Barack Obama is trying to convince the American people that when it comes to his economic stimulus plan, “We’re guided by what works, not by any ideology or special interests.” But as the New York Times reports today, nobody has any idea “what works.” First the Times reports: Nearly every economist who spoke here agreed that a dollar invested in, say, a new transit system or in bridge repair is spent and respent more efficiently than a dollar that comes to a household in a tax cut. Awesome. That’s good …
(Post by Heritage Senior Legal Research Fellow Brian Walsh) A new year, a new Congress, and already the march of overcriminalization is underway. Without engaging this Congress in debate or meaningful committee oversight, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) is trying to ram through legislation–the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act of 2009 (H.R. 36)–that would make it a federal crime to fail to report a donation as small as $200 to a presidential library. The punishment? Up to five years (!) in federal prison. If this is the precedent that the 111th …
In a few weeks, China will claim to have completed its economic survey and announce a growth rate for 2008. The only thing we know for certain is that figure won’t be accurate. Today, the People’s Bank tipped growth of 9.3% for the year. The final official figure could be 9.1% or 9.4% but it will be close to that. Today also brought a reason, courtesy of the official China Electricity Council, to think real economic growth was much lower. It put growth in power demand last year at only …
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has called for meetings between the Israeli leaders and “Palestinian factions” as well as a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. According to the CNN article, the Egyptian President “said the discussions would focus on avoiding an escalation of the violence, securing borders between Israel and Gaza”. The U.S. has supported Israel’s right to defend itself and respond to the terrorist threat of Hamas. It is important to remember that a cease-fire without being lasting and stable is catering to Hamas’ pledge to destroy Israel. Heritage Foundation’s …
On December 10, Senate Democrats sent a letter to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich writing: ““We write to insist that you step down and…under no circumstances make an appointment to fill the vacant Illinois Senate seat.” The letter further threatened that if Blagojevich ignored their warning, “we would be forced to exercise our Constitutional authority under Article I, Section 5, to determine whether such a person should be seated.” Well now that Blagojevich has appointed Roland Burris to President-elect Barack Obama’s old senate seat, most Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Harry …
One of the biggest challenges President-elect Barack Obama faces in the years to come is how to both enact “swift and bold” changes to public policy while still blaming President Bush for everything that is bad about the economy. Hence Obama’s press conference yesterday where he anesthetized Americans to the likelihood of “trillion dollar deficits for years to come.” Of course, Obama quickly blamed others for the massive shortfall, explaining: “When the American people spoke last November, they were demanding change – change in policies that helped deliver the worst …
Good news, Mr. Gore. You no longer have to worry about polar bears arduously attempt to settle on a piece of breaking ice as portrayed in your documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. (The animated version Gore used in his movie can be seen at the 4-minute mark, to the tune of some strange Latin music, here.) In any event, according to data compiled by Illinois’s Arctic Climate Research Center, Thanks to a rapid rebound in recent months, global sea ice levels now equal those seen 29 years ago. Ice levels had …
Bill Beach recently appeared on Bloomberg TV to debate with Will Straw from the Center For American Progress on what should be done with the new Stimulus bill. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbcMUcaZ_w[/youtube] For more information on the Stimulus bill, visit our new “Rapid Response” page on the Economic Stimulus
A paper recently published by The Heritage Foundation outlined the threat to religious liberty posed by nondiscrimination laws that elevate sexual orientation to a “protected status” just like race or gender. One of the cases used to illustrate this point involved a Methodist campground ministry in New Jersey that refused to allow a lesbian couple to rent one of its facilities for their civil union ceremony because of the ministry’s religious beliefs about marriage. The lesbian couple filed a complaint against the ministry for allegedly violating a civil rights law …
Just as Europe is in the midst of a particularly cold winter, Russia’s quasi-governmental gas giant Gazprom has turned off the gas taps to Ukraine, a major transit corridor for Russian gas into Europe. Gas shortages are being reported in several countries, including Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and the Czech Republic. Europe gets more than 40 per cent of its gas from Russia, although many European countries such as Poland are 100 percent reliant on Moscow for supplies. This isn’t the first time that Gazprom has engaged in energy-intimidation – it …
