Rescissions

It’s a word that we’re hearing a lot in the news today. A member of a family of words and phrases that come trotting out whenever folks in Washington start talking about money.

Appropriations. Sequestration. Omnibus. Continuing Resolutions. Budget caps. Debt Ceiling. Earmarks. Baseline Budgeting.

But it isn’t that complicated. Basically, the President can request that Congress return money that has been appropriated, but not yet spent.

A rescissions package is making its way through Congress now, but it’s likely we’ll hear more about this process throughout the Trump administration. Here to explain why is Richard Stern, Director for the Center for the Federal Budget here at the Heritage Foundation.

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Follow Richard on X at: https://x.com/richastern?lang=en

Have thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...

How many times have we heard these words?

Back in 2007, the Washington Post ran an article by Gene Weingarten called “Pearls Before Breakfast”. In it, he chronicles an experiment by the newspaper, in which world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell put on a baseball cap and a t-shirt, and entered the L’Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington DC. Once there, he removed his Stradivarius violin from its case, and began to play. This is the music you’re hearing right now. This an artist who has sold out opera houses and played for heads of state, playing a $4 million dollar violin. Of the approximately 1,000 people who walked past, only seven stopped to listen.

And so it is, sometimes, with our national identity as Americans. We are busy, we are desensitized, that it is an act of the will to stop, screen out the noise, and appreciate for a moment just how fundamentally unique and beautiful our country is. And the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of our country, has its own special music.

In an effort to listen, I sat down with Brenda Hafera, Assistant Director of the Simon Center for American Studies, here at the Heritage Foundation.

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Follow Brenda Hafera at Heritage.org:https://www.heritage.org/staff/brenda-hafera

Washington Post Video of the Joshua Bell Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

Full Text of the Declaration of Independence: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Have thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org

While there are still several high-profile cases awaiting rulings, the Supreme Court has delivered several wins for the Trump administration, common sense, and all Americans.

So far this term, the Supreme Court issued stays of lower court orders attempting to block the Trump administration from pursuing its agenda, upheld religious freedom and parental rights, and upheld laws protecting kids from dangerous gender treatments. Justices also have stopped lower court judges from rewriting discrimination law and allowing foreign governments to infringe on Americans’ right to bear arms.

Here to talk about what has happened this year and what we might expect to see over the next week is Heritage Senior Legal Fellow Hans von Spakovsky.

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Hans on X: https://x.com/HvonSpakovsky?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Case in Point Podcast: https://www.heritage.org/caseinpoint

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Have thoughts? Let us know at heritageexplains@heritage.org