From Drudge: Al Gore is scheduled before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday morning to once again testify on the ‘urgent need’ to combat global warming. But Mother Nature seems ready to freeze the proceedings. A ‘Winter Storm Watch’ has been posted for the nation’s capitol and there is a potential for significant snow… sleet… or ice accumulations.” Interestingly, this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to the former VP: With a near-record low temperature and single-digit wind chill in New York City, former Vice President …
Yesterday, the White House posted a blog item on Monday’s Press Conference held by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. We love reading blogs at the Foundry – how could we not? But, this should not replace releasing a full transcript of White House press briefings. Previous administrations have posted full, unedited transcripts on the same day. This allows Americans to better understand the policy positions of the White House, especially for those without access to C-SPAN during the day. Since President Obama has taken office, we have not seen one press briefing …
Empire Center director Edmund McMahon writes in the New York Post: The House of Representatives this week is expected to pass a federal stimulus package that could pump at least $17 billion of noncapital funding directly into New York’s state and local government coffers over the next two years. But what Sen. Charles Schumer is touting as a “shot in the arm” for New York looks more like a sock in the face to the state’s taxpayers. The stimulus bills would temporarily offset Gov. Paterson’s planned cuts in Albany’s projected …
Across California, many cash strapped towns are desperate to keep their fledgling tax bases afloat. For Victorville, a desert town on the main highway between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, that now means a taxpayer bailout for Victorville Motors. The Wall Street Journal reports: Car dealerships in these towns have been the economic engine of local government as well as pillars of the community, sponsoring everything from Little Leagues to rodeos. Victorville Mayor Rudy Cabriales said car dealers are the city’s largest source of sales-tax revenue. Victorville, a city of …
Congressional leaders recently proposed an unprecedented $142 billion spending increase for education—the largest in history—in the so-called “economic stimulus” package. That’s nearly double the annual budget of the Department of Education. But liberals on Capitol Hill included language in the legislation to make sure that not a dollar of that funding is used on school choice policies that give parents the power to pick the best school for their children. (Prohibiting school choice is just one of the reasons why the “economic stimulus” is a bad policy.) The Washington Post …
With countless news stories, papers, editorials and experts giving their view of why Congress should or shouldn’t enact the Pelosi-Reid-Obama Debt Plan, we thought it would be helpful to give you a short index of why spending does not equal stimulus. HIGH COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS After Congress appropriates the FY’09 omnibus bill, they may have spent over $1.4 Trillion in less than one month! The current “stimulus bill” will be the LARGEST SPENDING BILL EVER enacted by Congress, making the New Deal look small, accounting for inflation. The “Stimulus” Bills Your …
This Sunday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) created quite a stir when she attempted to defend Section 5004, of the House’s economic stimulus plan which allows the Medicaid bailout portion of the spending plan to be spent on family planning clinics. The leftist organization Media Matters came to Pelosi’s defense claiming “The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association says such policies are extremely popular.” But Media Matters and their leftist allies completely miss the policy point underscored by highlighting the stimulus plan’s family planning loophole. The Associated Press explains why …
Efforts in Congress to fast-track passage of an economic stimulus package and expansion of the children’s health care program, if successful, would give liberals a big down payment on nationalizing health care. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) has stated as much. America already was on a fast track toward the tipping point in health care — that point where the federal government will control more spending on personal health than the private sector does. Today, as this chart shows, government controls 46 percent of such spending; its share is …
Fresh off receiving taxpayer money to stay afloat for a few more months and to submit a new business plan for economic sustainability, automakers now face a steeper hill to climb. President Obama has directed federal regulators on Monday to move swiftly on an application by California and 13 other states to set strict limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks. He also ordered the Transportation Department to begin drawing up rules imposing higher fuel-economy standards on cars and light trucks. The president also directed the Transportation Department to …
Shanea Watkins and Patrick Tyrrell of the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation put President Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar spending plan into terms we understand: Many people have trouble picturing such an enormous amount of money. To put it into perspective, $825 billion is worth approximately $10,520 for each family in the United States, or $22,445 for each family with children under the age of 18. … Average spending for all family groups in the United States is similar to that of families with children. On average, families annually …
