Category Archives: Fiscal Freedom

Connecting Latino caregivers to resources

A southern California program tried to overcome barriers between Latino caregivers and resources they need for support. Is it working?

Scott Norris, Natalia Rodrguez Medina and Maryann Batlle, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

Can tax credits for family caregivers provide more financial stability in households where the caregiver has sacrificed other impact to support a loved one in need? Let's take a closer look at a key element of proposals considered as part of President Joe Biden's social spending proposal currently under debate in Congress.

Family caregivers make up the vast majority of care providers in the United States, and in many cases, they receive no compensation for the work.

In fact, many spend thousands of dollars each year to care for their loved ones. A recent AARP study found that 78% of family caregivers are paying for care-related expenses out-of-pocket, at an average of $7,240 per year.

That's on top of income or other benefits that family caregivers may be losing if they're taking time away from work to care for an aging parent or family member with a disability.

Theresa Robertson, of Elkridge, Maryland, works from home at a small company she started a job that, critically, gives her enough freedom to care for her husband, Emanuel.

At 63, Emanuel Robertson has suffered a series of strokes and kidney failure, has been hospitalized countless times, and is experiencing mild vascular dementia.

Theresa Robertson needs to be at home toadminister his medication, check his blood pressure, take him to doctor's appointments and make sure he gets to dialysis.

Emanuel Robertson's care also takes money. Theresa, 58, estimates that the family spends$4,000 per year on caregiving expenses.

The Robertsons have spent their retirement savings. Theresa, who manages a team of virtual assistants remotely from her home, is missing out on all the benefits that a more traditional job would bring, includinghealth insurance and a retirement plan.

Right now, she's debating whether to get a job at night so that she can access better insurance for Emanuel Robertson, who needs a kidney transplant, and for herself.

It is incredibly difficult, Theresa Robertson said of the financial burden. It is a sacrifice.

Abill being considered in Congress recognizes the intense financial pressures on family caregivers. Called the Credit for Caring Act, the bill would offer tax credits of up to $5,000 to people like Robertson.

It's an acknowledgment of the fact that family caregivers provide hundreds of billions of dollars in unpaid care each year, sometimes leaving their jobs like Robertson has and losing out on healthcare, retirement savings and other benefits, according to the AARP.

The burden falls disproportionately on women, who make up 61% of family caregivers, and people of color, especially Hispanic and Black family caregivers, who report higher levels of financial strain.

Some family caregivers receive compensationthrough a patchwork of state Medicaid programs. But most states, including Maryland, do not pay spouses to care for their husbands or wives.

"Part of me feels like why should someone compensate me to take care of my husband? I love my husband, so there's nothing I wouldn't do to make sure he's safe," Theresa Robertson said.

"On the other hand, it's crushing."

Caregiver advocates say the tax credit could make a major difference for struggling families. But the financial situation for family caregivers is so dire that $5,000 won't be enough to cover the immense need for help.

"In my mind, it's not a bad idea, but it doesn't move the needle," said CharlotteDodge, the senior advocacy manager for Caring Across Generations. "It's not the kind of investment or support for family caregivers that I think we at Caring Across Generations would like to really prioritize."

What might make a bigger difference, Dodge said, is the Biden administration's proposal to spend $400 billion to bolster in-home caregiving services (though that number may be whittled down as Congress haggles over a massive spending proposal).

That plan could make professional, in-home care much more accessible, removing the burden from family members who care for their loved ones out of necessity.Hundreds of thousands of Americans are on state waiting lists for home- and community-based service waivers through Medicaid.

"Any massive investment in home- and community-based services could relieve the care burden by allowing more family caregivers to stay in the workforce," Dodge said.

Robertson said family caregivers would welcome "any help at all."

"Families are making (financial decisions) every day, all day long," she said. "What they can and can't do, what they can and can't afford. It's a matter of life and death, and they have to do it all by themselves."

Some programs already exist to compensate family caregivers, but they vary widely by state.

A few states allow spouses to serve as at-home caregivers and be paid throughMedicaid. But most states don't, or have strict limitations on which family members can get paid to care for a loved one.

It can feel arbitrary to family caregivers trying to navigate the system, experts said.

"On the whole, it's not a great system, and there are a lot of barriers and challenges for family caregivers," Dodge said.

A few innovative programs have tried to fill the gap, including the Veterans Health Administration's Caregiver Support Program.

The two-tiered program offers basic resources to anyone caring for a veteranand a more comprehensive set of support services for veterans and caregivers who meet a set of eligibility requirements.

The higher level of services includes a monthly stipend for family caregivers, which can vary depending on the veteran's needs, medical services for the caregiver, counseling and mental health services, respite care and travel expenses.

It is considered "the gold standard" for family caregiver support services, Dodge said.

"The support services that that program offers Ithink is definitely more robust than any other family caregiver program that I'm aware of," she said.

The program launched in 2011 to support veterans who came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with serious injuries that would require long-term care, saidDr. Colleen Richardson, the executive director of the VHA Caregiver Support Program.

"Men and women were surviving injuries they wouldn't have otherwise survived in other wars," Richardson said. "Spouses are giving up entire careers to care for these veterans. How do we help them?"

That's how the caregiver program was born, though for years it was limited to veterans who were seriously injured on or after Sept. 11, 2001.

The program has been celebrated for its innovative approach to supporting family caregivers, but its extensive services have come with a rising price tag as more veterans and their caregivers become eligible for the program.

The VHA at first vastly underestimated the need for these caregiver support services.

A 2014 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that about 15,600 caregivers had been approved for the support program more than three times the VHA's original estimate of 4,000 caregivers approved by Sept. 2014.

The costs of the program also grew with the number of caregivers. The GAO estimated the services would cost more than $263 million in the 2014 fiscal year, up from $225 million the previous year,and keep increasing.

Since then, the program has continued to expand. In 2020, the program began to include veterans who served prior to 1975. It is set to expand once again, to include veterans from all eras,in 2022.

The cost of the program is expected to balloon with the expansions.The Department of Veterans Affairs estimated the caregiver support program would cost nearly $1.2 billion in the 2021 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Research Service.

When lawmakers balked at the up-front costs of the proposed expansions in 2018, then-VA-Secretary David Shulkin argued that the program could ultimately save the government billions by reducing medical costs for veterans.

The program expansions have come with other obstacles, as well. The VA was two years behind when it implemented an IT system that would support the 2020 expansion.

The VA's Office of Inspector General estimated earlier this year thatabout 55,000 veterans would be eligible for family caregiver services by 2024.

Just tenmonths into the first expansion of the VA caregivers program, though, more than103,000 applications have come flooding in, Richardson said.

The VA is also planning listening sessions to assess how current caregivers feel about the program.

"I don't doubt we'll get some pretty honest feedback," Richardson said. "If we're not getting it right, ... I want to hear from them and see what we can do better."

Madeleine O'Neill has coveredthe Maryland State House and state issuesfor the USA TODAY Network. Email questions or story ideas to project editor Michael Kilian at mkilian@gannett.com

This and related stories on the Biden administration's caregiving plansare produced through the New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations and universities dedicated to rigorous and compelling reporting about successful responses to social problems. The group, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network, has been producing stories on potential solutions to the challenges facing caregivers of older adults.

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Biden plan: How tax credits might be the solution for family caregivers - Detroit Free Press

Singapore also has a progressive taxes and transfers system, the minister said, pointing to how the country has always maintained ahigh level of transfers to the lowest-income households.

Households in the bottom 20 per cent income bracket receive about S$4 in benefits for every dollar of tax paid, he pointed out in his speech.

The ratio is around 1:2 for middle-income households, while households in the top 20 per cent of income receive S$0.30 in benefits for every dollar of tax paid.

Our taxes and transfers system today is progressive, and we will keep it that way, said Mr Wong.

For the middle-income, we maintain a low tax burden so that they can enjoy the rewards of their hard work and have the freedom of choice in their expenditures.

Mr Wong added that unlike many European countries thatimpose hefty income taxes to support their welfare systems, Singapore has kept its public expenditure lean yet effective.

That is why half of the countrys working population do not have to pay personal income taxes, while the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rates are where they are today, he said.

"Going forward, we will need to raise revenue to fund our additional expenditure. But we will also move forward carefully to make sure that overall public spending remains effective, and that taxes remain as low as possible for the middle class, the minister said.

The Government first announced plans to raise the GST rate from 7 per cent to 9 per cent in Budget 2018. Earlier this year in Budget 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said the hike will take place between next year and 2025, and sooner rather than later depending on the economic outlook.

Delving into why the Government is looking to increase the GST, Mr Wong cited how Singapores healthcare needs alone will demand an additional 3 per cent of gross domestic product in spending over the next 10 years.

Including the need to invest in reducing emissions, providing quality education and maintaining security, the countrys needs are significant and growing.

Some of these can be borne through income taxes. But with rapid ageing, it will not be sustainable and will make it hard for our working population, said Mr Wong, adding that raising tax revenue is the sustainable and responsible way to fund recurrent expenditures.

(The GST) is a tax on final consumption, and it helps to smoothen the burden of taxation across the entire population young and old, and including tourists and foreigners when they spend money here.

Mr Wong added that Singapore is not alone, with many other jurisdictions having much higher GST or Value-added Tax (VAT) rates than Singapore.

Asked how the flare-up in inflation globally will influence the timing of the GST hike, the minister replied that the Government will consider the overall economic outlook, including the outlook on inflation, when it makes its decision.

But he stressed that the planned GST hike shouldn't be looked (at) in isolation, given that the Government hadpreviously announced the roll-out of a S$6 billion Assurance Package.

We have already set aside monies for this Assurance Package. Money is there so when GST is introduced, it will come along with the Assurance Package which will effectively delay the GST increase by about five years for majority of Singaporeans, the minister said during a dialogue session moderated by The Straits Times associate editor Vikram Khanna.

And for the lower-income Singaporeans, it will delay the GST increase effectively by 10 years.

Adding that the permanent GST Voucher scheme will also be enhanced, Mr Wong said: So look at it holistically, GST in Singapore is quite unique compared to almost all other countries.

Originally posted here:

Singapore studying how to expand wealth tax system as it relooks fiscal strategies: Lawrence Wong - CNA

A recently released school reform study in New York promises timely fiscal as well as educational benefits, and not just for the Empire State. Some quick background helps us appreciate the studys important implications for Connecticut.

In 2011, Arizona became the first state to adopt what is called an education savings account, or ESA, policy. ESA plans provide parents who believe their child is not adequately served by the local public school with an annual budget which can be spent on a variety of accredited options not just traditional private or parochial schools, but tutoring, online academies, special needs services, micro schools and so on.

In the years since, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia have all followed Arizonas lead with similar programs. A legal challenge from the local teacher union has kept the Nevada plan in litigation limbo, but grateful parents in the other states have been using ESAs to school their children at home or in small groups during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ESAs were originally designed as an instructional reform, to give K-12 children more learning options. But because the amount of an education savings account can be far less than a school districts per-pupil cost, ESAs have always had the potential to be a financial plus, as well.

Consider, for example, the situation in Hartford, where the public school per-pupil cost is almost seven times that of a typical K-8 parochial school tuition in the same area. The intriguing question in a fiscally troubled state like Connecticut is how much a statewide ESA policy might save all taxpayers.

In 2017, Marty Lueken, director of fiscal policy and analysis at the EdChoice Foundation, and I took the first steps to finding out. The time seemed right, as all three of Wall Streets big credit rating agencies had just downgraded our states debt.

The results of our research, published by the Yankee Institute for Public Policy, surprised even us. We discovered that if just 10 percent of Connecticut students were independently educated with an annual ESA allowance of $5,000, the net savings to taxpayers would be just over $385 million. As it turned out, this was almost exactly the amount of added revenue then-Gov. Dannel Malloy had said was needed annually to rescue the Nutmeg States teacher pension plan, at the time the fourth worst-funded in the country.

Of course, someone could always argue that our data was a one-year fluke or that it was the misleading result of studying the school population of a relatively small state. The question that remained to be answered was whether ESAs could provide the same kind of financial relief when studied again in a much larger jurisdiction, such as New Jersey or New York.

Well, now we know. With support from New Jersey-based E3: Excellent Education for Everyone and the Manhattan Institute, Lueken has just completed the second of two studies: Fiscal Analysis of an Education Savings Account Program in New Jersey and How ESAs Can Promote Educational Freedom for New York Families and Improve State and Local Finances. What he did was to calculate how much both the Garden and Empire States could individually save if, as in the Connecticut scenario, just a small percentage public school students took advantage of an ESA this time worth $6,500.

It turns out that if just 10 percent of New Jersey students used ESAs, local districts would together save $854 million annually, while the state itself would save an added $103 million in school subsidies. When these figures are combined, New Jerseys savings would come to nearly a billion a year.

As for New York, a mere 1 percent of students leaving their districts with a $6,500 ESA could save state taxpayers over a quarter billion annually. And with 10 percent of New York students using an ESA, the savings jump to nearly $3 billion a year all the while giving families with K-12 children greatly expanded educational opportunities.

Improving education in Connecticut will always a contentious subject, but at least we can dispense with the old myth that school choice is an added cost to taxpayers and local districts. Giving families more education options is not an expense. Its a savings a very big savings.

Lewis M. Andrews is chair of the Childrens Educational Opportunity Foundation of Connecticut.

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Opinion: A modest education reform that could save state taxpayers billions - New Haven Register

The St. Johns Cultural Council has announced that 23 organizations will share $450,000 in St. Johns County Tourist Development Council Arts, Culture and Heritage Grants during the 2022 fiscal year.

This years grant program was expanded to provide more significant support for cultural organizations based in, and presenting year-round programming in, St. Johns County, in addition to annual special events designed to attract visitors to the county.

The 2022 grant recipients are: ACCORD Freedom Trail and Civil Rights Museum, AS IF! the 90's Fest, Backyard Concert Series at Nocatee, EMMA Concert Series, First Coast Opera, Fort Mose, Lightner Museum, Limelight Theatre, Lincolnville Museum, Music and Art by the Sea, National Scenic Byway Conference, Ponte Vedra Auto Show, Regatta of Lights, Romanza Festivale, Saint Augustine Film Festival, Saint Augustine Music Festival, St Augustine Songwriters Festival, St. Augustine Art Association, St. Augustine Ballet, St. Augustine Fashion Week, St. Augustine Food + Wine Festival, St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum and Unidos en la Musica: A Latin American Festival.

An independent panel reviews and scores grant applications using criteria established by the

St. Johns County Tourist Development Council and approved by the Board of County Commissioners. Grant recommendations are made based on each applications average score.

Applications are submitted during the spring of each year, with review and recommendations made during the summer. The grant guidelines for 2023 will be available in March. Those for 2022 and may be found at StJohnsCulture.com.

The St. Johns County Tourist Development Council Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant program is administered by the St. Johns Cultural Council pursuant to a contract with the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners and is funded entirely by tourist development taxes on overnight lodging.

For further information about the Cultural Council, go to StJohnsCulture.com. For information about arts, culture and heritage events and programming in St. Johns County, go to HistoricCoastCulture.com.

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$450K in grants awarded to 23 arts, culture, heritage organizations - Ponte Vedra Recorder

Amazon.com Inc. managed to dominate online book sales, then all of e-commerce and cloud computing. Now, the company has found a significant foothold in the next business it has targeted: Videogames.

Amazon AMZN, +3.31% in late September launched its first hit videogame, the appropriately titled New World, an explorer-themed Massively Multiplayer Online Game, or MMO, that takes place on a haunted island called Aeternum. In the first weekend of availability, the game brought in nearly a concurrent million players, and roughly the same number of concurrent spectators on Twitch the live-streaming platform that Amazon also owns which was the 12th highest viewership in Twitch history, Amazon said.

On Thursday, New World was consistently among the top three games played on online games site Steam, according to SteamDB, as well as among one of the top games sold on Steam.

Like the rest of Big Tech, Amazon wants to own more pieces of the videogame market, the biggest entertainment category on a global basis even before a pandemic-influenced growth spurt in the past two years. Worldwide, videogames are expected to bring in $259.5 billion this year, up nearly 12% from a year ago, according to IDC analyst Lewis Ward.

For more: People are still playing a lot of videogames, but how much?

In a recent fireside chat at the 2021 GeekWire Summit in Seattle, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy said that videogames could end up being the largest category in entertainment over a long period of time and that justifies the companys long-term investment.

Amazon established its Games division in 2012, but until New World, it was mostly known for swings-and-misses like a 2020 shooter game called Crucible, which was seen as a resounding flop. Christoph Hartmann, a former president of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. TTWO, +0.70% and founder of the companys 2K Games label, was tasked with leading Amazons videogame development studios in 2017, and recently spoke with MarketWatch about what he learned from Crucible, where Amazons gaming ambition goes from here, and why everyone is chasing Roblox Corp. RBLX, +3.00%

In his interview with GeekWire, Jassy compared the videogame industry as very much like the movie industry in that its hit driven and that means being able to move on from failures.

If youre not willing to withstand the failures, including the spectacular failures, then you shouldnt be in that business, Jassy said.

Hartmann spoke in-depth with MarketWatch about Amazons biggest videogame failure, Crucible, and the lessons from that game that informed development and decisions surrounding New World.

Dont ship a game too early, and dont ship a game when you have a larger-than-life competitor at the peak of its success, which would be [Epic Games Inc.s] Fortnite at that time, Hartmann told MarketWatch of the lessons learned. Were doing a similar game trying to get a slice of the market, but its really the winner takes it all.

We applied all those learnings on New World to really give it the time, we had so many delays, Hartmann said. Unlike Crucible, New World is an MMO, more akin to Activision Blizzard Inc.s ATVI, +0.38% World of Warcraft franchise. We went into a genre which hadnt seen a big game in a long, long time, so that definitely helped us, he said.

Shipping a game too early has been a big concern lately for the industry, given last years buggy release of the long-awaited and overdue Cyberpunk 2077 from CD Projekt SA CDR, -5.94% that forced distributors like Sony Group Corp. 6758, +2.67% to offer full refunds. In this past year, Electronic Arts Inc. EA, -0.71% has delayed the release of Battlefield 2042 and Take-Two said expansions of the Grand Theft Auto franchise and two immersive core titles would be delayed.

Even though Amazon is a relative newcomer in the games space, Hartmann said it has a distinct advantage over traditional videogame publishers: Since games are not the sole source of income, that allows developers much more creative freedom.

Traditional publishers, due to being all publicly traded, you think kind of in quarters and fiscal years, Hartmann told MarketWatch. Amazon, when they build a new business, especially one like ours where every product takes you multiple years, they think more long term.

That room to focus on creativity, rather than on how development was affecting a companys bottom line, was one of the main reasons Hartmann joined Amazon, he said.

We have an enormous amount of creative freedom, Hartmann told MarketWatch. Eventually, well get judged by the results, but wont have someone poking and micromanaging along the way.

New World is a great example, he said. In a traditional publisher, someone would have put their foot down and said youre shipping it because its in the fiscal plan.

One of the biggest changes in videogames over the past decade has been their ability to become social platforms built in virtual worlds. The social aspect of gaming has moved far past visiting friends farms in Zynga Inc.s ZNGA, -2.26% Farmville, a change that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions socialized via videogame platforms because they couldnt in real life.

In the shift to videogames-as-a-social medium, Hartmann gave a big shout out to a company that just went public earlier this year, Roblox, where many young users who grew up with coding as a second language create their own games and content in virtual worlds.

Read: Roblox is blurring the lines between social and gaming, analysts say

Everyone will be chasing Roblox, which I personally think is a tough one because, going back to my story about the winner takes it all, I think they put out something so fantastic, its very hard to ever catch up, Hartmann said.

User-generated content will keep on growing, he said. It will be a standard in every game.

As for what the next big disruptive trend in videogames is, Hartmann isnt going to speculate, saying if he knew that he would already be working on it. Many disruptive trends in videogames have come as a surprise, Hartmann said, and that the next big thing will likely come from some small player out there.

That could explain Amazons stance on partnering with outside studios with a program called Project Ignite, which, Hartmann said, is where we try to find those smaller, disruptive developers. To date, Amazon Games has not acquired any other studios, unlike Netflix Inc. NFLX, -0.87%, which is just getting started in videogames.

For more: Netflix lays out mobile games plan that could set a collision course with Apple

One of the developers recently added to Project Ignite is U.K.-based Glowmade, which is developing an original game with Amazon. And in 2022, Amazon expects to release the MMO game Lost Ark, that was developed by South Korea-based Smilegate.

They have to stay independent, Hartmann said. I think if a big player like Amazon or any other larger-than-life company comes in, youre actually in the way of creativity.

That said, obviously, if one breaks through and turns into something really big, we will have conversations, he said.

The rest is here:

Amazon videogame exec on the success of 'New World' and why everyone is chasing Roblox - MarketWatch

Germanys biggest neighbours are watching the formation of the countrys new government with a mixture of hope and fear, amid concerns that a fiscal hardliner hotly tipped to become the next finance minister could drag the continent back to the frosty standoffs of the eurozone crisis.

The Social Democratic party (SPD), the German Greens and the Free Democratic party (FDP) were expected to inch further towards a traffic light power-sharing deal on Friday, with formal coalition talks likely to start next week.

The next German chancellor under such an arrangement, the outgoing Social Democrat finance minister Olaf Scholz, is a popular figure with governments in Paris and Rome after parting with his countrys frugal stance during the pandemic. Scholz is not an ideologue, he is a pragmatist, for contracting common debt in the Covid recovery plan, said Stphanie Yon-Courtin, a French MEP allied to Emmanuel Macron.

Yet it is the liberal politician expected to take over Scholzs finance ministry who has, as German news magazine Focus put it, half of Europe quaking in its boots.

Christian Lindner, the leader of the FDP, as recently as four years ago called for Greece to be temporarily kicked out of the eurozone and dismissed Macrons economic plans as turning the EU into a Soviet Union-style system.

In the winter of 2015-16, the 42-year-olds dismissive view of one Germanys biggest neighbours caused a minor diplomatic incident at a dinner he attended as a guest of honour in Berlin. According to one of the other diners present, Lindner said: We cannot use the savings accounts of German workers to save the savings of the Italians.

It was a jab that drew an icy response from Italys ambassador to Berlin. The Italian diplomat raised his hand and reminded Lindner that Italy had contributed to the Greek bailout funds, which had ultimately benefited French and German banks, tartly observing: If I remember rightly it was the Italians who repaid German debts.

France and Italy argue it is time to change the stability and growth pact, which sets strict limits on government borrowing. These fiscal rules, stating that budget deficits should not exceed 3% of GDP, were suspended at the start of the pandemic until the end of 2022.

The FDP has positioned itself in support of the eight northern European countries, including Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands, who would like the rules back in force when the pandemic suspension ends. In its manifesto, the party rejects the idea of introducing additional EU taxes as incompatible with the European treaties.

Whether the FDP will be as tough in government as it acted outside, however, is not a given.

While its MEPs sit in the same European parliament group as those on Macrons list, the Free Democratic party has a distinctly German flavour: pro-business and anti-tax but broadly critical of US-style libertarianism, socially liberal but allergic to Keynesian government spending.

When the Free Democrats were last in a coalition with the Social Democrats from 1969 to 1982, they defined their role as the governments fiscal watchdog. A watchful eye on government debt and inflation rates is in the DNA of the FDP, and all prior German liberal parties, said Karl-Heinz Paqu, the chair of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, an FDP-affiliated thinktank.

But during its last stint in government, the FDP, as junior partner to Merkels conservatives, found out the hard way that an inflexible stance on European economic affairs can also work to its disadvantage. At the end of a term marked by parliamentary squabbles over the eurozone crisis, its support fell by nearly 10 percentage points and the party dropped out of parliament.

The two central reasons why the FDP suffered so much after going into government in 2009 to 2013 was that the party did not deliver any tax reform and descended into infighting over the unavoidable bailout programmes required to address the eurozone crisis, said Paqu.

Since then, the libertarian minority in the party has been pushed back. Under Lindner, who took the reins as party leader three months after the 2013 defeat, Paqu said the FDP had become more encompassing and pragmatic.

The Free Democrats result at last months election was solid 11.5% of the vote, a minor improvement on 2017 but hardly a triumph, which is one reason the party has drawn increasing attention to its popularity among first-time voters. And while young FDP supporters are also concerned about intergeneration debt, they do not necessarily feel attached to the specific fiscal fetishes the party has clung on to in the past.

Were seeing that young Germans demand long-term sustainability from politics, said Paqu. But not all of them define sustainability in a purely ecological way like the Green party, but also more broadly, in a technological, social and economic sense. And those young voters are attracted to our philosophy.

The FDP may have stated its intention to return the EUs fiscal rules to their pre-pandemic setting, but even leading voices from Germany powerful business bodies and economic institutes have recently struck a different chord.

The coming German government is being formed within a rapidly changing political debate, said Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform thinktank. Negative interest rates have diminished German fears of debt. Most importantly, the next government will be bound by law to meet specific climate targets.

The FDPs current promise is that these targets can be met with a cross-sector cap-and-trade programme. What they dont yet say is such an approach will inevitably lead to rising carbon prices, which they dont want either. Something will have to give.

Odendahl said he expected the amount of necessary domestic investment identified by the next German government to set a benchmark for the rest of Europe.

The expectation to act as a consensus seeker within Europe weighs on every German finance minister, whatever the party. We may find the finance ministry will shape Christian Lindner more than he will shape his office.

Read more from the original source:

Hope and fear in EU as hardliner tipped to be German finance minister - The Guardian

Thank you for the introduction. Let me also acknowledge the central role the IMF has played in guiding our world and in helping Europe respond back to the human and economic consequences and risks of COVID-19.

I am delighted to be here with you today. I regret that I cannot be with you in person. The main reason for that is that the budget for Ireland is on the week of your meetings. I hope you will understand that my parliamentary and government responsibility requires me to be in Ireland to do our budgets.

For this event today, I would like to speak to you in my role as President of the Eurogroup. This is very timely, that we are discussing the role of Europe because our October Eurogroup meeting just happened in Luxembourg. This gives me a very good perspective on where we stand on many of the issues in Europe.

The value of these meetings within the IMF is that they allow us to reflect on where we are today but, more critically, to think about where we want to go to and the work that we need to do together.

Id like to start by reflecting for a moment on where we were in the 2021 IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, because, at those events, a number of questions and issues were raised about where Europe stood with regard to growth, the economic response to COVID, and the impact of our vaccination programs.

In my answers to those questions, I was very hopeful about the ability of Europe to make progress, hopeful and confident even, that our economic policies would work and that we would accelerate our vaccination programs.

At that point, I was cautiously optimistic.

Today, I am pleased to say that this optimism was warranted as we have delivered across a wide range of fronts.

First, in terms of vaccinations, we have administered close to 575 million doses in the EU with three quarters of the adult population vaccinated. Europe is also the leading exporter of vaccines with half of our production, around 700 million doses, shared with the rest of the world.

In terms of growth, the Euro Area, after a tough first quarter, due mainly to the pandemic, has bounced back strongly as health restrictions were changed.

Similar to the vaccination story, the growth performance is ahead of what we might have expected a few months ago. The Euro Area is on course for growth in the region of around 5 per cent, both for this year and next, with a return to pre-pandemic levels of output by year-end.

The jobs market has also been particularly resilient and overall the rebound is turning into a recovery. However, there are three particular dimensions that are worth highlighting.

First, once the pandemic hit, the automatic stabilisers in Europe which are a feature of our social protection systems - were allowed to act fully and without delay.

These supports often tend to be underestimated by the simple fact that they are automatic within the EU with no real fanfare or drama around them.

However, they are an integral part of budgetary policy.

They were designed to allow our economies to buffer the COVID-19 shock and to support our economies in recovery once restrictions were eased.

Secondly, the EU as a whole did step up. The early decisions to suspend the normal state aid and fiscal rules were so valuable. In addition, the new EU safety nets of the Recovery Fund, the SURE programme, the Pandemic Crisis Support programme from the ESM and the EIBs pan-European guarantee fund all have worked.

In particular, it is worth mentioning the SURE programme, which has been a little bit of a hidden hero with 31 million jobs contributing from the scheme.

We also have Next Generation EU (NGEU) coming on-stream exactly at the time we need it, with targeted funds of investment to support economies in their transitionary efforts.

Thirdly, the role of monetary policy has also been important. The ECB was decisive and swift in creating the supportive environment that we needed.

Overall, what we have done is to maintain the symmetry between monetary and fiscal policy. This has been so important in cushioning our economies from the shock but critically in leaving us in a good place to recover strongly and quickly.

However, there are several challenges ahead and I will say a word about each of these:

First, on the budgetary policy side, Eurogroup remains unanimous on the need for supportive budgetary policy in 2022. Put simply, there will be no premature withdrawal of support.

However, that is not to say that policy will not change. As economies re-open, supports will become more and more targeted.

This is the right course of action.

Many of the details will appear in Member States budgetary plans in the coming weeks and these will be discussed at Eurogroup.

We are also aware of the asymmetric impacts of COVID-19, particularly in terms of its effect on the labour intensive services sector.

As finance ministers, we must continue to allow our tax and welfare systems to protect the incomes of the most vulnerable. But we also need to be alert to new risks such as the risk of alienating certain skill-sets and occupations. Moreover, the transition to new working arrangements are potentially difficult for many and not always automatic.

So, a lot of our time and attention will go into retraining and reskilling programmes and in having the right active labour market policies.

We need to get our citizens back into the labour force.

Secondly, the fiscal framework in the European Union will be a keenly debated topic once the Commission relaunches its consultation on the economic governance framework.

This is something that Eurogroup will be closely involved with and I anticipate wide-ranging discussions in the coming months.

This is a difficult and challenging subject.

There are well known positions in Europe and we will need to work hard to reach any agreement.

As part of this, compromise will be important but we approach this debate from a position of strength given the level of coordination and consensus to date on budgetary policy. We need to reflect on the positives of these achievements in the current framework as we begin to think of the new realities that include higher levels of indebtedness and investment needs, particularly linked to Next Generation EU.

That leads me to my final point and to where we are with Banking Union. This remains an incomplete project within the European Union. I have put a huge amount of effort into this and earlier in the summer, ministers once again emphasised the need to deliver an ambitious and meaningful workplan.

This includes four key and interconnected work-steams:

We have already made progress over the past year, principally through the agreement on the ESM Treaty Reform at Eurogroup last November. This will bring forward the operation of an important safety net (the backstop to the Single Resolution Fund) by two years.

However, there are areas where progress has been more challenging.

I remain convinced that progress is possible and that we can deliver a meaningful workplan in the coming months.

Put simply, if you look at this crisis compared to the past, our banking system has proven to be extraordinarily resilient.

It has been a source of strength, not an underlying source of vulnerability.

For a sustained economic recovery, we need to have a strong and competitive banking sector, one that provides the capital and liquidity that in turn fuels our economy, and we will continue working towards that goal.

So to conclude, this terrible disease has been a great test for all of us. However, I believe that so far, we have risen to the challenge. In the Euro Area, our policy action has been strong, supportive, swift and coordinated.

This partly reflects the lessons from the past but this crisis has also made us reflect on what it means to be a European.

Our four freedoms the freedom of movement of capital, goods, services and of people are central to us as Europeans.

Each of these were threatened by this terrible disease. That is why the health and economic responses have been so strong and backed by consensus. However, there are still many challenges and uncertainty ahead. We are also very attune and aware of new challenges such as the recent increases in energy prices and their potential implications for growth, budgetary strategy and the competitiveness of Europe.

More broadly, with regard to COVID, there is a deep responsibility on us to do as much as we can to continue delivering vaccines both within Europe and to the rest of the world, as this virus respects no borders. However, we have achieved a lot and I believe we can make the case for a brighter future.

To that end, Ill leave you with a famous quote from one of the European Unions founding fathers, Jean Monnet, that seems particularly apt given the past year:

People only accept change when they are faced with necessity, and only recognize necessity when a crisis is upon them.

(check against delivery)

Go here to see the original:

Speech by the Eurogroup President, Paschal Donohoe, at the IMF Governor Talk on "Euro area recovery from Covid-19 economic policy reflections...

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP Eight candidates are seeking three three-year terms on the Freehold Township K-8 School District Board of Education in the 2021 election.

The election is being held with vote by mail ballots; with early in-person voting at 10 polling locations throughout Monmouth County on nine days later this month; and with in-person voting at polling locations in Freehold Township on Nov. 2.

The current terms of Mary Cozzolino, Kerry Venditolli and Kay Poklemba-Holtz will end in December. Poklemba-Holtz is not seeking re-election.

The candidates seeking the three-year terms are Cozzolino, Venditolli, Renata Brand, Frank Brooks, Neil Garguilo, James Gresavage, Renee Pepia and Jennifer Ruhl.

Pepia did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Brand, a resident of Freehold Township for six years, is a retired certified public accountant who worked for more that 30 years in the public and private sectors performing audits and preparing tax returns for various entities.

I am seeking a seat on the board because I have eight grandchildren and I want them to grow up in an America that is based on freedom. I have spoken to parents in the area and the common denominator is that the current board is not reflective of the established values held by the parents.

The parents are busy working, raising (their children) and sacrificing their lives for their family, but they do not have the time to run for politics. The current political environment is going in a wrong direction. Values held by honest working families are being ignored. The governments over-reach is corrupted and is trying to destroy families. This is unacceptable, Brand said.

If elected, Brand said areas of focus for her will be developing a curriculum in American history and values; having open communication with parents about family values in the curriculum; and improving and broadening STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills.

Brooks, a resident of Freehold Township for nine years, is employed by Public Service Electric and Gas. He previously taught science and mathematics in New York City on the high school and college levels. He has been a troop leader for the Boy Scouts and a youth softball and baseball coach.

I am seeking a seat on the board because the failures of the current board and superintendent have become glaringly obvious and a change needs to take place. I am an experienced educator and have been involved with curriculum writing committees.

This current board has shown (itself) to be completely unwilling to stand up to the random and non-scientific dictates from Gov. Phil Murphy. Not only are schools now the only places our children are forced to wear a mask, but the masks are forced on them for up to eight hours a day if they are in before-school and/or after-school care.

There is no science whatsoever indicating children need to go through this and all studies indicate it is dangerous physically, as well as damaging psychologically. Sadly, the science being followed is nothing more political pressure from one of Murphys most powerful allies, the teachers union.

I have seen the new LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning) curriculum and as a board member, I will do everything in my power to protect our children from this filth.

The last thing a child going through puberty needs is a trusted teacher sowing the seed of doubt into their minds about sexual orientation and even whether or not they are actually boys or girls

The current board either lacks the courage to fight for our children or they support wholly the governors dictates. They have proven they have no business making decisions affecting the health and well-being of our children, Brooks said.

Cozzolino has been a member of the board since 2017. She has lived in Freehold Township for more than 10 years.

I am seeking re-election to the board because I have a deep commitment to education, to children and to the township. This is the town my husband and I chose to raise our family and educate our kids.

I believe in the quality education the township has historically offered its youngest residents, earning it a reputation as an excellent school district. I want to continue to be a part of growing this reputation. I have concerns about personalized learning and the impacts of technology on the education of the districts children, as well as the districts finances.

First and foremost, I am a mom. I am actively involved in my childrens education. I know firsthand the extraordinary work the district staff does every day to produce active, engaged and educated young people. I also have seen the new programs and initiatives in action, which affords me an interesting perspective in setting policy, Cozzolino said.

If re-elected, Cozzolino said areas of focus for her will be protecting students rights to in-person education; continuing to develop and grow core foundational skills in reading and math; ensuring students develop social skills and teachers play an important role in student education; and fiscal responsibility.

Garguilo serves on the Freehold Township Historic Preservation Commission and worked in business and education before retiring.

Now that I am retired, I want to be involved and give back to our great community. I can also provide an unbiased view of issues since I do not have children in the school system. I would like to use my skills learned to help all to arrive at decisions that are best for the parents and students, he said.

In his professional career, Garguilo began working for FedEx, where he was promoted to manager, and was the corporate training manager at DCH Auto Group. He later taught special education at middle schools in New York City and was an adjunct professor at the now-defunct Dowling College.

That experience will help me as a board member since I learned critical skills in myprofessions such as attentively listening, understanding, negotiating and compromise, andcompleting projects. This experience will enable me to help others in the Freehold Township academic community, he said.

If elected, Garguilo said areas of focus for him will be helping to keep and foster a safe environment; keeping the academic environment free from political pressure; and traditional education.

Gresavage, a resident of Freehold Township since 2010, works in human relations.

I am running for this position to make a difference. I would like to bring a moderate viewpoint to the conversation. Unfortunately, we are living in a very divided time and I think the most important thing we can do to succeed is listen with an open mind and make decisions objectively.

I am running because I think there needs to be a change in the way the board and the public interact and I would work to make all of the community of Freehold Township feel more included in the conversations about our schools.

I hold a professional certification in human resources and am familiar with not only employment law, but also conflict resolution, active listening, and professional learning and development. I have designed and executed corporate training programs and professional development curriculums, Gresavage said.

If elected, Gresavage said areas of focus for him will be increasing community engagement and opening the lines of communication, making fiscally responsible decisions, and continuing a tradition of educational excellence.

The board serves only to represent the voice of the residents and parents of Freehold Township and their voices should be heard. Too often we see temporary injections of state funding as something to rely on, when in reality, the district receives a substantial amount of variable funding, which is likely to be reduced in the future.

We need to be smart about spending and look at all avenues for cost savings. Our schools are fantastic. I hope to ensure we make smart financial decisions, while being mindful we live in a district already burdened with paying taxes to two (school) districts, he said.

Ruhl, a resident of Freehold Township for 10 years, is a civil trial attorney who practices at a local law firm.

As a parent of two children in the school district, one in general education and another with special needs, I am seeking a seat on the board because I am passionate about making sure all children in our town have access to the highest quality education possible to prepare them to be successful leaders, workers and citizens in our community.

I understand the tremendous impact that decisions made by the board will have on our community and am dedicated to bringing a thoughtful, deliberate and collaborative approach to the position to ensure that the best decisions are made for our children.

Recognizing the unprecedented challenges continuing to face the district in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, I want to play an active role in tackling these issues confronting our schools and creating and implementing realistic and sustainable solutions.

I am a strong listener and communicator and will bring these skills to my board service to listen to the concerns of all members of our community with understanding, not judgment.

I believe everyone should have a seat at the table and will work in partnership with the community to discuss new laws and changes, as well as the best methods for implementation, in order to move the district forward in a positive direction for the benefit of all of our children, Ruhl said.

If elected, Ruhl said areas of focus for her will be maintaining in-person instruction; improving literacy while effectively using coronavirus relief funds; and fiscal responsibility while reviewing the budget.

Venditolli has been a member of the board since 2018. A Freehold Township resident for more than 16 years, she is a senior teleservices account manager for a marketing company and was previously the global manager of telecommunications for a multi-national outsourcing company.

She is a founding member and the co-chair of Our Place 2 Play, which builds inclusive and adaptive playgrounds in the township.

I first decided to run for a seat on the board because I am a passionate advocate for all our students and their families. Children and their education must come first.

When I ran three years ago, I never would have imagined that during my term we would enter a pandemic, see the state shut down schools, deal with student learning loss and experience all we have in the last 18 months.

But I am very confident our students and our district can get back to where we need to be because I believe in our schools. I believe in our teachers and administrators and staff. And mostly because I believe in our students. One thing we have learned over the course of this pandemic is just how resilient our children are.

As parents, as educators and as a district, one of the greatest things we can do is provide them with the necessary support to help them emerge from this challenging period stronger than ever.

I am a huge advocate for public education and the benefits it brings to our kids and our community. Fostering the relationship between the community and the school district is a big part of why I like being on the board.

There will always be room for improvement and different approaches to try, but I truly feel Freehold Townships schools are headed in the right direction to help all of our students achieve their goals and succeed.

Being a mom of three children, one of whom has special needs, has greatly influenced my involvement in our childrens education. Since my oldest walked into the Early Childhood Learning Center for the first time 11 years ago, I have been a hands-on parent involved in every facet of my childrens education.

Being a volunteer in the buildings over the last 10 years has given me tremendous insight into our students, staff, buildings and families. Seeing and hearing firsthand what goes on in our buildings has given me a unique perspective and also huge appreciation for all of the intricate parts of what makes this district run successfully, Venditolli said.

If re-elected, Venditolli said areas of focus for her will be parent involvement and engagement; addressing a teacher shortage; and prioritizing students education.

View post:

Eight candidates seeking three seats on Freehold Township school board - centraljersey.com

We men are wretched things, once wrote Homer.

After the last two years of coup detat in the College Republicans, I expected little turnout and little interest from Dartmouth students for an event featuring Republican and Senate candidate Don Bolduc. I was pleasantly surprised, then, when I joined the Zoom to find a crowd of 20 or so eagerly awaiting the former Army brigadier general. And I found myself even more enthralled when he began taking questions from the audience about his background.

A veteran of the War in Afghanistan, General Bolduc has earned five Bronze Stars (one with the V device, denoting valor) and two Purple Hearts. Serving in Operation Medusa during the Battle of Panjilwar in 2006, he led soldiers in battle and lived to tell the tale.

Apart from war stories, however, Bolduc proved himself throughout the meeting to be more than just a Twitter personality turned candidate spouting canned lines about America First. His knowledge of the issues facing the Granite State and the country was evident in each answer he gave.

On student voting in state elections, Bolduc explained his position with the passion that only a lifelong Granite Stater could have: making it clear that he did not want students without permanent ties to New Hampshire deciding policy for its residents. To Democratic attacks claiming that restrictions on student voting were racist or suppressive, he had a clear response: This is an attempt to exploit a voter base for their benefit during elections.

His military expertise shone through most when addressing the Biden Administrations recent Afghanistan debacle. As a former general officer, Bolduc spoke not only to his opinion of how commanders should have directed the United States withdrawal but of how commanders personal and professional failings led to the disaster in the first place. An especially enlightening piece of information came when the General described Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley as a bully, citing personal experience.

For those not familiar, the General has been a fixture in New Hampshire politics since the 2020 Senate primary. Although Bolduc won the support of notable politicians such as Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), he failed to receive the endorsement of then-President Trump and later lost the Republican nomination to fellow Army veteran Bryant Corky Messner. Nevertheless, Bolduc has attracted somewhat of a Trump-y reputation in the Granite State.

Upon further examination though, this categorization seems to be little based in reality. One might call the General conservative, even by the standards of the Live Free or Die! State. But he certainly is not the extreme or unserious candidate that his opponents and critics often claim he is.

His economic views align with the historic libertarianism of the Republican Party: pursuing deregulation and empowering private industry and entrepreneurship. On the budget, he stresses fiscal responsibility and stewardship for the next generation.

As a former head of the United States Special Forces in Africa too, he has the experience and institutional knowledge of leading a large organization necessary to serve as an effective senator. After all, his public service career path carried far greater consequences for failure or negligence than most others.

In regards to COVID-19, he articulates a level-headed but unafraid stance that the rest of the Republican Party would be wise to adopt: accepting the efficacy of vaccines but questioning the necessity and ethics of mandating vaccination for the healthiest, lowest-risk groups. Vaccine freedom is a personal issue to the General. His son serves in the National Guard and is at risk of losing years worth of military benefits if he does not receive the COVID vaccine.

As I sat in on the College Republicans event and heard the General explain his reasoning, I realized that I sensed something different with him than I felt when hearing other politicians. At first, I assumed he had a rare, complete conviction. But I later realized that what I detected was not conviction at all but courage.

Freed of the burdens of military hierarchy, Bolduc speaks with the intensity of a man finally able to speak his mind about his countrys failing system of government and how he plans to fix it. He speaks of and lives by the words honor and service in a time when honorable, selfless men are in short supply. Some of his campaign messaging will undoubtedly receive little response from Granite Staters, such as his call to bring God back to the public square. But, despite running for office, the General does not seem like the type of person to fret about polling data.

The question remains if he will be able to defeat Governor Chris Sununu (if the governor runs) in the September 2022 primary and if he will, in fact, dispatch Democrat and Senator Maggie Hassan to become New Hampshires first Republican senator since Kelly Ayotte. I make no predictions here.

But I do say this: When General Bolduc says that he will, as senator, hold [him]self accountable, responsible, and be transparent and serve [his] State and Country to the best of [his] ability, I believe him. And as the 2022 campaign progresses, I predict many more Granite Staters than expected will believe him, as well.

In our age of mediocrity and incompetence, it is hard to imagine a world where the Greco-Roman ideal of the honorable, politically conscious citizen-soldier existed. Bolduc reminded me that heroes of that stripe indeed resided on this Earth and still do.

Those of us who believe in the potential of our Union and of this great state should take noteand elect such men to office.

Most men today are indeed wretched. But let us make those few who are not our leaders.

Continue reading here:

Don Bolduc and the Citizen-Soldier - Dartmouth Review

The campaign to erase references to women has reached new levels of absurdity. In just the last few weeks, its made forays into social media, medical journals, and even federal legislation.

For example, if youve spent much time on social media lately, youve likely seen the ACLUs edits of a quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to remove offending references to women.

Last October, Kamala Harris had no problem quoting an uncensored Ginsburg in the Senate confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett. But conventions on these delicate matters change fast. Eleven months later, the ACLU felt the need to strike the affronting words.

The stunt stirred up enough controversy that the ACLU had to apologize. Executive Director Anthony Romero confessed that its somewhat Orwellian to rewrite historical utterances to conform to modern sensitivities.

>>>Dont Be Fooled: Gender Identity Policies Dont Follow the Science

Still, having spent time with Justice Ginsburg, explained Romero, I would like to believe that if she were alive today, she would encourage us to evolve our language to encompass a broader vision of gender, identity, and sexuality. In other words, while it may be best not to alter past quotes, we should avoid regressive references to women from now on.

The Lancets September 25th cover is even more disturbing. It features a single, stark quote on white background, reducing women to bodies with vaginas.

The medical journal, like the ACLU, has issued its half-hearted apology. They didnt intend to dehumanize and marginalize women, explained Editor-in-Chief Richard Horton. Their goal, rather, is to emphasize that transgender health is an important dimension of modern health care, but one that remains neglected. He goes on and on in this exculpatory fashion, lamenting the scourge of menstrual shame and period poverty.

Or, in the words of Demi Lovato: Sorry, not sorry.

Both episodes have played out on social media. But theres another erasure campaign underway in the shadows. Take, for instance, the Newspeak that has crept into the 2021 budget reconciliation bill now going through Congress. This sweeping tax-and-spend proposal would affect far more than just our fiscal health.

Sex-specific words such as women, females, and mothers have gone missing in some of the very places youd expect themsuch as with maternal mortality. Instead, we discover awkward constructions, over and over, like pregnant, lactating, and postpartum individuals and individuals with the intent to become pregnant.

Reconciliation packages are supposedly limited to budgets. But for gender ideologues, the process has become a chance to start erasing references to women and females.

While individual or person is common in legal documents when the referent could be male or female, that doesnt explain whats happening here. The authors of this section intend to neuter references to women.

How do we know? Because theyre departing from past usage, and even the typical usage still present here and there in the reconciliation text when referring to or quoting preexisting law. Take, for example, the Medicaid section, which must still refer to pregnant and postpartum women.

Its no surprise that a simple word search of existing law turns up 96 references to pregnant women already in the federal code. A search for women turns up 1,118 references.

And then, just last monthwith few precedentsthis changes.

This comes on top of other efforts to advance this Newspeak. For instance, Speaker Pelosi, early this year, made degendered language standard practice for Congress.

Gender activists have pushed a sweeping piece of legislationthe misnamed Equality Actwhich would enshrine their views in civil rights law. But as they work toward that goal, activists are focused on erasing women incrementally by slipping the same kind of language into bills moving through Congress now.

>>>Economic Freedom Best Path to Womens Equality, Empowerment

These efforts are provoking resistance, however, and not just from committed traditionalists. Most Americans object to gender ideology. Whether its being pushed on minors in the doctors office or the sports arena, this is true. Hence the pushback to the flag-flying stunts from the ACLU and The Lancet. And why both groups had to issue apologies.

The campaign also is facing resistance from non-conservative quarters. Atheists like Richard Dawkins have pushed back against the transgender ideology that inspires these language games. Many feminists, including radical feminists, also oppose it.

Meanwhile, activists efforts are sporadic and contradictory. We see this even in the internal inconsistencies of the budget reconciliation bill text, as noted above.

Finally, gender ideology contradicts natural reality. Not just the natural moral law written on every heart. Were talking about mammalian biology.

Hard facts like these should give us hope that common sense will prevail against gender activists efforts to erase women.

Read the rest here:

The Erasure of Women Is Escalating - Heritage.org