Earlier this week, Debbie McLucas, a supervisor at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield, Texas, was told she would have to take down a 3×5 American flag that she had hung near her desk in an office she shares with three other supervisors. Her boss told her a fellow supervisor, who had immigrated to the United States from Africa 14 years earlier, found it “offensive.” The hospital says it received other complaints from visitors. These must be the type of hospital visitors who stumble upon staff offices as well as close their …
Your family’s share of the national debt just got a lot bigger thanks to the recent increases in federal spending. According to an analysis by USA Today, in 2008 an additional $55,000 per household in new federal obligations was added onto the already massive figure, bringing the total to $546,668. USA today does well to illustrate this point, noting, That’s quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.” This increased debt takes an already bad situation and makes it worse. …
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens noticed that President Obama’s policy initiatives resemble a 1998 South Park episode in which grand plans are formulated with a beginning and a successful ending, yet without the requisite how-to in the middle. When it comes to the handling of GM, we couldn’t agree more. It’s clear the administration had no idea what it was getting itself into when they relented to the UAW’s powerful lobby and lent taxpayer money to the struggling carmaker. Nevermind that the UAW is one of the main …
Here’s good news for a Friday: the planning committee of the Westminster City Council in London has given its approval for the placement of a statue honoring President Reagan outside the American Embassy. The statue will be accompanied by a piece of the Berlin Wall, to pay tribute to Reagan’s role in ending the Cold War. The Council normally allows memorials only for individuals who have been dead for at least ten years, but in recognition of Reagan’s status as a former head of state, and of the Special Relationship, …
The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom Director Nile Gardiner responds to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs anti-British press tirade in today’s Telegraph: This kind of attack would normally be made against the likes of the North Korean or Iranian state media, but in the current climate of “engagement” with America’s enemies the White House is far more likely to attack its own allies. Gibbs’ remarks have echoes of a senior State Department official’s anti-British statements to The Sunday Telegraph after the appalling handling of the Prime Minister’s …
Heritage fellow James Gattuso: Congratulations: If you are a U.S. taxpayer, you will soon be a part owner of a car company. Under the latest reorganization plan for General Motors, Uncle Sam would take ownership of 72.5 percent of the troubled automaker while providing an additional $30 billion in funds to the company. The proposed deal would give Washington controlling ownership of a major industrial corporation for the first time since Conrail railroad was sold in 1986. And, along with the pending acquisition of a minority stake in Chrysler, it …
May is national foster care month. In Arizona, the state legislature marked the occasion by passing emergency legislation to rescue an education program that helps foster children from being terminated. Since 2006, Arizona has provided tuition scholarships to students who have been placed in foster care to attend private school. Research shows that foster children are among the most at-risk groups in our society, and they often face challenges in the classroom. Among the challenges that foster children often face are instability (with frequent home placements leading to school transfers) …
Heritage fellow Robert Alt writes in U.S. News: My late constitutional law professor once offered the following hypothetical about a fishing dispute that made its way to court. On one side were Native Americans; on the other, environmentalists. After a pregnant pause, he mused: “What’s a liberal to do?” Were he to teach the class today, he might well have asked, “What’s an empathetic judge to do?” As this hypothetical illustrates, empathy, the factor by which President Obama claims that he selects his judicial nominees, is highly subjective, and provides …
The inaugural event of Heritage’s Protect America Month, remarks by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on June 1, sold out fast. But later that same week, Former Attorney General Ed Meese and Dr. Kim Holmes will host a screening of Heritage’s 33 Minutes documentary on missile defense in New York City. You can register to attend the June 4th event here.
Intergenerational theft. A complicated phrase that can simply be described as borrow money now, force our children and grandchildren to pay later. We’ve heard it with Social Security, Medicare and, most recently, with the massive stimulus spending bill. We can now add cap and trade to the list. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis found that the Waxman-Markey bill would increase inflation-adjusted federal debt by 26 percent. Over the 2012-2035 timeline, the negative economic impacts accumulate, and the national debt is no exception. This is 26 percent increase is above …
