The federal government’s decision to become both a market player and regulator in U.S. residential real estate was a major cause of the financial crisis. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, using their government-given advantages (including lower capital requirements, guaranteed access to federal credit, and a federal guarantee of their debt), established a massive mortgage duopoly. Barack Obama now wants to do for health care what the left has done for the housing market: concentrate as much decision-making power in Washington so that all health care decisions are politicized and magnified. …
Courtesy of William Warren, Americans for Limited Government Americans for Tax Reform has run the numbers for Joe Wurzelbacher. Under the tax plan offered by Barack Obama, the country’s most famous plumber would pay $10,000 more in taxes. Here’s the breakdown: Current Law: Under current law, Joe faces a self-employment tax of $20,768 and an income tax of $49,908 for a total tax liability of $70,676 Obama Tax Hike: Joe’s self-employment tax his risen to $24,488 since he’s paying the full rate after $250,000 of SE tax. His income tax …
USA Today, the country’s largest newspaper, came out firmly against the Employee Free Choice Act today, concluding the legislation known as “card check” would undermine democratic principles. Heritage has written extensively on the legislation, most recently criticizing the measure for eliminating the secret ballot for union organization. USA Today didn’t think very highly of that provision either: Under a major rewrite of U.S. labor law being promoted by unions, when more than 50% of employees sign authorization cards, the NLRB would have to recognize the new union. No campaign. No …
Robert Bork at Heritage / Photo by Andrew Blasko Former judge Robert Bork delivered the first lecture in Heritage’s Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture series that is a part of a larger 10-year initiative started by the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies to bring back judicial restraint and the rule of law. The title of Bork’s lecture was aptly named, “A Republic — If You Can Keep It.” It was taken from a quote by Benjamin Franklin when asked what the Founding Fathers were giving to the American people when …
John McCain made a point of mentioning Citizens Against Government Waste during all three presidential debate. He cited the National Taxpayers Union in the last two. Today both organizations responded with a list of government waste that’s just waiting to be cut. NTU’s research arm, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, through its BillTally program has compiled a list of pieces of legislation in the current Congress that would reduce spending, including examples like H.R. 5957, which would eliminate $35 billion worth of agricultural subsidies over five years. NTUF also holds …
Card Check: No Debate Question on Employee Free Choice Act – Shopfloor.org Ridiculous. Neither the moderators nor the candidates posed a question in the three debates, including tonight, on the Orwellian-named Employee Free Choice Act. There’s a clear difference between Senator Obama and Senator McCain on legislation that would fundamentally reshape business-labor relations in the United States… “One of The Great Success Stories of All Time” – OpenMarket.org While conservatives are angry about a number of things at the moment, they should be at least as angry that the Congressional …
Bloomberg is reporting Barack Obama “will classify carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant that can be regulated.” As we have reported repeatedly in the past, such a decision would trigger numerous regulatory actions pursuant to the Clean Air Act and empower the Environmental Protection Agency to centrally plan the entire economy. Since the EPA published its proposed carbon capping plan this summer, the Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis has been using the widely respected Global Insight’s U.S. Macroeconomic Model of the American economy to estimate the economic impacts of CO2 …
Fantastic clear explanation of how federal government intervention with the market directly caused today’s financial turmoil by Peter Schiff in today’s Washington Post: Just as prices in a free market are set by supply and demand, financial and real estate markets are governed by the opposing tension between greed and fear. … [O]ver the past generation, government has removed the necessary counterbalance of fear from the equation. Policies enacted by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (which were always government entities in disguise), and …
Recent reports indicate Iran could have a nuclear bomb by 2015, if not earlier. What has been largely ignored is Iran’s ability to acquire an equally destructive device, an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon. Clifford D. May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and I recently penned an article describing how Iran can achieve its destructive ends — “a world without America.” Having already conducted tests from sea-based platforms, detonating warheads at the highest point of the missile trajectory, Iran may exploring a workable research program to deliver …
California’s Air Resources Board issued its final draft of an economy-wide plan that would slash the state’s emissions about 15% below today’s level by 2020. California voters and state legislators will not get to vote on the plan. Just like the EPA’s power grab at the federal level, unelected government officials already hold the fate of the entire economy in their hands. The Air Resource Board can turn its plan into law by its own vote this December. The environmental left is making fantastic claims to justify this unprecedented expansion …
