Happy February!
During a visit this week with my colleagues at America First Policy Institute, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise laid out a strong agenda for the new conservative House majority. I’m hopeful we’ll see some bipartisan wins in areas like fiscal responsibility and preventing tragic fentanyl deaths. Our country’s future should be a shared interest.
For Real Clear Policy, I looked at the effect of Illinois’ interest-rate caps. Researchers with the Federal Reserve System hypothesized that Illinois’ move would slash the credit availability for high-risk borrowers. They were right. Illinois left these borrowers, often minority, low-income Americans, struggling. It the exact opposite outcome promised by the progressives running the Land of Lincoln into an inhospitable business climate (it’s no wonder people are fleeing Illinois and other blue states for better-run red states).
Founded by Democrat Nellie Gray in 1974, March For Life on January 20th marked 50 years since the court ruled in Roe v. Wade, but the first March since Roe fell. Many of us who marched felt electric jubilation about a post-Roe America. And while the pomp and pageantry was exciting and the weather perfectly sunny and warm, ultimately this is a sorrowful day. It’s a funeral march of sorts, for the tens of millions of lives lost through abortion. Supporting pregnancy resource centers, enforcing rights and responsibilities of fathers to the unborn, and educating mothers about free adoption placement services are ways we show compassion for both mother and child.
My late grandfather served for 14 years in the Utah state legislature, and I think he’d be glad to see a new push to reform public sector unionizing in the Beehive State today. I wrote about this for Independent Women’s Forum: the state bill would ban public employers from deducting union dues from a public employee’s wages (with a few special exceptions), and it would ban using taxpayer dollars or public property to aid or discourage union drive efforts. The government should not be able to use taxpayer money to organize unions that then extract pay raises that put them even further ahead of the people who hired them. This conflict-of-interest is why staunch Democrat FDR opposed public sector unions. In the spirit of bipartisanship, I’m encouraged we’ll see some reforms.
Hoping you keep cozy this chilly February and feel loved on Valentine’s Day and beyond!
-Carrie