We’ve written in detail here how the nuclear industry in the United States is growing rapidly despite the fact that construction on a nuclear reactor hasn’t started in the states. Here’s another, quite different, example: Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group, Inc. has signed an agreement with Covidien to develop technology for the manufacture of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely used radioisotope in the world for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine procedures. The program has the potential to supply more than 50 percent of …
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell sees a federal stimulus package and bailout of the states as both a fix to Pennsylvania’s current budget crunch and as a tool to revitalize the economy. Pennsylvania faces a revenue shortfall of $2.3 billion, according to Rendell’s latest guestimate. His proposed fix relies on $450 million from a federal stimulus package. However, a look at recent Pennsylvania spending shows why a federal bailout of the states is bad policy. Under Governor Rendell, Pennsylvania state spending increased 35.8%, well exceeding the rate of inflation of 17.4%. …
President Obama and Congress are proposing to spend billions to bail out the states, and they have the audacity to call it a “stimulus” package. They’ve taken up the mantle of the “pushover parent,” who bails out the kids everytime they make a poor choice or use up their allowance too quickly. The “pushover parent” fails to recognize that preventing a child from suffering the consequences of his or her choices is a far more war-torn route in the long run. The short-sighted, ill-advised, and over-eager enthusiasm toward a federal …
Last summer, National Economic Council director Larry Summers said that in order to be effective, any stimulus bill “must be clearly and credibly temporary.” More and more people are beginning to notice that President Barack Obama’s trillion dollar spending plan completely fails that test. The Associated Press reports today: If the government spends billions on education to help jump-start the staggering economy, what happens when things improve and schools have grown used to the largesse? … The measure making its way through Congress would achieve a long-sought goal of Obama …
In the wake of the recent Russia-Ukraine gas spat, debate has begun once more in Europe on how to secure energy supplies. The focus again turns to developing policies that reduce the continent’s vulnerability to events that threaten the security of supply in the future. As reported here earlier, in the wake of the gas dispute, a number of E.U. member states are considering a nuclear revival—while others have even switched on old Soviet-era nuclear reactors. But an emphasis on “energy solidarity” and making energy efficiency targets mandatory, is also …
President Barack Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus plan, has morphed into an appropriations bill devoid of debate. The process forgoes any pretense of targeting unemployed people and resources. For instance, the bill reads “Provided further, That not less than $140,000,000 shall be available for climate data modeling.” This raises the question of how many unemployed climate modelers are out there pounding the pavement. When presented with that question, last Friday, Pat Michaels, former president of the American Association of State Climatologists stated “I don’t know one unemployed modeler.” Whether or not …
On January 21, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced that the French government would be unwilling to send more troops to assist in NATO-led operations in Afghanistan. Morin’s comments came on the heels of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s announcement the day before that indicated German reinforcements to the NATO mission would not be forthcoming. Currently 2,800 French and 4,500 German troops serve alongside 32,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan, though many of the French and German soldiers are performing non-combat roles in the more peaceful northern areas of the country. The …
There was good news and bad news in the the House Democrat’s latest so-called stimulus plan. The good news is that the bill’s authors heeded the skepticism shared by many fiscal conservatives, and resisted the intense campaign of many lobbyists to make a massive spending commitment to transportation infrastructure – only about 7 percent of proposed spending is for transportation. Conservatives argued that an infrastructure spending plan would have only a limited impact on jobs and the recovery because such projects take many months to get off the ground and …
Last Friday we told you that even by the left’s own ideological criteria, President Barack Obama’s trillion dollar spending plan would fail to stimulate the economy because nothing about the massive spending increases in the bill was temporary. This Sunday the Washington Post wrote an editorial essentially agreeing with us: [S]ome in Congress and the new administration apparently see the country’s present recession as an opportunity to change the federal government’s spending priorities more generally or simply to reward loyal political constituencies. … [I]t’s risky to make new, multiyear commitments …
Introducing a new feature, where we will give you the most surprising quote from the Sunday news shows. This week’s quote is courtesy of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos: STEPHANOPOULOS: “Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?” PELOSI: “Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states …
