Recession, inflation, baby formula shortages, and Taylor Swift concert ticket blunders. There was no shortage of bad headlines in 2022.
Yet, there have been good stories and great policy changes that actually improve the lives of women and Americans.
Experts from IWF’s Center for Economic Opportunity, Center for Progress and Innovation, and energy program have pulled together some of the best and worst policies of 2022.
Best
Environmental community reconsidering nuclear energy – Nuclear power can provide uninterrupted electricity 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And nuclear energy isn’t just good for the environment. It’s good for our national security, too.
Interest rate hikes – The Federal Reserve is making it more expensive to buy a house or borrow money by hiking interest rates. They are financially painful, but necessary to bring down prices that skyrocketed because of the massive inflationary American Rescue Plan.
Courts slapped down CFPB – By kneecapping the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over its unconstitutional funding scheme, a federal court also invalidated the agency’s payday lending rule. This regulation would strip women, un/under-banked, and low-income Americans of access to credit when they need it.
Florida divesting from BlackRock over ESG – Sunshine State will divest $2 billion dollars worth of assets invested in BlackRock.
Worst
Inflation Reduction Act – The Orwellian or misleadingly named spending bill will do nothing to lower inflation, the deficit, or gas prices, but will turbocharge the IRS to go after working Americans.
Unconstitutional student loan bailout – The $1 trillion plan will drastically increase the nation’s deficit yet do nothing to control the exploding costs of higher education.
DOL Independent Contractor Rule – President Joe Biden, the self-anointed “most-union-friendly president,” is using his Labor Department to crack down on the nation’s over 60 million freelancers like Santa Claus. IWF has been fighting back to protect flexible work, freelancing, and entrepreneurship.
1099-K reporting requirement – Congress wants you to report to the IRS the sale of that old sofa or your kids’ clothes if sold online. Talk about onerous red tape, a paperwork nightmare for you and the IRS, and a possible tax bill.
Fruitlessly draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserves – Americans are paying $1.37 more per gallon today—a 57% increase compared to two years ago. The release of barrels of oil fails to substantively address expensive gas and is creating a major vulnerability for national security
CA ban on gas-powered vehicles – Then, it rationed energy use for electric vehicles. Oy-vey!
Assault on e-cigs and flavored vaping – Despite the facts on the public health benefits, policymakers and regulators continue to challenge adult access to alternatives to smoking and lie to parents about youth vaping to get them removed from the marketplace.
Ill-advised new tech regulations – From favoring legacy media outlets over new media to antitrust reforms that will limit consumer choice.
Banning baby monitors – The FDA is out to ban the Owlet Smart Sock, a safe, tech-savvy monitoring device from the free market. That does nothing to further the well-being of babies or anxious parents.
Punishing carmakers for being too easy to steal – Liberals would rather punish car manufacturers because the city bosses want to defund the police. More regulation means higher prices, which especially hit poorer families the hardest.
Regulating charitable giving – Congress introduced new legislation to control when Americans can make gifts from donor-advised funds (i.e., charitable savings accounts). If enacted these gifts would be less flexible and unavailable for long-term strategic giving as the Philanthropy Roundtable explains. Other threats to charitable giving persist.
Honorable Mentions
Tiktok is out – States bans of TikTok on government devices are sweeping the country and even Congress is considering a government-wide ban for many reasons including this and this.
Elon Musk purchasing Twitter – This is not a government policy, but Musk’s transparency agency has exposed the ends to which the White House and various federal agencies used Twitter to ban, shadow ban, and censor opposition and conservative voices.
What makes your list of best and worst policies of 2022? Comment on Twitter: @iwf