federal conscience protections that HHS deems “redundant or confusing” or that, in HHS’ opinion, “undermine the balance Congress struck between safeguarding conscience rights and protectin ..read more

President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced a debt limit deal Saturday, with a vote expected Wednesday in the House of Representatives. Heritage Foundation experts scrutinized the text of the 99-page bill, including provisions related to spending, pro-growth policies, student loan cancellation, and work requirements for welfare. The following is their latest analysis of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Spending Early in the year, The Heritage Foundation called for total base discretionary spending to return to fiscal 2022 levels—a cut from current leve ..read more

Although the United States has massive resources of oil and natural gas, Americans now face energy scarcity, an electric grid that is less reliable, and shortages of natural gas and oil—all of which have imposed higher prices on consumers and the economy. Worse, none of this had to happen. This is an entirely avoidable reversal of America’s energy renaissance, which began in the first decade of the 2000s. It transformed the United States from a net energy importer (of oil and natural gas) into an energy-independent and then energy-dominant state. The next Republican administration will su ..read more