Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues today.
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Civil Unrest Continues In Minneapolis: Mass Detainments, Unlawful Assembly Declared – The police interact with the public millions of times a week as part of their official duties. For the most part, they carry out their responsibilities in a professional, honorable way, and deserve our thanks and respect. In the rare instances when those interactions are inappropriate, violate someone’s rights, or worse, they must be investigated. When an officer violates departmental policy, a person’s rights, or commits a crime, he must be held accountable, including, when appropriate, prosecuted. While it is entirely appropriate to express disgust and outrage at rare instances of police misconduct, it is never appropriate to resort to violence. Riots, mayhem, looting, and the like are inexcusable, and those engaged in that criminal behavior must also be held criminally accountable for their actions. Heritage expert: Cully Stimson

Reform of Policing: What Makes Sense—and What Doesn’t – As former prosecutors, we helped train police officers, and we understand how important continuing education is for law enforcement officers. Several major police departments, for example, have curbed or banned the use of chokeholds, and the few that haven’t will, no doubt, follow suit. The outsized role currently played by police unions in management decisions, which makes it difficult for police departments to weed out bad cops, may be ripe for reexamination. Other potentially meritorious proposals might include increased use of body and patrol car cameras and increased funding for training on, among other things, de-escalation techniques. Developing best-practice guidelines, greater review of use-of-force tactics and incidents, a review of policies surrounding no-knock warrants in drug cases, and greater transparency about police misconduct inquiries that are deemed to be meritorious are all ideas worth exploring in greater detail. Heritage experts: Cully Stimson and John Malcolm

The Left’s “Jim Crow” Rhetoric Is Absurd, Insulting, and Dishonest – The idea that Georgia is somehow doing something nefarious by preventing gift-giving at the polls is bizarre, and ignores the unfortunate, long history we have of this type of corruption and undue influence being used in our elections. By the way, unmentioned in the hysterical criticisms is new language making it ok for poll officials to make “self-service water from an unattended receptacle” available to “an elector waiting in line.” The Georgia bill that was just signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp has many provisions intended to protect the security and integrity of the election process, not prevent eligible individuals from voting or from succumbing to thirst while waiting in line to vote. Heritage expert: Hans von Spakovsky

Medicaid at 55: Understanding the Design, Trends, and Reforms Needed to Improve the Health Care Safety Net – Medicaid is a joint federal–state program aimed at providing health care assistance to certain low-income individuals. Competing beneficiary priorities, a cumbersome and outdated administrative structure, and a flawed financing model are weakening the foundation of the program. Instead of undermining this federal–state partnership with a one-size-fits-all federal approach, Congress should ensure that states have the flexibility to adapt. In addition, Congress should take steps to address the more fundamental challenges facing the program, including preserving eligibility for those in need, allowing benefits to match the needs of beneficiaries more precisely, and restructuring the financing to target resources and dollars more effectively. Heritage expert: Nina Schaefer

Federal Spending Alone Can’t Buy Energy Innovation – The pandemic and government responses to it at the federal, state, and local levels also revealed many areas where regulatory barriers were stifling creativity, innovation, and access to capital and labor. Congress should reevaluate policies that drive up the costs of labor in the U.S., remove barriers to capital formation, make sense of export regulations and trade barriers, and ferret out byzantine permitting regulations and other approvals required at the federal, state, and local levels that kill ideas from ever getting their legs under them. These are the kinds of issues that Congress, the Biden administration, and state governors and policymakers should be looking into, rather than rushing to spend billions of tax dollars. Heritage expert: Katie Tubb

The Life of Jailed Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Is in Peril. US Must Act to Save Him. – The United States should strongly consider introducing Magnitsky sanctions for the human rights abuses being committed against Navalny, and should also consider imposing sanctions on specific Russian businesspeople who supervise the funds of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies. Navalny himself produced a list of those Russian businesspeople who could specifically be sanctioned. In addition, the U.S. should consider imposing sanctions on the five authorities who work for the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Vladimir Oblast—where the town and penal colony of Pokrov are located—as well as on the numerous authorities who work at the penal colony itself. Heritage expert: Alexis Mrachek

Military Families Deserve Flexible Education Options – Besides providing education alternatives to military-connected children, education savings accounts could have myriad other positive benefits, such as improving recruitment and retention rates, since service members wouldn’t have to choose between their career and their children’s education. In fact, Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., has introduced a proposal that would provide education savings accounts for military-connected children. This reform would provide crucial support for military families and could improve national defense. Service members and their families already make untold sacrifices for their country. Their children’s education, however, should not be sacrificed. Heritage expert: Jude Schwalbach