Last week, President Barack Obama announced that he would nominate Dr. Allison Macfarlane, a nuclear waste expert from George Mason University, as the United States’ top nuclear regulator. Conventional wisdom is that Dr. Macfarlane satisfies all the major political interests involved with the NRC decision. She is a vocal opponent of Yucca Mountain. Harry Reid, check. She is on board with many of the post-Fukushima safety reforms. EPW Chair Barbara Boxer, check. And she is pro-nuclear, Senate Republicans, check. Tying this all nicely together is that fact that she served …
America was founded on the blood, sweat, and tears of ordinary, brave colonists who accomplished extraordinary things in waging a war for their independence and founding a new government. And in that great experiment that was the Constitution, the Framers made national defense a primary responsibility of the federal government. However, in recent years, not many things have been more controversial than funding our military. As we are seeing today, defense spending is on the chopping block as the president and Congress seek ways to cut spending. Today, there is …
As part of my teaching duties at West Point, I took cadets on a study tour of the World War II battlefields in Normandy, France. The first stop is the cemetery on the cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach. It is hard not to realize who pays the price for fighting for us. Walking the rows of crosses and stars of David is an unending repetition of private, infantry, private, infantry, private, infantry, sergeant, private, private … For the young cadets, it was a powerful lesson in leadership, a reminder that their …
Former Representative Bob Barr’s (R–GA) criticism of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) anti-aircraft and missile program is understandable but misplaced. Representative Barr, quite reasonably, points to the Obama Administration’s plan to continue spending money on this cooperative program with Germany and Italy despite an announcement early last year that it is moving to exit it. What he fails to appreciate is that the Administration’s earlier decision to exit the program was itself misguided. MEADS is important and advantageous for several reasons. First, MEADS successfully completed its design review …
A month before the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the constitutionality of Obamacare, liberal supporters are already planning an aggressive propaganda campaign to sway media coverage and public opinion. The focus of the liberal public-relations campaign will be on “real people” — individuals who can speak about the impact of the ruling regardless of what the Supreme Court decides. A newly released memo, first published by BuzzFeed, suggests liberals should adapt their message and events to defend government-run health care. “No matter what the flavor of our response …
President Obama has repeatedly claimed that he is “going to keep on fighting for what matters to middle class families.” Well, in this “fight,” the President seems to be his own worst enemy. His health care law does far more damage than good to the American middle class. Here are the five most prevalent and harmful burdens the middle class will be forced to bear under Obamacare: More taxes. Obamacare imposes $502 billion of new or increased taxes and fees. Heritage expert Curtis Dubay explains that several of the taxes …
We know that “progressives” favor what they call “living constitutions,” governing documents that change easily to accommodate the changing tastes of voters. Sometimes they rely on judges to “breathe life” into the Constitution, as the Supreme Court did in 1965’s famous Griswold v. Connecticut. But some also seem to be rooting for dead constitutions. On Thursday, an NPR interviewer had an interesting idea: “I have to say that when I talk to friends across the country, they look at this system in California and they say: well, why don’t they …
Suppose you could produce $50 of electricity but it cost you $100 to do so. Would that make any sense? It would if you work at the White House. In a speech at a wind-turbine blade manufacturer in Iowa, President Obama called for extending two sets of subsidies that turn energy economics upside down and force higher costs on consumers and taxpayers. The first extension is for the production tax credit (PTC), which is set to expire at the end of the year. It provides wind-energy producers with a subsidy …
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Steven Pifer responded to Senator Jon Kyl’s (R–AZ) op-ed that argued that President Obama should refuse to provide written assurances to Russia that compromise America’s ability to defend itself. Pifer’s complaint with the Senate Republican Whip’s argument is that “an assurance could open a path to a cooperative NATO-Russia missile defense.” Pifer misses the point. Missile defense is inherently defensive in nature and poses no offensive threat to any country. The Russians want assurances from the U.S. that U.S. missile defenses will not ever have …
Three days after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris met in Washington, D.C., to discuss Sri Lanka’s human rights record, former Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka was released from prison. Fonseka is viewed as a war hero by the Sinhalese majority for his victory over the terrorist group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, ending a decades-long civil war. He resigned from his post as Chief of Defense Staff in 2009 to run for the presidency. He was defeated by Mahinda …
