The Daily Signal - TOP NEWS | Most Economically Free Country in the World, COVID-19 Origins, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Cracks Down on Disney World | Feb. 27

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

On today’s Daily Signal Top News, we break down: The Heritage Foundation releases its annual Index of Economic Freedom. The most economically free nation in the world is Singapore.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a bill ending the self-governing status Disney World has enjoyed for decades. The U.S. Energy Department says COVID-19 likely came from an accidental leak at a lab in China.   The Supreme Court set to hear arguments involving the Biden administration’s federal debt forgiveness plan.  Relevant Links https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/02/27/taiwans-economic-freedom-rises-all-time-high-us-drops/ Listen to other podcasts from The Daily Signal: https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/ Get daily conservative news you can trust from our Morning Bell newsletter: DailySignal.com/morningbellsubscription   Listen to more Heritage podcasts: https://www.heritage.org/podcasts Sign up for The Agenda newsletter — the lowdown on top issues conservatives need to know about each week: https://www.heritage.org/agenda Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Samantha Sherris. I'm Virginia Allen. And this is the Daily Signal top news for Monday, February 27th. Here are today's headlines. We now have the latest information on what country in the world is most economically free. The Heritage Foundation released its annual index of economic freedom earlier today. The most economically free nation in the world is Singapore. Coming in at number two and number three are Switzerland and Ireland. Taiwan ranks at number three. number four. So where does America fall on the ranking? The United States's ranking holds steady at number 25 with an overall economic freedom score of 70.6, which is its lowest score ever. The latest annual index considers economic policies and conditions in 184 sovereign countries from July 1st, 2021 through June 30th, 2022, and reveals a world economy that, taken as a whole, is mostly unfree. Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts says the index is a sign that too many

countries have renounced basic economic principles, leaving communities to suffer with the consequences. The nations with the least economic freedom are Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea. You can find more about this report at DailySignal.com. Walt Disney World lost a little bit of its power today. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill ending the self-government. status Disney World has enjoyed for decades. Remember, Disney World has been ruled by its own governing body in essentially the same way as a county has elected leaders. This has been the case since Disney World first opened. The land Disney Parks Sits On is known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, but now the land Disney sits on will be a state-controlled district accountable to the people

of Florida, according to DeSantis. So what is this going to mean for Mickey's house and all his pals at Disney World? Well, according to DeSantis, it ends Disney's self-governing status and ends Disney's exemption from the Florida Building Code and Florida Fire Prevention Code. Disney will no longer be exempt from state regulatory reviews and approvals. The bill also brings more accountability to Disney by requiring greater transparency. And Mickey and all his pals will now have to pay their money. fair share in taxes, and the bill requires that Disney's municipal debt will be paid by Disney,

not Florida taxpayers. DeSantis says the bill prevents leftist local governments from using the situation to raise local taxes. The changes come after months of tension between Disney and DeSantis. This is not the first time that DeSantis and Disney have butted heads. As many of you may remember, Disney World openly opposed a DeSantis-backed bill last year that professed that prohibits the teaching of gender ideology to young children in classrooms. Disney claimed the bill was anti-gay and called it the don't-say gay bill. Governor DeSantis says allowing a corporation to control its own government is bad policy. So moving forward, the House of Mouse will not be getting any special treatment in Florida.

We have new information on the origins of COVID-19. Over the weekend, the U.S. Energy Department said COVID-19 likely came from an accidental leak at a lab in China. The Energy Department had previously said it was not sure what the origin of the virus was. The department's shift is significant, the Wall Street Journal argues, because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research. The Energy Department joins the FBI in the belief that COVID-19 originated from a lab leak. The department has drawn its conclusions on the origins of the pandemic from a classified intelligence report that was provided to key members of Congress and the White House.

Republicans were quick to react to the news on social media, calling for China to be held accountable for the pandemic. Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton wrote on Twitter, China's lab leak, being proven right doesn't matter. What matters is holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable so this doesn't happen again. And Colorado Republican Representative Ken Buck said, The elites and academics owe everyone who had legitimate questions and concerns about the origins of COVID-19 and apology. The American people deserve to see all the information concerning the Chinese Lab League and the origins of COVID. This won't be forgotten.

Four other agencies, including the National Intelligence Panel, still hold that the pandemic was a result of natural transmission, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Biden administration wants to cancel student loan debt, but a number of GOP-led states say that's unconstitutional. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments involving the Biden administration's federal debt forgiveness plan. Here with us to talk about this is Heritage Foundation Senior Legal Fellow, John Carlo Canaparo, also host of the SCOTUS 101 podcast. John Carlo, thanks for being back. Thanks for having me. So explain if you would, these Supreme Court cases. What is the Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday?

And why are GOP states that include Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and South Carolina? Why are they saying that the Biden administration can't forgive student loan debt in this broad, sweeping way? Sure. So both the cases raise the same merits arguments. And the only question between them, between the state cases and the individual borrower cases, is the question of standing. Now, I'll start there. standing is a legal rule that says if you want to bring a case, you have to have a real injury that's caused by the other side that a court can fix. And in this case, the states say, well,

we have student loan servicers, state agencies that take money from the federal government in order to service the student loans. And if you cancel all the student loans, our agencies, and therefore the states lose a bunch of money. That seems to be a pretty solid standing argument. Now, the other argument bought by the individual who's suing, he did not qualify. And he says that he has a procedural injury, which is that he didn't get to meaningfully participate in the executive agency making process that led to Biden's loan cancellation plan. Now, the states probably have the strongest argument, but regardless, the merits are the same. And the case all hinges on an act called the Heroes Act. And it was an emergency act.

And what it does is it says that in the time of war or another national emergency, the president can waive or modify, is the statutory language. Certain provisions of the student loan statutes provided that he does so in a way which is necessary to make sure that affected people are not worse off. So there's a lot to unpack there. The act was created after 9-11 to give temporary relief from student loan obligations to service members deployed overseas. But Biden has said, well, because we have a national emergency, which is COVID, I can actually extend that to cancel all student loans for 95.5% of all borrowers in the country. And this hinges really on the phrase wave and modify. He says that means I get all the power I want and affected persons. and he just says that means everybody.

So that's really the question. Does waive and modify mean cancel student loans? Probably not. Does affected persons just mean everybody? Almost certainly not. You have to show that you have tailored the program only to those people who are actually made financially worse off because of the pandemic.

Biden has not done that. There are going to be many people who rode through the pandemic who didn't suffer financially. They will get their loans canceled, but they don't qualify as affected people. In short, when you look through the government's briefs and the legal opinions justifying this, they made no attempt to tailor it to people who are actually worse off, which the statute requires. That's probably how the case is going to come out. The Supreme Court will probably say, you know, you didn't live up to the statutory obligations.

There are a couple other ways that it could go wrong, too, for the Biden administration, and I'll have you to discuss those too if you want. Yeah, no, that's fascinating, Jean-Carlo. So in your professional, illegal opinion, for our listeners who do have student loan debt, are they going to see that debt canceled after the Supreme Court ruling? Or in all likelihood, should they still be putting those dollars aside and saving debt to pay those student loans back? Well, my sense is that the Biden administration is probably going to lose the case if the Supreme Court finds that one of the states or the individual borrower has standing, which I think is probably likely.

But it seems to me relatively clear that Biden did not comply with the statute here, that the statute, first of all, was not meant to cancel student loans to the tune of $400 billion when it was invented to give temporary relief to service members deployed overseas. It seems a real stretch. And part when the court interprets statutes like that that purport to give the executive power and the executive branch expands them in new and sort of unforeseen ways, the court applies what's called the major questions doctrine. And it asks, you know, does this policy raise really important questions of economic or political significance? Here, definitely, yes. I mean, $400 billion is probably the largest unilateral spending in American history. Political significance is settled, right? This has been a huge debate point for years. And so if policy raises important questions like that, the Supreme Court asked, you know, did Congress expressly, clearly give the

the executive the power to do that. And that's just not there in this statute. John Carlo, we really appreciate your time today. For those that want to hear more from John Carlo, you can check out his podcast, Codas 101, that he co-host with Zach Smith. You can also read all of his research and reporting at heritage.org and also on the Daily Signal. John Carlo, thanks for your time. Thanks for having me. And that'll do you for today's episode. Thank you for listening to the Daily Signal's top news. If you haven't had the chance, be sure to check out our morning show right here in this podcast feed, where we bring you interviews with lawmakers, experts, and leading conservative voices.

Join us tomorrow morning for the Daily Signal interview edition as I'm going to be sitting down with the Texas Land Commissioner, Don Buckingham, to discuss how local Texas communities are being affected by the crisis at the southern border. Thanks, Virginia. I'm looking forward to listening to that interview. And if you want to listen to more interviews like what Virginia has in store for us tomorrow, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast. and help us reach even more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read and appreciate all of your feedback.

Thanks again for joining us today, and we'll see you're right back here tomorrow morning. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Luey and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha Asheras. Sound design by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. To learn more, please visit DailySignal.com. com.