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

Heritage Legal Scholar Responds to Biden Administration’s Court-Packing Commission <[link removed]> – Packing the courts would be devastating to our system of constitutional government and the rule of law, and would irreversibly damage our
democratic republic. It would risk turning the judiciary into an overtly political body, and completely undermine the American people’s confidence in the federal judiciary as a non-political, impartial, co-equal branch of government. The temptation for a successive president whose party enjoys majority control in the House and Senate to pack the court further would likely be irresistible, which would further undermine the stability of our legal system. This is a dangerous road we should not go down. Heritage expert: John Malcolm <[link removed]>
Heritage Experts Criticize President Biden’s Budget Proposal <[link removed]> – Perhaps more important, President Biden’s budget request gets a failing grade when it comes to what the taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are spent on. Agencies known for promulgating job-killing regulations and wasting taxpayer dollars, like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Education would see substantial increases in spending authority. Congress must exercise spending restraint instead of continuing down the path of seemingly endless federal spending on priorities that will not benefit taxpayers. President Biden’s budget request should be disregarded, and the Congress should chart a responsible path forward to complete the appropriations process. Heritage expert: David Ditch <[link removed]>
Why Joe Biden’s China Strategy Is Destined for Failure <[link removed]> – More than two months later, after it was clear that Trump’s travel restrictions had saved American lives, Biden’s
campaign played clean-up for him. A spokesperson claimed Biden had always supported the ban, although no one—including the candidate himself—had ever said so. Meanwhile, China lied to the entire world about the scope and deadliness of the virus outbreak and enlisted the aid of the World Health Organization (WHO) in that deception. Incredibly, China even blamed the American military for spreading the virus. In fact, the Chinese continue to allude to American military involvement to this day. Against this backdrop, Trump rightly determined that American taxpayers would no longer help fund the WHO if it continued to defer to China. Upon taking office, however, Biden unconditionally reversed that decision and effectively rewarded the bad actors who had impeded the global response to the pandemic in the first place. Heritage expert: Tim Murtaugh <[link removed]>
A Strong U.S. Response to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing <[link removed]> – The 2022 Winter Olympics are still scheduled to take place in Beijing—despite the Chinese Communist Party’s well-documented and gross human rights violations about which the U.S. and many other countries have expressed grave concern. The U.S. should lead an international coalition to pressure the International Olympic Committee to postpone the 2022 Olympics for the purpose of selecting a new host city. Should the Olympics take place in Beijing, China will have scored a major propaganda victory—giving the regime no incentive to end its abuses—proving that human rights are not really a serious concern for the U.S. and its friends around the world, after all. Heritage expert: Olivia Enos <[link removed]>
The Real HR 1 Problem: Illegal Immigrants Voting? <[link removed]> – The truth is, that America already has a problem with illegal immigrants registering and voting, as demonstrated by numerous reports and cases. Given the vulnerabilities and security weaknesses in the U.S. registration system, HR 1’s automatic registration threatens to make this problem much, much worse. Thus, The Washington Post’s claims to the contrary are deserving of four Pinocchios and a “pants on fire” for good measure. Heritage expert: Hans von Spakovsky <[link removed]>
Here’s why President Biden’s executive action on guns won’t stop gun violence <[link removed]> – Biden’s over-the-top rhetoric is itself
evidence of this. Despite years of gun control advocates decrying the nation’s “gun violence epidemic,” rates of gun homicide and overall gun crime in the United States are significantly lower today than in the early 1990s. This is true even though there has been a roughly equal increase in the number of privately owned guns per capita. Additionally, putting aside very serious potential issues with executive agencies stretching statutory definitions past their logical bounds, neither regulating “ghost guns” nor making gun owners pay a $200 tax for pistol arm
braces meaningfully addresses root causes of gun violence. These actions are, in fact, far more likely to turn responsible gun owners into felons than to prevent a single gun death. Heritage expert: Amy Swearer <[link removed]>

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