With state legislatures back in session, legislators are looking for options to reassert their legitimate role in the constitutional structure of federalism. Sadly, a few otherwise well-intentioned legislators are once again turning to the discredited and unconstitutional doctrine of nullification—the claim that an individual state legislature has the authority to veto federal laws. Nullification may appear to offer a tempting “silver bullet” solution to the overexpansion of the federal government, but it is imperative that legislators reject this unconstitutional and unlawful doctrine. Heritage recently released a factsheet distilling the core …
On the morning of Tuesday, February 21, 2012, a debate took place at the World Bank, and the outcome was stunning. Heritage’s David Kreutzer and Yale University economics professor Robert Mendelsohn debated Marianne Fay of the World Bank and Paul Ekins of the University College London. The proposition was “Green Development is necessary, affordable, and urgent.” The audience was the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Network, whose initial preferences were no surprise. Polled before the debate, over two-thirds of the audience supported the proposition, and most of the others chose “undecided.” …
President Obama is insistent that taxes must go up to close the deficit. He says it’s just common sense that taxes must go up, because the math says so. But if he gets his way, the numbers won’t add up the way he says they will. President Obama wants to raise taxes on “the rich.” But the Treasury will never collect the revenue he says will come from such hikes, because the rich will change their behavior to escape the punitive levies. Case in point from Britain, where Parliament recently …
A recent report from the RAND Corporation on al-Qaeda’s future says that the terrorist organization remains extremely dangerous and will demand America’s continued attention for years to come, echoing points Heritage has been making for some time now. The report, “Al Qaeda in Its Third Decade,” by Brian Michael Jenkins, takes a step back from the political rhetoric surrounding ongoing U.S. counterterrorism efforts at home and abroad to critically assess al-Qaeda’s current status and future prospects. RAND’s report comes at a critical time, as last week saw the 45th attempted …
With his corporate tax reform “framework,” President Obama today added another element to his ultimately harmful economic agenda. Previously announced anti-growth policies include massive budget deficits, a huge tax hike on individuals and small businesses in 2013, and his proposal to nearly triple the dividend tax rate. His new proposal starts strong by reducing the federal corporate income tax rate to 28 percent from the current 35 percent. This is a good and long-overdue policy change. Regrettably, he marries rate reduction to a net corporate tax hike based in part …
In a recent speech to the Conference on Global Zero, Rose Gottemoeller, the Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, told the cheering masses, “New START was just the beginning. Going forward, we know that we are going to have to think bigger and bolder.” For those who don’t follow the play-by-play of nuclear arms control, “Global Zero” is a utopian plan embraced by President Obama: that if the U.S. gets rid of all of its nuclear weapons, the rest of the world will follow suit. Put aside, for now, …
Iran’s decision to halt oil shipments to the U.K. and France last weekend is a weak retaliatory measure against European actors for tougher sanctions. Despite this largely symbolic measure, Iran did manage to surprise world markets and drive up the price of oil. The U.K. imposed its hardest-hitting sanctions to date on Iran last November, but its crude oil imports amount to less that 1 percent of Iranian sales. France accounts for only 2 percent of Iranian sales. Both countries are parties to last month’s European Union sanctions on Iran. …
We keep hearing that the economy is in a “jobless recovery.” What’s holding American companies back? Why aren’t they hiring more people? High taxes draw a lot of attention, and rightly so. They depress investment and discourage innovation. But escalating regulatory costs also undermine our economy. And small businesses, which fuel so much economic growth and hire so many people, often wind up particularly hard-hit by them. You don’t have to be a doctrinaire conservative to realize this. The Economist, the London-based news weekly – and a supporter of President …
Talks between Iran and the U.N. “watchdog” International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) just failed big time. You would never know that talking to Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador to the IAEA. “The second round of talks about cooperation between Iran and the agency and interaction with each other was held, and the talks will continue in the future,” he declared. This came as a bit of surprise to Gill Tudor, spokesperson for the IAEA Director General, who told Reuters, “At this point in time there is no agreement on …
Today is Ash Wednesday — the first day of Lent — the beginning of 40 days of prayer and fasting observed by Christians across the country, culminating in the Easter feast. Likewise in April, Jews will gather to celebrate Passover, one of many traditions observed under the religious freedom that the U.S. Constitution was designed to preserve. Now, though, that freedom is under direct attack by the very government that purports to represent the people, and that is but the first step in Obamacare’s re-writing of America’s blueprint. This week, …
