Tim Doescher: Heritage Explains listeners, thank you so much for downloading this podcast every single week. We so appreciate it. I know John Popp and I always sit here and we read through comments, we read through emails, talk about things that we missed, talk about things that we hit well. It all comes back to us because you are so generous in your response. You can rate us five stars, you can send us a comment, you can send us an email at [email protected] or you can just share us with your friends and family. We appreciate it all and thank you so much. Okay, John Popp. Let's get into the episode.
>>> 7 Challenges Lawmakers Must Address
Doescher: From The Heritage Foundation. I'm Tim Doescher and this is Heritage Explains. Earlier this year we did an episode that boldly claimed that Heritage Foundation priority issues are issues a majority of Americans agree on. Well, with midterm elections just days away, a recent Monmouth poll shows the top issues voters care about are those Heritage priority issues. But for a long time, people on the left and members of the mainstream media either flatly denied the issues were even moving people, or they were only greeted with tacit acknowledgement. Now, I'm sure you've heard them before, but in case you haven't, here are the top issues people are most concerned about: inflation and jobs, election integrity, crimes in our cities and on our streets, illegal immigration, and abortion, and here's why. Let's look at inflation and jobs. Here's Fox Business and Steve Forbes.
Fox Business: This is a disappointing report. Despite five interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve this year, inflation remains stubbornly, persistently high. Let's review those numbers one more time. Remember what we're talking about here are prices that consumers pay for goods and services up 8.2% year over year. On a month over month basis, up four tenths of a percent. We are seeing higher prices for just about everything right now. Diane, gas prices did come down a little bit, but we did see a big jump in natural gas and electricity prices. Across the board, we're paying more for just about everything.
Steve Forbes: This jobs report sort of because it was so middling. Yeah, job openings went down 1.1 million. That's a sign the economy starting to waiver, but it was not enough for to deter the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates artificially yet again next month by 75 basis points. Unfortunately, the Federal Reserve believes the only way to fight inflation is by depressing the economy, tanking the economy, and that's not good for earnings. I think the markets are beginning to wake up, again a bad economy is not good for the bottom line.
>>> Breaking Down Midterm Election Polls
Doescher: Now let's move to election integrity. Here's our friend Tucker Carlson addressing the biggest concerns.
Tucker Carlson: First of all, if people have questions about the last election, or January 6th, or what happened at Nancy Pelosi's house in San Francisco last Friday, there's a really simple way to put those concerns to rest, to stop the conspiracy theories, and that's produce the evidence. Show us the facts. If people are worried about totals in a specific state from 2020, first of all, they have a right to have the party in charge prove that election was fair. But moreover, they have a duty to ask, because the only way you have a free and fair system is if everybody is free to ask questions about it and demand real answers.
Doescher: How about that southern border?
News Clip: As the U.S. is seeing a record number of illegal border crossings, that's according to a data that NBC News obtained from the Department of Homeland Security. Border agents say they're running out of places to house and process migrants.
Doescher: Just remember this, 2.4 million illegal crossings, 600,000 known got aways, and 856 deaths at the border in the past year alone. What about crime?
News Clip: We have some new stats from the FBI that reveal the crime is on the rise. That report analyzing 11 million criminal offenses between 2020 and 2021. Murders climbing 4.3%, crimes against seniors up 10%. Critics saying that the report doesn't account for more than 2 million crimes because of a recent change in how crimes were reported. Well, according to a new Politico poll, three quarters of voters say the crime is a major problem and 60% of those surveyed say it will impact how they vote in the upcoming midterm election.
Doescher: Just want to reiterate, according to the FBI, crime is on the rise all over America, with violent crime up 4.3% in 2021, adding to a whopping 30% increase in the homicide rate in the previous year. Who can forget the historic Dobbs decision? Overturning Roe v. Wade, after nearly 50 years, providing incredible protection to unborn life. Just building on the out of control crime situation in this country, we will never forget the devastating consequences of the unprecedented leaked opinion, making Supreme Court Justices targets for assassination. Here's Justice Samuel Alito at a recent event here at the Heritage Foundation discussing.
>>> Poll Reflecting Top Issues are Heritage Issues
Samuel Alito: The leak also made those of us who were thought to be in the majority in support of overruling Roe and Casey targets for assassination because it gave people a rational reason to think they could prevent that from happening by killing one of us. We know that a man has been charged with attempting to kill Justice Kavanaugh. It's a pending case, so I won't say anything more about that.
Doescher: There you have it. These are the issues that Americans are facing every day. Inflation and jobs, election integrity, crime, immigration, and abortion. These issues keep many up at night concerned for their families and friends. The only question is, will we choose the correct policies to fix them? Will our leaders listen to the priorities of American citizens and seize this moment to change the policies. If you want to learn more about Heritage priorities and see our policy prescriptions to the problems vexing our nation, just head over to the show notes. I've linked to a few resources there for you, including some past conversations we've had on the Heritage Explains Podcast going through those seven priority issues in detail. The solutions are there, and Heritage is proud to stand for them each and every day. We'll see you next time on Heritage Explains.
Heritage Explains is brought to you by more than half a million members of The Heritage Foundation. It is produced by Michelle Cordero and Tim Doescher with editing by John Popp.
