The left has developed a firm and frightening pattern of how it deals with critics of President Barack Obama. Mere hours after Joe the Plumber had the temerity to question candidate Obama’s tax plans, government employee donors to Obama were socuring his public records digging for dirt. The media then followed up with hit pieces on Joe’s tax, professional, marital difficulties. CNBC analyst Rick Santelli has come in for the same treatment after he expressed criticism of President Obama’s mortgage bailout plan. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs attacked Santelli …
Discovery News reports: For those who have endured this winter’s frigid temperatures and today’s heavy snowstorm in the Northeast, the concept of global warming may seem, well, almost wishful. But climate is known to be variable — a cold winter, or a few strung together doesn’t mean the planet is cooling. Still, according to a new study, global warming may have hit a speed bump and could go into hiding for decades. Earth’s climate continues to confound scientists. Following a 30-year trend of warming, global temperatures have flatlined since 2001 …
We wish we were more surprised by the news this morning that the Obama Administration sent a secret letter to the Kremlin offering to turn tail on U.S. missile defense commitments to Eastern Europe in exchange for Russian help stopping Iran from developing long-range weapons. But former assistant secretary of state and Heritage vice president Kim Holmes saw this coming: A Turkish general once said: “The problem with having the Americans as your allies is you never know when they´ll turn around and stab themselves in the back.” On the …
Describing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s message in a private meeting with the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates Monday, a U.S. official told the Washington Post: “She said we are under no illusions about Iran and our eyes are wide open.” Well someone in the Obama Administration is under a huge illusion, because the Moscow newspaper Kommersant also reported yesterday that President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev weeks ago suggesting that he would halt development of the United States’ missile defense program …
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faOE3aWyTIg[/youtube]Yesterday, on Meet The Press, David Gregory introduced a roundtable conversation on President Obama’s plans to raise taxes, by quoting Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation. Brian’s research shows that the top 20 percent of taxpayers currently pay more than 80 percent of all taxes collected. And 40 percent of households pay no income tax. Under President Obama’s plan, the top 20 percent of all tax filers would pay 90 percent of all taxes, and the number of families who owe no tax would climb to 50 percent.
In an exhaustive profile piece on former Speaker Newt Gingrich this weekend, the New York Times Magazine had some very nice, even gushing, words for Heritage. We always appreciate new friends! And several blocks from the Capitol stands the beast of them all, the almost mythical Heritage Foundation, with its $60 million budget and eight-story complex, complete with housing for 60 interns, two auditoriums and two broadcast studios. Heritage is the Parthenon of the conservative metropolis, the names of its founding donors inscribed on the lobby wall for history to …
Peter Orszag, Director of the Office of Management and Budget for President Obama, responded Friday to critics of the administration’s proposal to reduce the amount of charitable contributions that high-income taxpayers can deduct. Many tax analysts, including this writer, argued that such a reduction would deplete much needed resources from charitable organizations and further undercut our civil society. Not to worry, writes Mr. Orszag. We wouldn’t do this in the midst of a recession, and it’s only fair that high-income and lower-income taxpayers enjoy about the same tax deduction for …
Is still a tax. This notion is especially important now as more people are beginning to recognize what a cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon dioxide actually is: a heavy tax on energy consumption. The Wall Street Journal bluntly says, “If it brings in revenue that the government then spends, it’s a tax, and politicians should start referring to it as such.” And the revenue will be quite large; if enacted a cap-and-trade program will generate enough revenue to become the sixth largest source of federal receipts by 2019. In his …
Since being sworn into office a little over a month ago, President Barack Obama has found a way to increase the size of government spending in just about every possible way. Except when it comes to government spending to empower parents to better educate their children. George Will notes: In one wee particular, congressional Democrats want to shrink government. At the behest of the teachers’ unions, the $410 billion omnibus spending bill dooms a $14 million (a rounding error on GM’s bailout) scholarship program that enables 1,800 children, mostly low-income …
In his weekly radio and Internet address this past Saturday, President Barack Obama predicted that his agenda would draw attack from “special interests and lobbyists” on several fronts. If by “attack” he meant “support” than Obama is 100% correct. The Center for Public Integrity released a study last week reporting that hundreds of companies are trying to influence who will be the winners and losers under President Obama’s promised cap and trade carbon plans. According to the report: more than 770 companies and interest groups hired an estimated 2,340 lobbyists …
