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Heritage’s Brian Darling looks at important issues like the new GI Bill, Venezuela and Iraq.

‘Bitter’ in Pennsylvania?

There has been a lot of discussion in the media about whether Pennsylvania voters are “bitter” over their economic circumstances.

Many pundits take it for granted that Pennsylvanians have long faced economic hardship. Heritage expert Ambassador Terry Miller, though, wonders if this premise is right. “Are Pennsylvanians in fact ‘bitter?’ Are there communities that have stagnated for ‘25 years?’ Are there no jobs? Is there no hope?”

Miller gets beyond the rhetoric and lays out some facts about Pennsylvania’s economy:

Total employment in Pennsylvania rose 7 percent from 1997 to 2006.

Average monthly earnings rose over 31 percent, from $2,672 to $3,509.

At the beginning of the decade, the Pennsylvania unemployment rate was 4.7 percent; it dropped to 4.4 percent by the end of 2006.

Only 11 counties showed a decrease in jobs; and the hardest-hit, Northumberland County, lost only 2,186 jobs, almost exactly mirroring a drop in population in the county between the 1990 and 2000 censuses.

No county in Pennsylvania suffered a loss in average salary between 1997 and 2006.

“The picture painted by the data is far less bleak than the candidates would have us believe,” Miller concludes. “Indeed, the data show widespread, steady progress and rising standards of living. You would never know that from the debate.”

The facts on the mortgage mess

Heritage experts broke down the data and found that the mortgage crisis isn’t as widespread as some media reports and politicians suggest.

Instead, the problem is concentrated in a handful of states. Just 13 states, led by Minnesota, Ohio and Michigan, have a sub-prime foreclosure rate of more than 10 percent.

A new Heritage map makes this clear:

Subprime Chart

Congressional efforts to “do something” about mortgages may actually make things worse and prevent economic recovery.

Why free societies need vibrant religion

Religion—and freedom of religious expression—is critical to maintaining a free and healthy society, Heritage Foundation expert Ryan Messmore explains.

“A more comprehensive, robust conception of religion is important for safeguarding the constitutional freedom of people not just to believe or profess doctrines, but to ‘exercise’ faith in public,” he argues in a new research paper.

“When religion is exercised in this more comprehensive way, congregations can meet a wide range of needs and prevent unhealthy dependence on the government,” writes Messmore, the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and a Free Society in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.

The conception of religion as purely private matter divorced from the political realm, he explains, “seem[s] less able to offer a vibrant sense of either mutual responsibility or belonging within a socially significant community.” But active serve as a check on government excesses by keeping power distributed locally.

Other Heritage work of note

American Leadership. While America and Britain continue to cooperate in many areas, their special relationship is “beginning to show significant signs of strain over the handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, low levels of British defense spending, and the broader war against Islamist terrorism,” explains Nile Gardiner, director of Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.

First Principles and Rule of Law. Voter fraud is hardly a hypothetical question, scholar Hans von Spakovsky writes in a new Heritage analysis of a 1982 Chicago election where 100,000 ballots were fraudulently cast. “Tactics similar to those documented in the Chicago case have come to light in recent elections in Philadelphia and in the states of Wisconsin and Tennessee.”

Entrepreneurship. Liberals like to argue that raising taxes on investment would raise revenue for the government and hurt only the “super-rich.” But economists in Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis point out that if the 2003 tax cuts expire, the entire economy would suffer as soon as 2011: 270,000 jobs would be lost, the economy would forsake $44 billion in growth, and after-tax personal income would decline by $113 billion.

Protect America. Heritage’s James Carafano and Diem Nguyen report on the Department of Homeland Security’s new strategy to bypass groups that would block the construction of barriers along the border. They also discuss the lessons learned during Carafano’s 2007 inspection of border security measures and suggest a new way forward.

American Leadership and Entrepreneurship. Heritage experts James Roberts and Ray Walser argue that blocking a pact to reduce government barriers to commerce with Columbia isn’t just a bad deal for Americans. It will also “be a public relations victory for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the FARC narcoterrorists he is trying to legitimize in order to undermine the Uribe government.” Heritage’s Anthony Kim adds that “the unprecedented congressional action has also damaged our image abroad as a beacon of economic freedom, severely undermining our public diplomacy.”

In other news

Family fragmentation, including divorce and unwed childbearing, costs U.S. taxpayers $112 billion a year and over $1 trillion per decade, according to a new study. Heritage’s Foundry weblog has more.

A student at Yale University falsely claimed in the student newspaper that she had impregnated herself and induced abortions as part of an “art project.” A school administrator defended the story as “a creative fiction,” adding that “had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.”

Pennsylvania voters go to the polls Tuesday to participate in that state’s presidential primary election.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday to subsidize the private student loan industry with $85 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Teenagers are having a hard time finding employment, the Associated Press reports. While the economic downturn may have played a role, the situation surely wasn’t helped by Congress’ decision to raise the minimum wage, which imposes higher labor costs on employers during a period of belt-tightening. Heritage’s Rea Hederman and James Sherk looked at how teenagers are affected by the minimum wage in 2006.

A Texas court held hearings Thursday on the custody of 416 children taken by the state from a polygamous group.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other events at Heritage please RSVP at Heritage’s website. Or you can view these events live online. All times are Eastern.

On Monday, April 21 at noon, author and scholar Joshua Dunn explains the rise and perils of judicial policymaking.

On Tuesday, April 22 at 11:30 a.m., Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) joins Heritage Foundation Ronald Reagan Fellow Edwin Meese to discuss the 25th anniversary of a key report President Reagan commissioned on education, “A Nation at Risk.”

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Chris Albright contributed to this report.