Heartland Weekly – Four Liberal U.S. Senators Attack Heartland, and We Reply

Published June 12, 2017

If you don’t visit Freedom Pub and the Heartlander digital magazine every day, you’re missing out on some of the best news and commentary on liberty and free markets you can find. But worry not, freedom lovers! Heartland Weekly is here for you every Monday with a highlight show. Subscribe to the email today, and read this week’s edition below.

Trump’s Exit from Climate Accord Puts America First, for a Change
Isaac Orr, San Francisco Chronicle
President Trump said Thursday that the United States is formally exiting the Obama-era Paris climate accord. Despite the decidedly shrill cries made by environmental groups claiming withdrawal from the accord will spell doom for Earth’s climate, the poorly negotiated treaty would have done very little to avert global warming and would have hurt everyday Americans struggling to pay their bills and seeking to find high-paying jobs. READ MORE

Puerto Rico Bankruptcy Storm Heading for Mainland America
Jesse Hathaway, Townhall
The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, a federal board tasked with managing the island commonwealth’s course out of fiscal emergency, declared failure on May 3, filing paperwork to begin court proceedings restructuring the government debt. Puerto Rico is circling the drain, financially speaking, but it’s not too late for mainland lawmakers to learn from the island’s mistakes. READ MORE

Four Liberal U.S. Senators Attack Heartland, and We Reply
Joseph Bast, Freedom Pub
It is almost unbelievable how low Heartland’s opponents stoop in their effort to demonize us and stop President Trump from repealing the worst parts of Barack Obama’s legacy. Four U.S. Senators – Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Edward Markey (D-MA) – sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos demanding to know if her department “had contact with individuals associated with the Heartland Institute on climate, science, or science education issues.” I replied politely. READ MORE

Featured Podcast: Jay Lehr: The Possibilities for EPA and Climate Reform Under President Trump
Jay Lehr, science director with the Heartland Institute, argues the Environmental Protection Agency has come a long way from its roots and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the radical environmental movement, and bases policy on the false premise human actions dominate climate. The election of Donald Trump as president, though, provides a powerful opportunity to reform energy and environmental policy and roll back the economically harmful actions taken by the Obama administration. LISTEN TO MORE

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If you’re a fan of Heartland’s daily podcasts on public policy, we have a favor to ask: Leave us a positive five-star review on iTunes! Giving one or more of our six podcast feeds a positive review helps more people find it at iTunes. And it also helps drown out the negative reviews that Heartland’s well-organized opponents in the public square are eager to post. Just go to iTunes and search for the Heartland Daily Podcast, the Environment and Climate News podcast, the Budget and Tax News podcast, the Health Care News podcast, the School Reform News podcast, and the In The Tank podcast. Help us grow these great products, which are on pace to be downloaded and listened to nearly two million times in 2017!

Compulsory School Attendance: Compassionate or Counterproductive?
Teresa Mull, American Spectator
Earlier this month, an Arizona state legislator did the unthinkable: He proposed returning power to the people by repealing compulsory school attendance laws. Compulsory education requirements have effectively reversed the role government has in Americans’ lives, from having citizens tell the state what to do to having the state telling citizens what they must do. READ MORE

CBO Has Become The Enemy Of Republican Health Care Reform
Peter Ferrara, Investor’s Business Daily
The Republican health care bill repeals many of the costly Obamacare regulations driving up health insurance costs, and further grants power to states to waive the remainder. Even the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) admits that this deregulation will reduce health insurance premiums, and that such premium reduction will diminish the number of uninsured. But the CBO rejects Republican policies of choice and competition. What it embraces is outright coercion in the form of the individual and employer mandates. READ MORE

Thousands of School-Choice Hungry Families Left Empty-Handed in Nevada
Teresa Mull, School Choice Weekly
Thousands of families who signed up to take part in Nevada’s education savings account program will have to wait at least two more years because Democrats in the legislature worked this session to deny them the right to choose how they’re educated. Nevada’s budget will include more money for the state’s tax-credit scholarship, but that’s not what the people asked for. As usual, politics has gotten in the way of good policy, and children will suffer for it. READ MORE

NFL Barber Shop Faces Same Kind of Threat Hurting Patients
Michael Hamilton, Consumer Power Report
An ex-convict and entrepreneur, a barber for several players on the Green Bay Packers, could be forced to shut his doors thanks to an occupational licensing law resembling regulations that have long choked the supply of health care providers. If lawmakers really want to understand how occupational licensing chokes provider supply, they should visit Albert Walker’s Imago Dei Barber Lounge in Green Bay, Wisconsin – while they still can. READ MORE

Bonus Podcast: Fred Palmer: America and Coal’s Brighter Future Under President Trump
Coal drove the industrial revolution, and even with stiff competition from natural gas, can play a more vital role in America’s economic progress than it currently does because of Obama-era regulations. President Trump is rolling back these restrictions and pushing his American First Energy Plan, which means using all of the country’s domestic fossil fuel resources. Coal’s recovery will help power faster growth for the U.S. economy and a brighter future for the American people. LISTEN TO MORE

PBS’ Fake History: Greeks and Democracy
Edmund Contoski, American Liberty
Recently the Public Broadcasting Service aired a three-part series about Greece on its Nature program. It explained that with limited arable land, Greece grew from rude beginnings to unprecedented prosperity by becoming a center for trade in the Mediterranean. PBS would have us believe this occurred because of democracy. But historian Louis Rougier writes that two other factors – which the PBS program never even mentioned – were more important: private property and sound money. READ MORE

Pittsburgh, Paris and the Possible
Rich Trzupek, Environment & Climate News
While announcing his decision to withdrawal America from participation in the silly Paris climate accord, President Trump noted that he “…was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” It was classic Trump: brassy, pithy and completely politically incorrect. In response, Pittsburgh’s Democratic Mayor Bill Peduto said “we will work to move towards 100 percent clean and renewable energy for our future, our economy, and our people.” The Mayor’s statement is classic political double-talk, promising everything and nothing at the same time. READ MORE