Harris is wrong about Project 2025. Our plan is good for America.

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Vice President Kamala Harris has spent much time and energy in recent months attacking Project 2025, the conservative movement's plan to rein in the administrative state and put Washington back in the hands of the American people.

When asked about the second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in a recent interview, the vice president even responded by describing our work as a threat to the safety of Americans.

This attempt to equate political ideas with an assassination, rather than honestly discussing the issues, is dishonest and dangerous. Before the Vice President raises the temperature any further, I want to make this clear.

The focus of Project 2025 is not Donald Trump

Our political work is not, and never has been, about a single presidential candidate. We began our work in the spring of 2022, before Trump announced his candidacy for a second term and well before the primaries.

Our work is not unique either. 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 guides in every election cycle since Ronald Reagan's victories in 1980 and 1984.

Now, as then, these policies are focused on giving American citizens the opportunity to achieve the American dream, a dream that more and more Americans feel is slipping out of reach.

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That means our policies are focused on protecting Americans' freedom to work hard in a stable job. The freedom for Americans to put dinner on the table for their families. And the freedom for Americans to live in a home that is theirs, in a neighborhood where they are safe.

Unfortunately, almost all objective measures suggest that it is much harder for Americans to do this today than it was when the Biden-Harris administration entered the White House.

Americans are struggling to pay their bills

The highest inflation rates in 40 years mean the average weekly paycheck is $160 higher than when President Joe Biden and Harris took office, but brings in $35 less.

Last year, the typical American family paid $709 more each month for basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and transportation than they did two years earlier.

And the average monthly mortgage payment has nearly doubled in the last four years, putting home affordability at a record low, according to some metrics.

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The White House knows these facts and figures, and millions of Americans know the consequences of this administration's failure. This is why many of our policies are popular with the public outside of Washington, DC and the influence of the mainstream news media.

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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 poll shows that they agree with us that Congress must approve all major regulations before they go into effect.

Other policies we support, such as dismantling the Department of Education and cracking down on the pornography industry, are less popular, but we believe they are no less important to restoring the health of our republic.

Whether popular or not, the fact that a group of conservative organizations is offering conservative policy solutions should not be a scandal. It definitely shouldn't make anyone feel unsafe.

What should be a scandal is that after four years of failure and months of attack, this White House continues to promote the same tired ideas that have been detrimental to the American dream.

What may be a scandal is the vice president's attempt to avoid discussions on key policy issues. Americans want and deserve real debate, not sentiment.

Kevin Roberts is President 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 misleading – and false