Vice President Kamala Harris has spent a lot of time and energy in recent months attacking Project 2025, the conservative movement's plan to curtail the administrative state and put Washington back in the hands of the American people.
In fact, when asked in a recent interview about the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, the vice president responded by describing our work as a threat to the safety of Americans.
This attempt to equate policy ideas with an assassination attempt instead of honestly debating the issues is dishonest and dangerous. So, before the Vice President raises the temperature even further, let me set the record straight.
Project 2025 is not aimed at Donald Trump
Our policy work is not about a single presidential candidate, and never has been. We began our work in the spring of 2022, before Trump announced he was running for a second term and well before any primary elections.
Our work is also not unique. Many other think tanks on both sides of the aisle, including the far-left Center for American Progress, are doing similar work to advance their priorities.
After all, our work is not new. The Heritage Foundation has produced conservative policy playbooks every election cycle since Ronald Reagan's victories in 1980 and 1984.
Just as then, that policy is aimed at enabling American citizens to realize the American dream, a dream that more and more Americans believe is becoming out of reach.
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That means our policies are designed to protect Americans' freedom to work hard in a steady job. The freedom for Americans to put food on the table for their families. And the freedom for Americans to live in a home they own, in a neighborhood where they are safe.
Unfortunately, virtually every objective measure suggests that it is much harder for Americans to do that now than it was when the Biden-Harris administration entered the White House.
Americans are struggling to pay the bills
The highest inflation rates in forty years mean the average weekly salary is $160 higher than when President Joe Biden and Harris took office, but it buys $35 less.
Last year, a typical American family paid $709 more each month for essentials like food, clothing, housing and transportation than just two years earlier.
And the average monthly mortgage payment has nearly doubled in the past four years, leaving the affordability of homeownership at a record low, according to some figures.
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The White House knows these facts and figures, and millions of Americans know the consequences of this administration's failure. That's why, outside of Washington DC and the influence of the mainstream news media, many of our policies are popular with the public.
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Most people support sending U.S. troops to the southern border to stop drug cartels. They are in favor of parents being able to send their children to a school of their choice. And our polling shows that they agree with us that Congress must pass important regulations before they take effect.
Other policies we promote, such as dismantling the Ministry of Education and fighting the porn industry, are less popular, but we believe they are no less essential to restoring the health of our republic.
Popular or not, the fact that a group of conservative organizations is offering conservative policy solutions should not be a scandal. It certainly shouldn't make anyone feel unsafe.
What should be a scandal is that this White House, after four years of failure and months of attacks on us, continues to roll out the same tired ideas that have been damaging to the American dream.
What should be a scandal is the vice president's attempt to avoid discussions on substantive policy issues. Americans want and deserve a real debate, not an atmosphere.
Kevin Roberts is chairman of Heritage Action and The Heritage Foundation.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Opinion: Harris' claims about Project 2025 are deceptive – and wrong
