Fierce negotiations began in Brussels today over European fishing quotas – who can fish what and how much – an annual spectacle which takes place under the auspices the massively failed, and hugely expensive Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Over the past quarter of a century, the CFP has laid bare any illusion that the EU is capable of effectively managing European fisheries. The CFP has become a harbinger of national interests, which has resulted in environmental, ecological and economic disaster. In many parts of Europe, fish is now a luxury …
Reuters reports: Recession Hurts Medicare and Social Security. The New York Times blares: Recession Drains Social Security and Medicare. And CNN follows suit: Recession Hits Social Security Hard. This spin all comes out of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees annual report which is signed by Obama Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Obama Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, and Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Their report blames the “economic recession” for growing shortfalls in both the Medicare and Social Security programs. But our entitlement crisis existed long before the current recession, …
So, would President Obama’s budget plan really increase deficit spending much more than other modern presidents? Well, yeah, to the tune of seven times more, measured as a percentage of economic output, than under President Kennedy over 45 years ago — as you can see in this chart. It’s one of the 37 easy-to-follow information graphics in Heritage’s updated and expanded 2009 Federal Revenue and Spending Book of Charts. How much and how fast would our national debt go up under the Obama plan? Is it true that, amid the …
If former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, the greenest of all the greens, the man who played an integral role in starting the Environmental Protection Agency and passing the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, opposes cap and trade, it’s probably not a good idea. Here’s what Nader told the New York Times concerning cap and trade: I mean, it’s not going to work. It’s too complex. It’s too easily manipulated politically. Right now, they’re having a battle over whether they can even auction the credits off for money. The industry …
The Institute for Economic Affairs, the prestigious British think-tank, has released a comprehensive, two hundred page long, study of the causes of the financial crash. Its conclusion is that “Government failure had a leading role in creating the conditions that led to the crash.” As the IEA sums it up, “It may be overstating the point to argue that the crash was caused by government failure but it certainly appears that there is nothing that governments and regulators have done that made the crash less likely or made its consequences …
Fresh out of a roundtable hearing in the Senate Finance Committee this morning on models for financing health care reform, Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming said Congress will need to take a bipartisan approach as it prepares to markup and debate major health care reform legislation. “And I don’t mean bipartisan like on the economic stimulus bill,” Enzi quipped during his speech at the Heritage Foundation today. While some components of the in the current health care debate have become nonnegotiable for both sides of the aisle — such as …
EPA Holds ‘Smoking Gun’ Memo from the White House [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-SvGLPjm5w[/youtube] Today I exposed a “smoking gun” White House memo to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The memo warns that regulation of small CO2 emitters will have “serious economic consequences” for businesses and the overall economy. I was questioning EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson during the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee budget hearing. I received the memo this morning, that’s marked ‘Deliberative: Attorney-Client Privilege’. In this memo Counsel for the White House repeatedly, repeatedly suggests a lack of scientific support for …
Now, if only she can convince President Obama to stop proposing even more new taxes, like today’s Soda Tax, yesterday’s Estate Tax hike proposal or the grandaddy of them all, the Global Warming Tax. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDd1zmKu64U[/youtube]
Moscow is viewing the EU’s new project – the Eastern Partnership – with suspicion. The Kremlin believes the decision to establish the group (made up of the six post-Soviet nations – Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia) would weaken Russia’s clout in the post-Soviet space and hurt Moscow’s politic and economic interests in its “special interests zone.” The Kremlin is unhappy about the fact that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, that are traditionally mistrustful of Russia’s policy in Europe, are the Eastern Partnership’s main driving force. However, …
Last week the Department of Labor released an employment report showing that U.S. employers shed 611,000 private sector jobs in the first three months of this year bringing the nation’s unemployment rate to 8.9%. This was bad news for Americans but even worse news for the Obama administration. In January of this year, the White House released a document lobbying Congress to pass President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package. The document, which had Council of Economic Advisers chair Christina Romer’s and Chief Economic Policy Adviser to Vice President Jared …
