The Index of Economic Freedom published annually by researchers at the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/heritage-foundation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heritage Foundation</a> indicated on Monday that the degree of liberty offered by the American <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economy</a> has continued to decline over the past year.
The conservative think tank <a href="https://www.heritage.org/index/country/unitedstates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">granted</a> the United States a rating of 70.6, constituting a decline of 1.5 points since last year and the nation’s lowest score in the history of the project. The “size and scope of government” was identified as one of the most salient factors weighing upon the American economy.
&#8220;The world and America are at a crossroads. Too many countries have renounced basic economic principles leaving communities to suffer the consequences,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a <a href="https://www.heritage.org/press/2023-index-economic-freedom-world-economy-ranks-mostly-unfree-rating-us-economic-freedom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>. “They must choose either the narrow path of self-governance, human dignity, and ordered liberty, or the broad path of an economy run by the managerial elite with no room for dissent or responsibility. One path leads to prosperity, and the other leads to ruin.”
The United States retained high ratings in categories such as property rights, investment freedom, and business freedom. The nation’s lowest ranking comes in the domain of government spending since public debt is more than 128% of gross domestic product.
“The United States has one of the world’s most dynamic economies but has been undergoing policy challenges that undermine its long-term economic competitiveness,” the think tank said. “Since assuming office in 2021, President Joseph Biden has pursued and implemented policies that have expanded the size and scope of the federal government. Unchecked deficit spending and government debt have accelerated, and inflation undercuts economic livelihood.”
Biden has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-paints-rosy-posture-on-the-economy-before-state-of-the-union-heres-the-real-story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that he presided over a “record decrease” in deficit spending over the past two years. Although he oversaw a decline in the deficit from $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020 and $2.8 trillion in fiscal year 2021 to $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2022, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Office of Management and Budget, he has failed to mention that the record spending occurred as a result of legislation passed to mitigate fallout from the lockdown-induced recession. The deficit posted last year still significantly exceeds those witnessed in the years before the crisis.
Although the United States ranked twenty-fifth in both the 2022 and 2023 indices, the global average economic freedom score declined from 60.0 to 59.3 over the same period. Singapore, Switzerland, Ireland, and Taiwan are the world’s <a href="https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highest-ranked</a> economies for economic liberty.
Heritage Foundation research fellow Anthony Kim commented that the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, also known as ESG, has inhibited the economies of the United States and other nations. “Economic freedom correlates significantly with overall well-being, which includes such factors as health, education, the environment, innovation, societal progress, and democratic governance,” he said in the press release. “The true path to ensuring environmental, social, and governance improvements lies in focusing on policies that enhance economic freedom.”
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Critics of the ESG movement assert that the investment philosophy seeks outcomes in social causes, such as reducing carbon emissions and achieving racial diversity, in a manner that compromises or distracts from profit maximization. The movement is popular in Europe and elsewhere in the developed world.

Heritage Foundation ‘Index Of Economic Freedom’ Reveals America Has Lowest Score In Project’s History

Heritage Foundation 'Index Of Economic Freedom' Shows America Has Declining Free Market Liberty

Economy

Freedom

Heritage Foundation

U.S.

Non-governmental organization (NGO) facilities located along the southern border allegedly facilitated approximately 30,000 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/illegal-immigration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">illegal immigrants</a> before releasing them into mainly Republican districts nationwide under President Joe Biden&#8217;s open-border policies.
The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s Oversight Project and Border Security and Immigration Center published a <a href="http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2022/BorderNGOMemo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> Monday claiming new data accumulated from the geotracked movement of the massive number of illegal immigrants stemmed from more than 30 NGO facilities located at the U.S. and Mexico Border.
&#8220;Our investigation is the first ever to document the physical movement of illegal aliens into the interior of the country,” Mike Howell, director of the Oversight Project and former DHS oversight counsel, said in a <a href="https://www.heritage.org/press/oversight-project-investigation-uncovers-shocking-facts-about-whos-facilitating-biden-border" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news release.</a> &#8220;What we uncovered is a mass resettlement program in which the Biden administration works hand-in-hand with NGOs.&#8221;
Under Biden&#8217;s rule, his administration has done away with Trump-era immigration policies, which have resulted in a higher number of overall encounters at the border.
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Pew Research <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/09/whats-happening-at-the-u-s-mexico-border-in-7-charts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> the U.S. Border Patrol reported encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year were more than quadruple the number of the prior fiscal year, and the highest annual total on record.
The U.S. <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/73000-gotaways-southern-border-november-highest-ever-recorded?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saw</a> 2,378,944 encounters at the border in fiscal year 2022. That number excludes the nearly 600,000 known “gotaways” who escaped custody altogether. In fiscal year 2021, there were 389,155 “gotaways.” As pointed out in political strategist Ryan Girdusky’s <a href="https://natpop.substack.com/p/national-populist-newsletter-22d?utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email" target="_blank" rel="noopener">newsletter</a>, the U.S. has already experienced 137,000 “gotaways” in fiscal year 2023. By <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/border-democrat-henry-cuellar-the-border-is-not-secure-under-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">some estimates</a>, there have been more than 4.5 million encounters at the border under the Biden administration alone. Millions of those individuals have been released into the U.S.
Howell said Biden&#8217;s open-border policies show a &#8220;close collaboration and collusion&#8221; between advocates outside and within the government, which causes and overwhelms border patrol authorities to release tens of thousands of illegal immigrants every month.
&#8220;The NGOs are happy to step into the breach and form the final link in the drug cartels&#8217; human smuggling operation, ensuring these individuals make it all around the country,” Howell said. &#8220;Biden&#8217;s border crisis has long had nationwide consequences — this is the most shocking proof yet.&#8221;
According to the Heritage memo, such NGOs &#8220;apply for, and receive, taxpayer money to provide processing and transportation services and infrastructure to facilitate the migration of illegal aliens into the interior of the country.&#8221;
Project investigators sampled approximately 30,000 anonymous and &#8220;unique&#8221; mobile devices that were geofenced to the NGO facilities around the southern border in four different phases throughout January 2022, and most were later traced to 431 separate U.S. congressional districts out of a total of 435 congressional districts in the United States.
According to the report, about 400 devices were at Val Verde Border Humanitarian Center and the Del Rio Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Station.
A year earlier, employees reported that the facility allegedly processed over 1,000 individuals in three days, who then reportedly traveled to Tennessee, Utah, Indiana, Florida, and New York.
Approximately 71% of devices in 52 congressional districts were tracked in Republican congressional districts — most of which were in Texas and Oklahoma.
Investigators then captured 5,000 devices from 13 NGO facilities, which were traced to all but one congressional district.
In a separate phase, the report said at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, located in San Juan, Texas, approximately 3,400 devices captured — all at just one NGO location — were later found in 433 of 435 congressional districts.
&#8220;In short, this is proof that Biden&#8217;s border crisis has turned every state into a border state,&#8221; the memo reads.
Biden recently traveled to Arizona this week to tout Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.&#8217;s announcement of a second manufacturing chip plant in the Grand Canyon State.
When approached by reporters about whether or not he will visit the U.S. southern border amid what has been dubbed the nation&#8217;s illegal immigration crisis, the president dismissed the question, saying that investing billions of dollars in the new enterprise was &#8220;more important.&#8221;
The Heritage Foundation&#8217;s first oversight project exposed how the Biden administration&#8217;s lack of border policies has allegedly flooded the nation with mass illegal immigration, which enabled cartels to bring terrorists, criminals, and deadly drugs like fentanyl into the United States.
&#8220;It affects the entirety of the United States,&#8221; Howell said. &#8220;Every fire dies out unless someone fans the flames. Now we know the Biden administration has help in keeping the flames at the border burning.&#8221;

Large Migration Surge Crosses Rio Grande Into Del Rio, Texas

Geotracking Data Reveals NGOs Facilitated, Released More Than 30,000 Illegal Immigrants Nationwide

Biden Administration

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Southern Border

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/heritage-foundation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heritage Foundation</a> released its inaugural ranking of the states with respect to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school choice</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">educational</a> outcomes on Friday.
The <a href="https://www.heritage.org/educationreportcard/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Education Freedom Report Card</a> evaluates categories such as school choice policy, availability of alternative teacher certification, efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and access to curricula among parents. As a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservative-think-tank-reveals-which-state-has-the-most-free-education-system-in-the-country" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from The Wall Street Journal revealed yesterday, <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a> earned first place in the conservative think tank’s index.
“If sunlight is the best disinfectant, it’s no wonder why the Sunshine State is one of the freest states for teachers and children to pursue an education that is largely devoid of red tape,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “Florida has led the way in expanding education choice, cutting red tape, and holding schools accountable to parents with academic transparency.”
In second place was Arizona, which recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arizona-to-become-the-nations-gold-standard-for-school-choice-passing-universal-bill-for-one-million-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> tuition vouchers worth $6,500 per child that parents can apply to private schools, homeschools, or learning pods. Idaho, Indiana, and South Dakota rounded out the top five.
States that fell at the bottom of the ranking included New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, with Washington, D.C., placing last overall.
“As a fifth-generation educator, I know firsthand the importance of giving parents more choice in their children’s education, and how much of an advantage a quality education gives to those fortunate enough to receive it,” Roberts continued. “Lawmakers in every state capital — and here in D.C. — should be focused on empowering families and making sure that every child in this country has access to the highest-quality education, one that works best for them.”
The Education Freedom Report Card was unveiled shortly after the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> average reading scores for nine-year-olds plummeting five points and average mathematics scores dropping seven points. “This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics,” according to a <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The dismal scores occurred after school lockdowns disrupted learning in the spring of 2020. In reaction to the subsequent spread of radical gender theory and other left-wing ideologies through government schools, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack" target="_blank" rel="noopener">home education rates</a> soared as parents began to seek alternative educational opportunities for their children.
Particularly in urban school districts, teachers unions <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/five-cities-where-teachers-unions-are-keeping-schools-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">played a salient role</a> in extending virtual instruction well into 2021 — a reality that the White House recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-claims-schools-reopened-in-spite-of-republicans-here-are-several-videos-of-democrats-defending-closed-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">denied</a>. “As record numbers of parents flip school boards and stand up to woke teachers’ unions, it is clear the parental rights and school choice movement is not slowing down,” Heritage Action Director Jessica Anderson said in remarks provided to The Daily Wire.
Despite lackluster outcomes, funding for government schools has continually risen throughout modern history. One <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_236.55.asp?current=yes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics indicated that the inflation-adjusted yearly expenditure per American pupil rose from $4,060 to $15,424 between 1960 and 2017.
Meanwhile, school systems have grown their administrative staff at a far greater rate than their teaching staff — a metric that the Heritage Foundation scrutinized in their index. A <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543118.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Department of Education revealed that non-teaching staff rose 702% between 1950 to 2009, even as districts hired 252% more teachers over the same period.

Empty desk in elementary school classroom

Think Tank Releases First-Ever ‘Education Freedom Report Card.’ Where Does Your State Rank?

Arizona

Education

Florida

Homeschool

School Choice

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/heritage-foundation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heritage Foundation</a> will release a new ranking of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">educational</a> freedom among the states on Friday, according to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-ranking-for-education-freedom-11662659868">report</a> from The Wall Street Journal.
The unveiling of the conservative think tank’s latest project occurs as the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nations-report-card-indicates-worst-decline-in-math-and-reading-scores-in-decades">shows</a> average scores for nine-year-olds plummeting five points in reading and seven points in mathematics. Amid the rapid decline in education outcomes — which immediately follows <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-lockdowns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school lockdowns</a> that disrupted learning in the spring of 2020 — parents are increasingly concerned over the encroachment of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radical gender theory</a> and other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/critical-race-theory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">left-wing ideologies</a> into classrooms.
Beyond performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and access to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/school-choice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">school choice</a>, Heritage’s “Education Freedom Report Card” considers spending per pupil, teacher-to-non-teacher staff ratios, and unfunded teacher pension liabilities as a proportion of state gross domestic product. The top-ranked state in the group’s inaugural report is <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/florida" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Florida</a>.
“The Sunshine State embraces education freedom across the board,” the analysis explained. “Florida does exceptionally well in allowing parents to choose among private, charter, and district schools, is home to a strong ESA program, and ranks third overall for education choice. Florida ranks first among states for academic transparency. Among other protections, state lawmakers set a high standard for academic transparency, and reject critical race theory’s pernicious ideas.”
New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C., ranked at the bottom of the list as policymakers neglect to “provide transparency, accountability, and choice to families.” In second place, however, was Arizona, which recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arizona-to-become-the-nations-gold-standard-for-school-choice-passing-universal-bill-for-one-million-students">greenlit</a> $6,500 in tuition vouchers per child that parents can apply to private schools, homeschools, or learning pods.
Many parents <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/is-the-right-to-homeschooling-under-attack">turned to homeschooling</a> and private schools as their local districts continued with virtual instruction. Homeschooling rates across the country grew from 5.4% to 11% between March 2020 and September 2020 alone, one <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/homeschooling-on-the-rise-during-covid-19-pandemic.html">report</a> from the Census Bureau found last year.
While responding to a question about dismal readings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-faces-backlash-over-response-to-question-about-lockdowns-school-closures-this-is-absurd">provoked criticism</a> by suggesting that Republicans prevented schools from reopening sooner amid the rollback of government lockdowns.
“That was the work of this president. And that was the work of Democrats, in spite of Republicans not voting for the American Rescue Plan,” she explained, referring to $130 billion in funding for schools greenlit by the $1.9 trillion legislation. “Every Republican in Congress voted against that money. That is the reality. We had to do this on our own.”
However, several Democratic lawmakers and politicians — including Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield — had <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-claims-schools-reopened-in-spite-of-republicans-here-are-several-videos-of-democrats-defending-closed-schools">pushed for a delay</a> to normal instruction. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said during a July 2021 interview with MSNBC that increasing vaccination rates was necessary to “keep kids safe” and “keep our members safe” amid attempts “to open up schools.”
More recently, teachers unions have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unions-complain-of-dire-teacher-shortages-ahead-of-new-school-year-push-for-more-funding">called for more funding</a> as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-continue-to-opt-out-of-the-workforce">labor shortages</a> impact the education sector. However, a <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_236.55.asp?current=yes">report</a> from the National Center for Education Statistics indicated that the inflation-adjusted yearly expenditure per American pupil rose from $4,060 to $15,424 between 1960 and 2017. Another <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED543118.pdf">study</a> from the Department of Education revealed that schools increased the number of non-teaching staff by 702% between 1950 to 2009 despite hiring 252% more teachers over the same period.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference to

Conservative Think Tank Reveals Which State Has The Most Free Education System In The Country

Heritage Foundation Introduces New 'Education Freedom Index,' Reveals Which State Ranks Highest

Critical Race Theory

Ron DeSantis

School Lockdowns

Transgender

Conservative groups are condemning Walmart&#8217;s funding of “woke policies,” warning that “no self-proclaimed conservative official or conservative organization should accept funding from Walmart while it supports the policies of the woke left.” 
In the letter, sent Wednesday to Doug McMillon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart, leaders of some of the top conservative groups in the nation slammed news that the nation&#8217;s largest retailer has begun paying for employee abortions.
That list of leaders includes CPAC Executive Board Member William L. Walton, Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Woman for America (CWA), former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint, the chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Heritage Foundation&#8217;s President Kevin Roberts, and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List. 
“Surely as board members with a fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders, you must understand the Walmart’s increasingly woke policies are alienating millions of your customers who will take their business elsewhere,” the letter, first obtained by The Daily Wire, warns. “Your founder Sam Walton would be appalled.”
“CPAC and other conservative leaders are changing tactics,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of CPAC. Once allies, these companies that fund Black Lives Matter and Planned Parenthood are as big an adversary as the woke socialist groups they support.”
“Large publicly held companies need to realize conservative groups and officeholders will no longer do their bidding,” he added. “We are shelving our polite silence and in full-on battle mode. After November, it will get much worse for these woke corporations.”
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The letter follows an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/walmart-will-pay-for-some-employee-abortions-out-of-state-travel-expenses-leaked-email-shows">August 19 memo</a>  stating that “effective immediately, the Walmart self-insured healthcare plans will cover abortion when there is a health risk to the mother, rape or incest, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or lack of fetal viability.”
The memo appeared to be in response to the June overturn of Roe v. Wade, which sent the power to decide abortion back to the states. Walmart did not respond to The Daily Wire&#8217;s requests for comment as to why it is instated this policy.
“As the nation’s largest private employer and grocer, Walmart touches the lives of hundreds of millions of people throughout the freedom-loving world,” the letter said. “Yet, millions of American consumers do not realize that by patronizing Walmart, they are funding woke policies they morally oppose.” 
“A perfect example is abortion,” the letter continued. “In a recent revision to its leave policy, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/walmart-expands-abortion-coverage-employees-rcna44063">Walmart will now provide virtually unrestricted abortion benefits</a>.”
The conservative leaders reminded Walmart that “in prior years, the company policy was to offer benefits related to abortion only in cases &#8216;when the health of the mother would be in danger if the fetus were carried to term, the fetus could not survive the birthing process, or death would be imminent after birth.&#8217;”
“This lawyer-engineered language specifying health in this context means abortion on demand and they know it,” the letter warned. “&#8217;Health risks&#8217; unrelated to the baby being carried to term covers mental stress, missing work, or any other reason whatsoever. Walmart is effectively providing funding to their 1.6 million employees and their dependents to cover abortion on demand, including expenditures for the abortion procedure and travel costs and when not available within 100 miles.”
The letter says that “Walmart-supported abortions” will increase in the next few years, meaning that “more babies laid at the altar of  &#8216;choice&#8217; because of” Walmart&#8217;s financial contributions.
“It also does not escape our attention that supporting such a heinous policy conveniently keeps women at their Walmart jobs rather than at home caring for themselves and their babies,” the letter adds. “Not only is your pro-abortion policy reprehensible, but your touting of a small increase in adoption benefits as a way to atone for what you know to be an immoral, anti-woman policy is offensive, especially for women. Why was the increase not offered before? Why now? Americans know why.” 
The conservative groups also pointed to Walmart&#8217;s pricey <a href="https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2022/07/22/walmart-org-center-for-racial-equity-update-focusing-on-food-to-advance-health-equity">racial equity</a> campaign and its “effort to punish Republicans for questioning the integrity of the 2020 election.”
“In the past, Walmart has relied on conservative organizations and office holders to further policies that benefited Walmart, its shareholders, and its customers,” the letter continued. “And when anti-capitalist politicians and activists attacked the company for its success and profitability, we stepped up to defend Walmart.” 
“We stood by the company because it was generally pro-family and because we embrace free enterprise and believe in the benefits of capitalism,” the conservative leaders said. “We can no longer tolerate your leftist policy agenda – particularly when it facilitates the harming of innocent human life.” 
Conservatives will neither condone nor forgive Walmart&#8217;s choice, the letter said.
“Conservatives who seek a government that reflects their values should take their business elsewhere,” it added. “And no self-proclaimed conservative official or conservative organization should accept funding from Walmart while it supports the policies of the woke left.”

Screen Shot 2022-08-24 at 8.57.44 PM

‘Full-On Battle Mode’: Conservative Leaders Put Walmart On Notice For Promising To Pay For Abortions

Leading Conservatives Tear Into Walmart For New Pro-Abortion Policy 

Abortion

CPAC

Walmart

Is it a coincidence that select cities are experiencing spikes in violent crime in the wake of the “<a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/report/progressive-prosecutors-sabotage-the-rule-law-raise-crime-rates-and-ignore">progressive prosecutor</a>” movement? Hardly. Their policies encourage lawlessness, harm law-abiding residents (especially minorities), drive businesses out of cities, and demoralize the police by treating them like criminals.
These prosecutors claim otherwise, of course. They insist that their decision to not prosecute entire categories of crime; their reluctancy to ask for bail; their refusal to add sentencing enhancements; their decision to release hardened, convicted felons from prison; their decline to prosecute violent juvenile offenders in adult court; and their disregard of those who commit shoplifting, drug possession, and prostitution – among other crimes – reflect sound policies that have not contributed to the recent spikes in crime.
They’re lying. Let’s take a look at the facts:
Crime rates, including violent crime rates, have had an overall <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/20/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/">drop</a> in the last 30 years, yet incarceration rates peaked in 2008 – long before George Soros or his “reform” prosecutors came along. Why? Because genuinely progressive prosecutors, working with other stakeholders, created domestic violence courts, drug courts, veterans courts, family justice centers, and thousands of other alternatives to incarceration that are compassionate, create accountability, and provide opportunities with the right incentives for defendants to recover their lives by changing their thinking and behaviors. If someone refuses to complete these programs, though, these prosecutors can still seek incarceration.
Violent crime is geographically and demographically concentrated in inner cities, many of which are presided over by rogue prosecutors, where minority members of their communities are disproportionately victimized, including constituting a majority of homicide victims. As Rafael Mangual of The Manhattan Institute notes in his recent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Criminal-Justice-Decarceration-Depolicing-Wrong-ebook/dp/B09NPFH2VT">book &#8220;Criminal (In)Justice</a>,&#8221; “while black people constitute 13.4% of the population, they made up more than 53% of the nation’s homicide victims in 2020.” In other words, the policies of these prosecutors are harming the very individuals they are supposed to be helping.
To truly help those individuals – and communities as a whole – these prosecutors should seek appropriate bail and prison sentences for dangerous defendants.
The idea that appropriately long prison sentences won’t help protect communities is nonsense. Studies show that the longer the prison sentence, the lower the recidivism rate. In fact, the <a href="https://www.ussc.gov/">United States Sentencing Commission</a> recently released a <a href="https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/length-incarceration-and-recidivism-2022">report</a> which found that “the odds of recidivism were lower for federal offenders sentenced to more than 60 months incarceration compared to a matched group of offenders receiving shorter sentences&#8230;[and] the odds of recidivism were approximately 29% lower for federal offenders sentenced to more than 120 months incarceration.” The authors also found that the “odds of recidivism were approximately 18% lower for offenders sentenced to more than 60 months up to 120 months of incarceration.”
When violent criminals are not required to post bail, there are also increases in crime. That’s simply common sense. Moreover, in an <a href="https://dc.law.utah.edu/scholarship/194/">academic paper</a> on the subject, two law professors analyzed the Cook County Bail Reform Study, which supposedly proved that lax bail laws do not impact the crime rate. The authors found that, contrary to the Study’s findings, the “bail reform” changes in Cook County “appear to have led to a substantial increase in crimes committed by pretrial releasees in Cook County,” and the “number of released defendants charged with committing new crimes increased by 45%.” Worse yet, “the number of pretrial releases charged with committing new violent crimes increased by an estimated 33%.”
No wonder the public is souring on these rogue prosecutors’ radical policies and the havoc they wreak. Voters in liberal San Francisco recently removed rogue DA Chesa Boudin from office. His successor has <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/gascon-recall-effort-takes-big-step-forward-los-angeles">pledged</a> to hold criminals accountable while still offering diversionary treatment programs like drug court to appropriate individuals—something prosecutors have been doing for many, many years.
Ironically, after voters recalled Boudin, one of George Soros’s representatives objected to the Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/democrats/soros-stiff-arms-chesa-boudin-after-san-francisco-voters-kick-him-to-curb/">calling</a> Boudin a “George Soros darling” in an attempt to put distance between Soros and the failed DA.
A similar issue occurred when we wrote about Baltimore’s now-defeated (and federally indicted) rogue prosecutor <a href="https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/meet-marilyn-mosby-the-rogue-prosecutor-wreaking-havoc-baltimore">Marilyn Mosby</a>. A Soros representative reached out and objected to our characterization of Mosby as a Soros-backed prosecutor, since he never directly contributed to her campaign, even though she attended numerous trips paid for by Soros-funded or inspired groups.
The rogue prosecutor movement operates under two principles: (1) that the entire criminal justice system is racist and (2) that the only way to address this supposed racism is to reverse, engineer, and dismantle the current system by electing pro-criminal, anti-victim zealots into office. Flush with cash or support from George Soros and his like-minded wealthy friends, candidates like George Gascon (Los Angeles), Larry Krasner (Philadelphia), Kim Foxx (Chicago), Kim Gardner (St. Louis), and others have been elevated into office and have imposed their pro-criminal agendas on an unsuspecting electorate. The consequences have been predictable and deadly.  
Prosecutors are the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system. Our nation’s 2,300 or so elected district attorneys have a solemn duty to enforce the law and to do so fairly, compassionately, and without favor. This shouldn’t be a Left or Right, blue or red, Democrat or Republican issue. Either you support law and order and equality under the law, or you back a radical social experiment that, so far, has led to utter chaos and misery.
These are the facts.
Zack Smith is a Legal Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. Charles D. Stimson, a senior legal fellow at Heritage, manages the think tank’s National Security Law Program.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Rogue Progressive Prosecutors Promote Lawlessness Not Reform

Bail Reform

District Attorneys

Police Reform

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Readers Pass

That whole morning felt like a scene from &#8220;Grey’s Anatomy.&#8221;
“We won&#8217;t get the biopsy results back for a few days, but you need to call a breast surgeon immediately,” the doctor said. As I walked out of the office alone, my face covered by a mask during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I could tell they weren’t used to seeing a woman in her twenties there. 
Sure enough, a few days later my heart sank, my stomach dropped, and I fell to the ground in front of our family Christmas tree when I heard the words, “It’s breast cancer.” 
For the next few months, my life in Washington took a pause and my full-time job became biopsies, tests, appointments, medical journals, and treatment decisions. As doctors consulted and put together my treatment plan, I learned that my cancer grew from hormones — estrogen, in particular.
My best bet to prevent future recurrence and metastasis? Five to 10 years of hormone treatment.
Just weeks after undergoing a double mastectomy, I walked into the infusion center for my first Lupron injection to rid my body of estrogen. After I nearly passed out from that first shot, I shrank back into the big chemo chair and cried over the pieces of womanhood that had been stolen from me. I knew that in just a few weeks the side effects would start to kick in. They told me it would be tough, but I had no idea what was coming.  
What I also didn’t know then is that the drug keeping my cancer at bay is the <a href="https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/02/25/chemical-castration/">same drug</a> used to chemically castrate child predators — and now, it’s the <a href="http://www.bcchildrens.ca/endocrinology-diabetes-site/documents/bcchluprongd.pdf">same drug</a> that transgender activists praise as a supposedly “safe” and “temporary” way to delay puberty for minors experiencing what has been labeled as gender dysphoria.   
That’s a lie.
Here’s what it’s been like for me: 
The first hot flash came last spring while walking through a bookstore in D.C. with friends. They caringly took me to the closest snow-cone stand. It went downhill from there. I wouldn’t want anyone to experience a day where dozens and dozens and dozens of hot flashes interrupt a presentation, a meeting with your boss, or a first date.  
The episodes of depression came next. As time went on, I thought maybe it would calm down, and I’d dodge some of the listed side effects, but they kept coming. I never knew it was possible to have fatigue so debilitating and at the same time only be able to fall asleep with a tranquilizer. Random pains shot through my joints, and I had to take preventive measures to protect my bone health. I tried to not even think about what this would mean for intimacy and fertility down the road. 
Every day now is a fight to grasp some semblance of normal, so I can’t even imagine a child trying to make sense of their world as drugs stop the hormones in their body from doing what they’re supposed to do.
Activists, dressed in a doctor’s robe, classify a child as struggling and then describe this as the best option, even without scientific research on how it affects children’s mental health or long-term studies on the side effects. If parents don’t comply, they are called a bad parent, a transphobe, and a bigot.  
Bright, rainbow posts have been littering my social-media feed this month, many lecturing that without so-called “gender-affirming” care – puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and eventually experimental surgeries that forever alter a child’s body – kids will supposedly be driven to suicide. The Biden administration, the legacy media, and activist doctors spread this lie to emotionally extort parents toward acceptance of such ideas.
Never mind that the data <a href="https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/puberty-blockers-cross-sex-hormones-and-youth-suicide">actually shows</a> the opposite to be true. Yet, some states are even actively trying to cut parents out of these decisions by expanding access to these drugs and cross-sex hormones for minors without parental consent. 
It’s maddening to watch the culture normalize gender dysphoria and then demand that we celebrate adults amputating perfectly healthy body parts, while I had mine stolen by cancer. It’s another level of evil entirely, though, when this ideology comes for children.
I hope we can look back on this as a rare moment in history — one where Americans wake up and fight back against the cancer of the left’s dangerous and divisive gender ideology.
Gloria Taylor is a senior communications manager for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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I’m Taking The Drug That Activists Want To Give To Children With Gender Dysphoria

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WASHINGTON — The Heritage Foundation has filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration demanding the release of documents related to the investigation of mounted Border Patrol agents.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demands the release of all documents related to the Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s investigation into the September 2021 incident in which mounted Border Patrol agents were falsely accused of dramatically whipping illegal immigrants.
It also accuses DHS of &#8220;wrongfully withholding non-exempt-agency records&#8221; requested by the influential conservative think tank.
&#8220;Heritage is being denied information to which it is statutorily entitled and that is important to carrying out Heritage’s functions as a non-partisan research and educational institution and publisher of news,&#8221; the complaint says.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had first backed the border patrol agents, but he later said that pictures of the &#8220;whips&#8221; had &#8220;profoundly&#8221; troubled him and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/border-patrol-agents-fume-dhs-punish-officers-whip-controversy">promised</a> that an investigation into the agents would be &#8220;completed in days, if not weeks,&#8221; as the suit points out.
Senior administration officials also backed the since debunked claims. Biden went so far as to &#8220;promise&#8221; that &#8220;those people will pay.&#8221; Vice President Kamala Harris said she was &#8220;deeply troubled&#8221; comparing the images she saw to &#8220;times of slavery.&#8221; And though the claims have been shown to be false, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-punish-border-patrol-agents-haitian-whipping-incident">reported</a> June 14 that the Biden administration is nevertheless preparing to punish the agents.
Heritage had previously filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) asking DHS to release all correspondence and records related to its investigation of the incident, including documentation between any Biden administration officials that could suggest the investigation of the agents was politicized.
<div id="attachment_398691" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-398691" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-398691 size-full" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1707" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-2048x1366.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/GettyImages-1235368766-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />United States Border Patrol agents on horseback tries to stop Haitian migrants from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas on September 19, 2021.  (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)</div>
After months of the Biden administration failing to return these requests, the Heritage Foundation is going on offense and suing the Biden administration, the Daily Wire has learned — an unprecedented move from a think tank that typically stays away from such high profile litigation (the think tank <a href="https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-files-lawsuit-against-biden-covid-vaccine-mandate">did sue</a> the Biden administration in November over the vaccine mandate).
The effort is spearheaded by Heritage&#8217;s new Oversight Project, led by former DHS oversight counsel Mike Howell, which seeks to expose the Biden administration&#8217;s leftist policies.
And in efforts to uncover the nature of the Biden administration investigation into the agents, Heritage drew on the expertise of former top DHS employees experienced in having to respond to such FOIA requests and lawsuits themselves.
These figures, including former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Tom Homan, and the former acting director of USCIS, Joe Edlow, are now &#8220;utilizing these skill sets and knowledge to go after Mayorkas,&#8221; Howell said.
&#8220;We think the American people and the Border Patrol deserve to know,&#8221; Howell said. &#8220;And so we&#8217;re stepping in and getting a judge actually involved. Filling the void.&#8221;
Heritage not only hopes that the lawsuit will uncover information demonstrating the politicized nature of the investigation into the border patrol agents — the think tank looks to show conservatives in the movement that they have the ability to win such matters in court.
&#8220;If they do go ahead and discipline these agents, these documents, the communications that we are going to get will go a long way towards telling not only the Border Patrol, but everyone else what actually happened and how the political appointees and leadership were involved in this process when they really should never have been,&#8221; Howell said.

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Heritage Foundation Sues Biden Admin For Border Patrol Investigation Docs

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A new analysis by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/heritage-foundation">Heritage Foundation</a> calls into question the widespread claim that giving puberty blockers and hormones to children who reject their biological sex prevents suicides &#8211; and grimly suggests the opposite may be true.
In a <a href="https://www.heritage.org/gender/report/puberty-blockers-cross-sex-hormones-and-youth-suicide">report</a> titled &#8220;Puberty Blockers, Cross-Sex Hormones, and Youth Suicide, the conservative think tank determined that causal conclusions being drawn between medical interventions and suicide among young people are not supported by data. The Washington-based foundation is hoping states use its findings to pursue policies strengthening parental involvement in such pivotal decisions for their children.
“The claim that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones prevent suicides is being used by the Biden administration and state policymakers to ease access to those drugs,&#8221; Jay Greene, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow, Center for Education Policy, told <a href="https://www.dailywire.com">The Daily Wire</a>. &#8220;As it turns out, the science behind that claim is extremely weak and when the evidence is examined properly, it shows that making cross-sex treatments more widely available risks raising youth suicide rates rather than reducing them.”
The findings, which have not gone through peer-review, could be significant in light of President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a>&#8216;s administration&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-early-trans-surgeries-hormones-are-crucial-for-kids-teens-who-identify-as-trans">recent assertion</a> that &#8220;early&#8221; interventions are &#8220;crucial&#8221; for the health of kids and teens who identify as transgender and nonbinary.  In making those claims, Biden is <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/doctors-agree-gender-affirming-care-is-life-saving-care">echoing</a> groups like the ACLU and LGBTQ organizations like the Trevor Project.
&#8220;It’s clear that gender-affirming care has the potential to reduce rates of depression and suicide attempts while banning this vital care and exposing young people to harmful political rhetoric can cause real harm,” Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of The Trevor Project, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/hormone-therapy-linked-lower-suicide-risk-trans-youths-study-finds-rcna8617">said in December</a>, noting that it is &#8220;critical that all transgender and nonbinary youth across the country have access to medical care that is affirming, patient-centered, and evidence-based.&#8221;
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To help transgender youth and their parents thrive, the <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WhiteHouse</a> highlighted several new resources including OPA’s resource on gender-affirming care and why it is important. <a href="https://t.co/QohcgIFzfP">https://t.co/QohcgIFzfP</a> <a href="https://t.co/4tAz8yMndl">https://t.co/4tAz8yMndl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TDov2022?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TDov2022</a>
&mdash; Office of Population Affairs (@HHSPopAffairs) <a href="https://twitter.com/HHSPopAffairs/status/1509617985002037250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Prior research conducted on the relationship between adolescent suicides and puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones is weak not only because it doesn&#8217;t contain &#8220;credibly causal studies and only a handful of correlational studies,&#8221; Green wrote, but also because the correlational studies previously conducted are &#8220;poorly executed.&#8221;
Elevated suicide rates in states where minors can easily access puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones became &#8220;observable&#8221; in 2010, Green wrote, noting that &#8220;rather than being protective against suicide, this pattern indicates that easier access by minors to cross-sex medical interventions without parental consent is associated with higher risk of suicide.&#8221;
The report found that around 2016, suicide rates among young people aged 12 to 23 began to increase dramatically in states with provisions allowing minors to access healthcare without parental consent, compared to states that do not have such a provision. This was after cross-sex medical intervention became more common, the report said.
&#8220;By 2020, there are about 3.5 more suicides per 100,000 people ages 12 to 23 in states with easier access than in states without an access provision,&#8221; the study said, noting that &#8220;there is no similar spike in suicide rates among those ages 28 to 39&#8221; at that time.
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Here&#39;s how the White House describes &quot;gender-affirming care&quot; <a href="https://t.co/6XHyVxkcSo">pic.twitter.com/6XHyVxkcSo</a>
&mdash; Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1509572326995771396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2022</a></blockquote>
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States that have the minor access provision include Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, and Vermont, according to the analysis, which notes that there is &#8220;no obvious geographic, demographic, or partisan pattern to whether states have these provisions.
Before 2010, Green found, state policies allowing minors to access healthcare without parental consent did not really play into the trend in suicide rates among young people aged 12 to 23.
&#8220;The timing of the increase in suicide rates&#8221; raises &#8220;serious concerns about the effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones on suicide risks, Green wrote, noting that the suicide rates increased &#8220;only among young people, only after puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are introduced and used widely, and only in states where minors could access those medical interventions without parental consent.&#8221;
The Heritage Foundation analysis stops short of examining whether people who obtain &#8220;gender-related medical interventions are at a higher risk of suicide.&#8221; But it does directly examine &#8220;the state policies that facilitate minors accessing those interventions without parental consent and finds that those policies raise suicide risks among young people.&#8221;
&#8220;To believe that easier access to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are not the cause of elevated suicide risk in those states, one would have to be able to imagine other medical interventions that only became widely available after 2010 and would only affect young people,&#8221; Green wrote. &#8220;The lack of theoretically plausible alternatives strengthens the case for concluding that cross-sex medical interventions are the cause of the observed increase in suicide among young people.&#8221;
The Heritage Foundation report did not analyze a 2019 study published in JAMA Psychiatry, which found that exposure to conversion therapy, &#8220;a discredited practice that seeks to change a trans person’s gender identity,&#8221; is linked to suicidal thoughts and attempts, according to <a class="c-link" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/early-access-gender-affirming-hormones-linked-better-mental-health-stu-rcna11839" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/early-access-gender-affirming-hormones-linked-better-mental-health-stu-rcna11839" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">NBC News</a>. However, the Foundation did examine the survey that the 2019 study was based on, finding it to be unrepresentative of all American adults who identify as transgender &#8220;because its participants were recruited as a convenience sample, largely through transgender support groups.&#8221;

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Think Tank Report Questions Claims That Puberty Blockers, Hormones Prevent Suicide Among ‘Trans’ Kids

Think Tank Report Questions Claims That Puberty Blockers, Hormones Prevent Suicide Among 'Trans' Kids

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Under President Biden’s policies, the U.S. economy has plunged to an all-time low, based on ratings laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Index of Economic Freedom.
“The United States’ economic freedom score is 72.1, making its economy the 25th freest in the 2022 Index. The United States is ranked 3rd among 32 countries in the Americas region, and its overall score is above the regional and world averages,” Heritage <a href="https://www.heritage.org/index/country/unitedstates">reported</a>. The score of 72.1 is a record-low for the U.S., which fell from the 20th spot in last year’s rating.
This news follows <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inflation-soars-to-four-decade-high-of-7-5">reports</a> that inflation continued its once-in-a-generation surge in January, reaching a rate of 7.5% in the U.S. According to the United States Department of Labor, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) — which tracks costs faced by the typical American family — attained its <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/us-inflation-consumer-price-index-january-2022-11644452274?mod=hp_lead_pos6">highest</a> rate of increase since February 1982. Core CPI, which does not consider volatile categories such as food and energy, increased by 6% year-over-year.”
&#8220;This year’s Index of Economic Freedom paints a disturbing picture, both at home and abroad,&#8221; Heritage President Kevin Roberts said of the report. &#8220;The decline of American economic freedom is serious cause for alarm and has real and tangible consequences for all Americans, especially low-income families and the working class.&#8221;
&#8220;Since early 2020, when the Chinese Communist Party unleashed the COVID-19 pandemic on the world, we have dealt with one of the greatest political, social and economic upheavals of the past century,&#8221; Roberts added. 
“The index, launched in 1995, evaluates countries on rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency and open markets, while also examining specific categories such as property rights, judicial effectiveness, government integrity and tax burden,” <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/economy-joe-biden-all-time-low-heritage-freedom-index">Fox Business</a> explained.
&#8220;The lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people have been deeply disrupted, not just by the virus, but especially by draconian lockdowns, intrusive public health mandates and restrictions on commerce and trade. Trillions of dollars in new federal spending have further weakened our economy and caused a historic spike in inflation,” Roberts noted.
Based on the <a href="https://www.heritage.org/index/">index</a>, Singapore leads the international rankings, with Switzerland in second place and Ireland in third place. The U.S. is behind the U.K. at 24th place and Cyprus at 23rd.
In 177th place, North Korea is the least free nation in the world, with Venezuela at 176th and Cuba at 175th.
&#8220;We have an opportunity to speak to the very real concerns of Americans struggling in an economy where they are increasingly losing not just their freedom, but evermore of their hard-earned saving,&#8221; Roberts said. &#8220;It’s time for the U.S. government to get its fiscal house in order, unleash freedom here at home and help Americans flourish once again through self-governance.&#8221;
“Look again, slight digression, inflation is up. It’s up,” Biden said previously of U.S. inflation. “And, coming from a family when the price of gas went up you felt it in the household, you knew what it was like, it matters.”
“But the fact is that — if we are able to do the things that I am talking about here, it will bring down the cost for average families. It will bring down the cost for average families, I don’t know why they keep moving and all that, but the fact is they keep down the cost for average families,” Biden added.
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at<a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth"> @ighaworth</a>.
The Daily Wire’s first original film, Shut In, has made its cinematic debut, being met with rave reviews. The Daily Wire is building an alternative to the leftist entertainment industry, one gripping movie at a time. Join us in this mission and stream Shut In today by becoming a Daily Wire <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">member</a>.

‘Serious Cause For Alarm’: U.S. Economy Plunges Under Biden To All Time Low In Heritage ‘Index Of Economic Freedom’

<a href="https://www.heritage.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Heritage Foundation</a> President Kay Coles James, who has headed the conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., since 2018, announced her resignation in a letter Monday.
RealClearPolitics White House reporter Philip Melanchthon Wegmann first reported that James was stepping down in a Twitter thread that included a letter she sent to friends and family regarding her departure.
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Scoop: <a href="https://twitter.com/Heritage?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Heritage</a> President Kay Coles James will announce her resignation this afternoon.
&mdash; Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1374007663948877827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;I wanted you to be some of the first to know this afternoon I will publicly announce my resignation as president of The Heritage Foundation,&#8221; James wrote in part. She went on to recount how she began at the organization in the 1990s as senior fellow and later became a trustee before becoming president. &#8220;I have accomplished the goals I set out to achieve when I first became president,&#8221; she later said.
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Just got the full resignation letter. Read below: <a href="https://t.co/Vwsv6jJYkX">pic.twitter.com/Vwsv6jJYkX</a>
&mdash; Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilipWegmann/status/1374009570213965827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote>
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In a press release issued later on Monday, confirming James&#8217; resignation effective April 16, as well as that Dr. Kim R. Holmes, the foundation&#8217;s executive vice president. James will remain on the board of trustees.
“When we came on board as the executive leadership team three years ago, we set several goals and told Heritage’s board of trustees that we would serve for three to five years to see them through,” the press released quoted James. “We accomplished everything we set out to do. Now it’s time to let someone else take the reins.&#8221;
Barb Van Andel-Gaby, chairman of Heritage’s board of trustees, said in part: “I am incredibly grateful to Kay James and Kim Holmes for their leadership of The Heritage Foundation over the past three years. Their tireless dedication to Heritage has taken the organization to new heights, led to numerous accomplishments, and positioned the Heritage team to be ready for the battles ahead. Heritage today is the most important conservative organization in America because of their leadership.&#8221;
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Big <a href="https://twitter.com/Heritage?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Heritage</a> news today. Both <a href="https://twitter.com/KayColesJames?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KayColesJames</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/kimsmithholmes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kimsmithholmes</a> are retiring to make room for new conservative team.
&#39;Kim and I achieved everything we set out to do,&#39; said James. <a href="https://t.co/onP0b3ZloZ">pic.twitter.com/onP0b3ZloZ</a>
&mdash; Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecretsBedard/status/1374019344259289097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The Heritage Foundation has served as a major influence in conservative politics and policy making since it was founded in 1973 and recently brought on board former Vice President Mike Pence as a distinguished teaching fellow. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-vice-president-mike-pence-joins-the-heritage-foundation">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Former Vice President Mike Pence will be joining The Heritage Foundation as a distinguished visiting fellow, the conservative organization announced Thursday.
“Over the course of the past four years, our team at Heritage has worked closely with members of the Trump administration on a host of policy accomplishments,” said Heritage President Kay C. James in a statement provided to The Daily Wire.
“That’s why I am excited Vice President Mike Pence will join forces with Heritage to ensure we continue to advance conservative principles and policy solutions. His allegiance to the Constitution and commitment to advancing a conservative policy agenda make him an outstanding fit for The Heritage Foundation.”
[&#8230;]
Pence looks to The Heritage Foundation as the inspiration that moved him to help create the <a href="http://inpolicy.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Indiana Policy Review Foundation</a> (IPR) in 1989, a conservative think tank in his home state that he led as president from 1991 to 1993. During a 2008 speech delivered at Heritage, Pence praised them as the model for IPR, which he described as “the seed corn Heritage Foundation was spreading around the country in the state think tank movement.”</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tucker-carlson-attacks-heritage-foundation-heritage-foundation-fires-back-in-statement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tucker Carlson Attacks Heritage Foundation. Heritage Foundation Fires Back In Statement.</a>

Kay Coles James, President of The Heritage Foundation,

President Of The Heritage Foundation Announces Resignation

Before signing an executive order kick-starting the process to require that “everyone working for the federal government get a minimum wage of $15 an hour,” Biden said that we were in a “national emergency.”
“We need to act like we’re in a national emergency. So we’ve got to move with everything we got,” Biden <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-sign-two-executive-orders-covid-economic-relief-worker-protections-n1255239">said</a> in a speech.
“If we act now, our economy will be stronger in both the short and long run. That’s what economists both left, right and center are telling us.”
In an “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/22/executive-order-protecting-the-federal-workforce/">Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce</a>,” signed on January 22, Biden described career civil servants as “the backbone of the Federal workforce,” and laid the groundwork for a federal minimum wage of $15.
In Section 5 of the order, titled “Progress Toward a Living Wage for Federal Employees,” Biden directs the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to “provide a report to the President with recommendations to promote a $15/hour minimum wage for Federal employees.” 
In the pursuit of a broader federally-mandated minimum wage of $15 per hour, Biden included such a proposal as part of his $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package, <a href="https://www.kiplinger.com/personal-finance/careers/salaries/602086/biden-proposes-15-minimum-wage">saying</a> “if you work for less than $15 an hour and work 40 hours a week, you&#8217;re living in poverty.” 
While Biden has expressed some doubt that the relief proposal will be a successful vehicle for this policy, he has also said that he was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/05/politics/biden-minimum-wage-covid-proposal/index.html">prepared</a> “on a separate negotiation on minimum wage, to work my way up,” having campaigned on raising the minimum wage prior to winning the election.
Multiple high profile Democrats have spoken enthusiastically in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MI) claimed that raising the minimum wage would lift hundreds of thousands of Americans out of poverty.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Raising the minimum wage to $15 would lift 900,000 out of poverty.
It’s time!
&mdash; Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) <a href="https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1358822912036392961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2021</a></blockquote>
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that we need “more than $15,” calling to “push for more equitable pay.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that they were “proud” of the bill which included a $15 minimum wage, and that “27 million people will get a raise.”
Unfortunately, the reality of minimum wage increases is far from the economic utopia being presented by Democrats, and is closer to the outcome of Biden’s other job-killing executive orders and policies.
In January, Fox Business reported the findings of the Congressional Budget Committee, who found that Biden’s $15 minimum wage proposals would “reduce business income and raise prices,” as well as destroying countless jobs.
“Biden’s effort to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour is estimated to kill as many as 3.7 million jobs, according to a recent nonpartisan analysis by the Congressional Budget Office,” Fox Business<a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/heres-how-many-jobs-bidens-proposed-15-minimum-wage-could-kill-according-to-the-cbo"> reported</a>. “Based on the CBO&#8217;s median estimate, 1.3 million workers who would otherwise be employed would be jobless in an average week in 2025, an 0.8% reduction. However, the CBO also noted that a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour would increase the wages of 17 million workers in an average week in 2025.”
In July 2019, the CBO also<a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2019-07/CBO-55410-MinimumWage2019.pdf"> forecast</a> that increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour would “Reduce business income and raise prices as higher labor costs were absorbed by business owners and then passed on to consumers,” and “Reduce the nation’s output slightly through the reduction in employment and a corresponding decline in the nation’s stock of capital (such as buildings, machines, and technologies).”
In June 2017, when a team of economists<a href="https://evans.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/files/w23532_0.pdf"> studied</a> the effects on employment when the city of Seattle moved to increase its minimum wage — hitting a $13 minimum in 2016 — they found that this “reduced hours worked in low-wage jobs by around 9 percent.” Later<a href="https://evans.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/files/w25182.pdf"> research</a> in October 2018 found that “less-experienced workers saw no significant change to weekly pay.”
Just this week, the Congressional Budget Office <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-wages-cbo/biden-minimum-wage-hike-would-boost-incomes-but-cut-jobs-in-2025-cbo-idUSKBN2A822S">said</a> that “Joe Biden’s plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025 would cut employment by 1.4 million jobs that year and increase the budget deficit by $54 billion over the next 10 years.” While the “non-partisan legislative budget referee agency” claimed that the minimum wage increase would “lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty in 2025,” they acknowledged that this would be somewhat offset by 1.4 million fewer workers employed “as some companies will choose to invest more in technology or automation.”
“Young, less-educated people would account for a disproportionate share of those reductions in employment,” the CBO said.
In addition, according to <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/biden-15-minimum-wage-childcare-costs-increase">analysis</a> carried out by Rachel Greszler — an economics research fellow at the Heritage Foundation — a $15 minimum wage would raise the cost of child care by an average of 21% across the United States, equating to $3,728 per year for a family with two children.
“With childcare consuming even more of family budgets — 40 percent or more of the median household incomes in a lot of states — many families could be priced out of the childcare market completely,” Greszler <a href="http://report.heritage.org/bg3584">wrote</a>. “In turn, the unintended consequences of a $15 minimum wage could force some parents to give up their jobs and live on lower household incomes, while causing others — particularly single parents — to turn to non-licensed, typically illegal, childcare.”
The economic reality being intentionally ignored or dismissed by Democrats is that simply raising the minimum wage does not guarantee that every current worker will therefore receive a higher income. As summarized by Thomas Sowell, “making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount — and if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed.”
The claim made by Democrats assumes both that every one of these lower-paying jobs is safe from replacement or removal, and that companies are financially able to pay the additional wage.
These are obviously untrue. Earlier this week, the supermarket chain Kroger <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2021/02/02/kroger-tests-all-self-checkout-store.html">announced</a> that they were “about to test its first store that offers only self-service checkout lanes using enhanced capabilities.” Presumably, if successful, this would result in the removal of the minimum wage jobs of checkout workers. 
Larger corporations, such as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/amazon-wants-15-federal-minimum-wage">Amazon</a>, are also advocating for a federally-mandated $15 minimum wage. Many argue that the goal here is to place a further financial disadvantage upon the small businesses already struggling to compete.
Not only that, there is the mathematical fact that $15 does not hold the same value across the United States. Writing for the Daily Wire, Rachel Greszler <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-size-15-minimum-wage-doesnt-fit-most">noted</a> that “costs of living vary significantly across the United States.”
“The federal government recognizes these differences (albeit imperfectly) through locality-based adjustments to the General Schedule pay scale which increases some workers’ pay by as much as 40% due to higher costs-of-living,” Greszler continued.
“But lawmakers pushing a $15 nationwide minimum wage are failing to recognize these differences, and while no city or state can escape the unintended consequences of a $15 minimum wage, some areas will be especially hard-hit.” 
“In Mississippi, for example, the median wage is $15 per hour. That means that half of all workers in Mississippi earn less than $15 per hour, and half earn more. Imposing a $15 minimum wage on Mississippi would be like imposing a $21.24 minimum wage on California, a $24.14 minimum wage on Massachusetts, and a whopping $35.74 minimum wage on DC.”
In a piece for the Daily Signal, Greszler summarized “<a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/07/11/here-are-6-ways-a-new-report-devastates-the-15-minimum-wage/">6 Ways a New Report Devastates the $15 Minimum Wage</a>:”
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">It would be a job-killer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">It would create a survival-of-the-fittest labor market.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">It would expedite the pace of automation.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">It would drive up prices.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">It would shrink the economy, and shrink family incomes.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">It would drive up deficits, inflation, and interest rates.</li>
</ol>
As many in the country already struggle with the results of government mandated lockdowns in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, none of these likely outcomes should be a point of celebration.
Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ighaworth">@ighaworth</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Minimum Wage

Unemployment, Inflation, and Automation: The Truth About The $15 Minimum Wage

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Democratic Party

Ilhan Omar

Nancy Pelosi

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