Campaigning for his health care plan yesterday, President Barack Obama told a Green Bay, Wisconsin audience: “Right now a number of my Republican friends have said, ‘We can’t support anything with a public option.’ It’s not clear that it’s based on any evidence as much as it is their thinking, their fear, that somehow once you have a public plan that government will take over the entire health care system.” In fact, the opposite is true. It is President Obama who is operating on rhetoric without any evidence to back …
In three short years as “Nebraska’s CFO,” Shane Osborn has revolutionized the way Nebraskans interact and keep tabs on their government. It’s called nebraskaspending.com and it cost only $38,000 to make: I believe elected officials have a duty to show the public how their tax dollars are being spent right down to the last penny. NebraskaSpending.com is a searchable, user-friendly public website that discloses how our State government receives and spends funds in a simple and straightforward manner. Find out his plan for transparency at the federal level that will bring real …
If the experience of our closest allies in the war against terrorists is any indication, taking a pure law enforcement approach is dangerous, ill-advised, and might not bear much fruit. In the United Kingdom, of the 1,471 individuals arrested for alleged terrorist acts since September 11, 2001, only 340 suspects were charged with a terrorism-related crime. Of those 340 charged, only 196 terrorists were convicted. That means that the UK only achieved a 14% conviction rate for terrorism-related crimes. Things aren’t any better in the Netherlands where of the 153 …
The defense budget is a lens through which we see our national defense priorities and the tool by which we will equip our warfighters and maintain a ready defense. To achieve an effective defense budget requires – at the very least – accountability and transparency. While the Administration has certainly insisted on transparency when it involves divulging interrogation techniques used on detainees, they have refused to apply the same standard for the American people when it comes to the readiness of our nation’s defenses. Consider the following recent actions: The …
Farming is very energy-intensive. Farmers use a lot of electricity, a lot of diesel fuel, and a lot of natural gas-derived chemicals and fertilizers to grow crops and maintain their farm. So it shouldn’t be surprising a cap and trade program that artificially drives up the cost of energy will unfavorably affect farmers. What may be surprising is how unfavorable these effects are, causing expected farm income (or the amount left over after paying all expenses) to drop $8 billion in 2012, $25 billion in 2024, and over $50 billion …
On Tuesday night, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Heritage’s Director of The Center for Health Policy Studies, Bob Moffit conducted a teleconference call. Concerned citizens were able to listen in and ask questions as they unveiled the conservative health care reform plan that would put health care choices in the hands of patients instead of the government. The call was also the launch of our new Web site FixHealthCarePolicy.com, which we will be updating constantly with all current news relating to the health care debate as it becomes available.
Long-term interest rates are rising rapidly, with the 10-year Treasury pushing against 4 percent for the first time since the summer of 2008 – before the financial markets collapse. The many influences on U.S. interest rates at the moment are all moving in the same direction – up. One influence is the growing concern that inflation could become a major problem in the near future, and this is building into the inflation expectation components of interest rates. Another is simply the unwinding of the flight to safety following the initial …
When it comes to discussing the current health debate in this country, there are a lot of complex terms and ideas that are thrown about. But ultimately — as Heritage’s Robert Moffit and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan explained to hundreds of Americans on a conference call this week to launch www.fixhealthcarepolicy.com — these issues boil down to a few simple questions: Who is going to control the flow of dollars in the health care system? Who is going to make decisions about where those dollars go? Who is going to …
No, we’re not reverting back to Cold War. We’re talking commercial nuclear energy. And we’re talking commercial competition—what will ultimately be the life-blood of the nuclear renaissance. Up until now, big light-water reactors have largely dominated the nuclear industry. 104 of them operate safely in the U.S. today and provide Americans with 20% of their electricity, but they represent just one technology. The exciting thing about nuclear power is not what it gives us today, but what its potential is for the future. And our latest view into the future …
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA) reintroduced his plan today to create a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers purchasing primary residences. The goal of the plan is to jumpstart the depressed real estate market. But as we pointed out last year when Senator Isakson introduced a similar bill, it will not work and it is bad policy. Furthermore, this additional tax credit is unnecessary because the tax code already encourages homeownership. Mortgage interest is deductible and the stimulus already created an $8,000 credit for first-time homeowners available for homes purchased in 2009.
