Frank Ahrens tracked down two of “America’s remaining free-marketers” and asked them to rewrite President-elect Barack Obama’s claim that: It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth. But at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Here is how our own JD Foster would have changed Obama’s statement: But at this particular moment, only [deep reductions in income tax rates, loosening of the shackles on America’s workers and …
Heritage analyst Andrew Grossman will be discussing the auto bailout with Wall Street Journal Former Detroit Bureau Chief Paul Ingrassia, Competitive Enterprise Institute General Counsel Sam Kazman, and Mackinac Center for Public Policy Senior Economist David Littmann. The panel can be seen live here at 10:30, and will also be available for viewing afterward. Here’s a quick preview of Grossman’s thoughts on the subject: Bankruptcy Law Exists for a Reason With recent job losses across the economy, lawmakers are understandably nervous to subject themselves to the charge that they have …
Today a funeral mass is being held in New York City for Father Richard John Neuhaus. Perhaps best known as the founder and editor-in-Chief of the journal First Things, Neuhaus was a prominent theologian, prolific writer, and ordained priest. Both in America and around the world, he exercised considerable influence on public discourse relating to faith and public life. Neuhaus was a guest of The Heritage Foundation on several occasions, most recently at a 2007 event honoring the 30th anniversary of his book To Empower People: The Role of Mediating …
The rest of the world may talk a good game when it comes to ending their use of carbon based energy, but the reality is a completely different story. While the European Union lectures us on global warming, Germany is busy building 27 coal-fired plants by 2020 and Italy plans to increase its reliance on coal from 14% today to 33% in just five years. In all of Europe, 40 new major coal power plants are set to be built in the next five years. The same realities are dictating …
It’s confirmation week and the hearing for nominee for Secretary of Energy, Stephen Chu, is tomorrow, January 13th. We’ve written about Chu before (here and here) and my colleagues Ben Lieberman and Jack Spencer have come up with 5 key questions he’ll inevitably have to answer as Energy Secretary. In fact, Spencer and Lieberman even provide answers to make things easier for Chu. Two of my favorites: Question #1: Gasoline Prices Last September you made the statement that “somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of …
Today is the first day of implementation for the Department of Homeland Security’s Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) program. ESTA allows travelers visiting the United States under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) to enter the U.S. without a visa and stay for up to 90 days. VWP countries include most of Western Europe, New Zealand, Japan and Australia. This summer, Heritage analyst Jena McNeill wrote on ETSA: Pre-screening for security risks improves authorities’ ability to prevent high-security risk individuals from entering the U.S. Rather than risking a bureaucratic snafu …
Classic Obama subterfuge from the President-elect on This Week this Sunday. STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you about, because like one of the signature proposals already is this Museum of Organized Crime out in Las Vegas. I had Mitch McConnell out on the show last week and he ridiculed it, saying that, you know, this is an example of the kind of pork we don’t want. Yet its advocates say, wait a second, it’s a construction project, it’s ready to go, it’s going to create jobs. Is …
After eight years under President Bush, federal spending on K-12 public education is at an all time high. The federal government currently spends $71 billion a year on K-12 programs, an increase of more than 40% from when Bush first took office. The word ‘education’ does not appear in the Constitution,and historically the federal government has a very limited role in funding and regulating public education. But all that began to change with President Johnson’s Great Society and now 40 years later the federal government provides 9% of all K-12 …
Heritage’s Brian Riedl appeared on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” this morning to debate Center for American Progress fellow James Kvaal about President-elect Barack Obama’s spending stimulus. Check out Riedl’s Wall Street Journal op-ed to understanding why government spending won’t stimulate the economy. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9sHyQ_IRt4[/youtube]
Finally some good news coming out of Washington: “Southwest Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt today reintroduced legislation, the Boutique Fuel Reduction Act of 2009, to lower gas prices by simplifying our nation’s increasingly complex gasoline supply.” Boutique fuels are “specialized blends produced for a specific state or area of the country to meet state and local air quality requirements. These unique fuels present serious challenges to the fuel distribution system and, especially in times of disruption, may have the potential to result in local supply shortages.” Congressman Blunt remarked, “Current mandates …
