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  • Monthly Archives: February 2008

    Do Not Cast That Die

    According to InsideEPA (subscription required) EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson appears to be listening to reason on EPA’s possible release of an endangerment finding on CO2. Johnson told a House Appropriations subcommittee Tuesday that the agency is “taking a step back” to analyze how finding CO2 to be a pollutant under the Clean Air Act would trigger a mass of other “inappropriate regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) under the air act.” InsideEPA says Johnson words echoed arguments from Heritage Foundation analyst Ben Lieberman who warned: “An endangerment finding is a regulatory … More

    Protectionist Pandering Threatens to Raise Gas Prices

    Promises by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to threaten Canada with unilateral rescission of NAFTA are not going over well up north. During the Democratic debate Tuesday night Hillary Clinton said she would tell Canada and Mexico: “We will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it and we renegotiate on terms that are favorable to all of America.” Obama chimed in: “I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right.” Canada is taking those unilateral threats seriously and has warned theU.S. that access to its oil and … More

    Safety First

    A recent Pew Center study purports to show that, for the first time in U.S. history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison. This ratio would put the U.S. far ahead of such police states as Russia and China. Heritage Foundation criminal justice analyst David Muhlhausen responded: “Public safety is the number one priority of state and local governments. Incarcerating serious and violent criminals reduces crime and our incarceration policies are partially responsible for the large reduction in crime since the early 1990s.” To put … More

    The Dyanmic Duo

    President Vladimir Putin used the state’s control of all television in Russia to urge Russians to turnout and vote for his chosen successor Dmitry Medvedev. Putin is hoping that high election turnout will give Medvedev’s move to President some democratic credibility. Nobody should be fooled. Besides Putin’s control of all Russian media, the election results have been further fixed by the removal of any serious challenger. former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, liberal politician Boris Nemtsov, and Garry Kaparov have all been maneuvered off the ballot. Candidates from the Communist Party … More

    A Market Approach to Nuclear Waste

    With energy demands increasing and legislators pushing for carbon constraining policy, more people are turning their heads to commercial nuclear energy. Although many environmentalists, including Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore, continue to espouse nuclear energy, skeptics and also political candidates are asking, “What about nuclear waste?” There are solutions for nuclear waste, and other countries are carrying out these solutions on a daily basis. For example, France has successfully recycled over 23,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel. As The Heritage Foundation’s Research Fellow Jack Spencer notes, the French, Japanese, Indians, and … More

    Why Foster Children Need School Choice

    On Wednesday, first-term Congresswoman Rep. Michelle Bachmann testified before the House Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittee on Income and Family Support to explain why foster children need better opportunities in school. A former foster mother, Rep. Bachmann shared her experience about the many challenges foster children face: [her foster children] had never really known what it felt like to be loved or cared for, let alone received encouragement to do well in school in the hopes of achieving a brighter future. Still worse, they were shuffled from school to school … More

    Heritage Lowers Flag to Half-Staff in Honor of Buckley

    In honor of the late William F. Buckley Jr., Heritage has lowered the U.S. flag at our Massachusetts Avenue building to half-staff. Buckley has been mourned by Americans of all stripes since his death Wednesday. At Heritage, we’ve assembled some special tributes to the founder of the modern conservative movement. Bill Buckley: The Founder of the Movement – Lee Edwards, Feb. 29, 2008 WFB: In Memoriam – Robert A. Sirico, Feb. 28, 2008 Heritage Mourns Loss of William F. Buckley Jr. – News Release, Feb. 27, 2008 Buckley’s Program – … More

    Morning Bell: Holding the Line on Deficit Spending

    The U.S. taxpayer dodged a bullet last night when Senate conservative succeeded in stalling the latest deficit spending project, this time sold as a housing relief package. The bill was a disaster from stem to stern not just for taxpayers, but for anybody who hoped to buy a home in the near future. The most troubling aspects of the bill included: A provision allowing bankruptcy judges to unilaterally rewrite mortgage terms for distressed borrowers at the expense of lenders. The Congressional Budget Office reports this policy would lead to higher … More

    House Rewards Chavez For Not Producing Oil

    We know liberals in Congress are sympathetic to Hugo Chavez leftist agenda, but cutting him a tax break is a little over the line. Yesterday, the House passed an energy bill that raised taxes on American oil and gas companies. Notice the emphasis on ‘American.’ What should surprise everyone is that Citgo, Chavez’ personal ATM that operates in the U.S., is still getting a 6 percent tax break for domestic manufacturing that Exxon, Chevron, BP, Conoco-Phillips and Shell will all loose. How is this possible? The House figures that since … More

    Liberals Embrace a Unilateral Foreign Policy

    The Wall Street Journal opined today: Democrats claim the world hates America because President Bush has behaved like a global bully. But we don’t recall him ever ordering an ally to rewrite an existing agreement on American terms — or else. Yet that’s exactly what both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are now promising to do to our closest neighbors, Mexico and Canada. At their Ohio debate on Tuesday, first Mrs. Clinton, followed ever so quickly by Mr. Obama, pledged to pull America out of the North American Free Trade … More