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Lots of new content on PolicySphere these past few days: our analysis of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which recently passed the House on a bipartisan basis, and is accused by some on the right of threatening speech (our answer: potentially yes); our interview with Jeremy Carl on his important new book The Unprotected Class; and finally, hot off the presses this morning, our exclusive interview with Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, one of the most substantive interviews you’ll see on this crucial policy issue.
Now on to your policy links…
#Immigration – In a move that strikes us as indefensible on the merits and suicidal in an election year, “will provide taxpayer-funded healthcare through Obamacare exchanges to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.” Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio commented, extremely common-sensically, “This is a slap in the face to every hardworking American who plays by the rules.” In related news, leaked images obtained by Fox News Digital show evidence of a program by ICE to issue ID cards to illegal immigrants. This will certainly put to bed any conspiracy theories about Democrats importing illegal immigrants so they can vote themselves a permanent majority… Regardless, the most extreme immigration views have been mainstreamed in the Democratic Party; we learned about this striking phenomenon and much else in our recent exclusive interview with Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies.
#Drugs – From Charles Fain Lehman of the Manhattan Institute, to our mind the best crime policy analyst in America today: “[T]he Drug Enforcement Agency on Tuesday waved forward the Biden administration’s efforts to change the legal status of marijuana. […] The proposal, not yet finalized, would see marijuana “rescheduled” on the list of controlled substances from Schedule I (denoting high risk of abuse and no accepted medical use) to Schedule III (accepted medical use but moderate to low potential for abuse). […] The primary beneficiaries will be states’ legal marijuana businesses, which will see up to $2 billion in tax relief. In its haste to appease the pro-marijuana base, the administration has done nothing to advance the justice it claims to believe in and everything to advance the interests of big business.” Read the whole thing.
#Crime – Speaking of crime policy, this excellent thread from the new group America 2100 goes over the evidence for “broken windows policing,” reminding us that high crime is a policy choice.
#Socialism – Socialist policies in Canada reach their logical terminus: “Canada proposes a $25,000 penalty plus a 2x exit tax to citizens who leave the country” (Link)
#Academia – “Some economists tried to reproduce the results of 67 economics papers and they pretty much couldn’t do it; even with help from authors, only half of papers ended up being reproducible” (Via internet commentator Crémieux) Taxpayers heavily subsidize academia, with countless negative downstream effects such as student debt, student political radicalism, and so on; but, at least, we think, we get valuable science out of it. What if that, too, is fraudulent? Totally unrelated, surely: “Stanford University employs at least 177 full-time diversity, equity, and inclusion bureaucrats,” Manhattan Institute’s Chris Rufo reports.
#FamilyPolicy – From the legendary Tim Carney at the Washington Post: “The ideal number of kids in a family: four (at a minimum)” He points out what parents of large families know, which is that children have economies of scale; they take care of each other, and there is less micromanagement involved, so that having a large family is actually less (or not more) work than one or two children.
#FamilyPolicy – Related: the excellent Twitter account @MoreBirths, which chronicles the global fertility decline and suggests ideas on reversing it, has a valuable thread on the importance of culture, and specifically religion, to boosting fertility.
#Chyna – Bloomberg News: France’s Macron Calls For Reset of Economic Ties With China. “I’m calling for an ‘aggiornamento’ because China is now in excess capacity in many areas and exports massively to Europe,” Macron said.
#Trans – From Heritage’s Sarah Parshall Perry: “America First Legal lawsuit reveals shocking internal emails from HHS meetings with ‘gender-affirming care providers,’ discussing how to leverage Federal power to evade state law banning mutilation of children. If ever there was a doubt that this administration is out to actively ‘trans’ kids, this ought to do it.” Link.
#TheFuture – A new RAND report studies the sources of national renewal. Interesting, important topic! “History is full powerful nations that hit their peak and then stagnate and eventually decline. This new report explores what’s needed for a great power to achieve revitalization.”
Chart of the Day
From Heritage’s E.J. Antoni: “Over the last 12 months, employment of native-born Americans has been essentially flat, with all net employment growth going to foreign-born workers.”
Meme of the Day
