The European Parliament has voted in favor of creating a European army. Although the initiative has a typically innocuous sounding acronym, SAFE (Synchronized Armed Forces Europe) it represents a major step toward the EU’s takeover of Member States’ armed forces. SAFE will be directed by an EU directorate, with its own training standards and operational doctrine. It will advance a dream long-held by European elites to create a separate EU military identity outside of NATO. But in the absence of additional defense Euros and additional European manpower, the advancement of …
On Monday, if you accept the OECD’s figures, Britain’s public debt was 42% of GDP, or about 600 million pounds. Today, Britain’s public debt is about 142% of GDP, or about 2 trillion pounds. In one week, Britain’s debt has increased by 1.4 trillion pounds. That’s 2 trillion dollars of debt added in a single week. It’s likely the fastest, largest increase in net national indebtedness in the history of the world. What happened? On Thursday, Britain’s Office of National Statistics ruled that the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds …
The DC Examiner has an editorial out today highlighting a 2001 letter from big labor friendly legislators urging Mexican officials to protect Mexican workers’ electoral privacy. This despite the fact that all of these legislators still in Congress are now sponsoring card check legislation in Congress that would strip American workers of their electoral privacy. Read the letter below:
When the Obama Administration appointed Harvard University law professor Cass Sunstein to be the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator, many were hopeful that choice signaled the White House would have a “commitment to cost-benefit analysis in regulation.” Unfortunately Obama Administration actions since the Sunstein appointment have shown anything but a commitment to cost-benefit analysis. Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Iain Murray reports: It appears that Obama is rescinding Bush 43′s EOs 13258 (drafted by John Graham) and 13422* in order to revert to Clinton’s EO 12866 (drafted by Sally Katzen). …
Meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday, President Barack Obama emphasized their commitment to mutual security. Prime Minister Harper went so far as to recognize that “threats to the United States are threats to Canada.” While both men are right to recognize the need for a strong security alliance between the U.S. and Canada and the need for a stronger counterterrorism strategy—the devil is in the details. Congress seems committed to tackling U.S./Canadian security concerns at the northern border. And Secretary Napolitano indicated her support for a more aggressive …
The Obama Administration may have already announced their $275 billion mortgage bailout plan, but that doesn’t mean they have any clue as to how it will actually work. The Washington Post reports: The administration is developing a standard for lenders to use in evaluating applicants that seeks to exclude homeowners who are not in real need or are too far behind in their payments to be saved. … Government officials are working to finalize details before a self-imposed March 4 deadline when the program will go into effect and lenders …
Townhall‘s Amanda Carpenter has obtained a United Food and Commercial Workers International Union that should send shiver’s down every worker’s spine: “You’ll probe and start organizing campaigns, develop worker committees and conduct house calls to workers,” it says. House calls to workers? Notice it doesn’t say “to members.” It says workers. That means these union advocates, also known as “thugs” in many locales, are going to be showing up on your doorstep to talk about card check, whether you want to talk about it or not. They’re going to be …
Yesterday, Heritage Vice President Stuart Butler and Roe Institute Director Alison Fraser, along with a dozen other leading budgetary experts from think tanks across the political spectrum, urged President Barack Obama to follow up his recently announced “Financial Responsibility Summit” with (1) leading a sustained “national conversation” on entitlement and budgetary reform and (2) working to establish an independent, bi-partisan commission to develop a comprehensive fiscal reform package that would receive an up-or-down vote in Congress. The full statement is below. Do you agree with the statement? If so, leave …
Last month Heritage fellow J.D. foster wrote: The global recession has caused deficits to balloon almost everywhere, and governments worldwide are considering their own massive programs to stimulate their economies. So the United States will be offering this great wave of federal debt to the credit markets while most other countries will be doing the same. Because interest rates are set on global markets, this even larger global wave of government debt is likely to have much greater interest rate effects than would be the case if the United States …
Czech President Vaclav Klaus, an EU Head of State and current President of the European Council, has been dealt another vicious insult by the European Parliament. Speaking before the plenary session in Brussels yesterday, he criticized the juggernaut of EU integration and the democratic deficit felt between the EU and its citizens. He questioned the value of the Lisbon Treaty which proposes to transfer vast powers from member states to the European Union, and which has already been rejected by Ireland in a free and fair referendum. In a diplomatic …
