Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are seeking to pass “Cash for Clunkers” legislation that would have three primary objectives: increase car sales, improve the environment, and stimulate the economy. The bill would provide consumers with a voucher (up to $4,500) to purchase a new vehicle to completely scrap the old one. The Associated Press gives a good summary of the House and Senate versions. Although the bill passed today in the House, cash for clunkers is full of problems and unintended consequences:
Yesterday, the Treasury Department announced that 10 financial institutions had been cleared to return their TARP bailout money — totalling some $68 billion to the government. This is good news — taxpayers are finally getting some of their money back, and banks look to regain their independence, putting the threat of Detroit-like nationalization behind them. Still, not everyone is happy. There’s been quite a bit of hand-wringing over whether these institutions really are healthy enough to return their money. But — while no one is saying the financial system is …
The Wall Street Journal reports today: As recently as 2000, the [AFL-CIO's] 8.5 million members had a $45 million surplus. By June of last year it had $90.6 million in liabilities, or $2.3 million more than its $88.3 million in assets. … As for the SEIU, as recently as 2002 total SEIU liabilities were about $8 million. According to its 2008 disclosure form, the union owed more than $156 million, a 30% increase over the $120 million it owed in 2007. Its liabilities now equal more than 80% of its …
U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn issued a warning to her Senate counterparts who are introducing massive health reform bills this week: Learn from Tennessee’s experiment into “nationalized” health care. “All approaches for a nationalized health care system simply don’t work, and we saw this with TennCare,” Blackburn said this week during a discussion on the future of employer-based health coverage at The Heritage Foundation. In 1995, the state implemented TennCare, a health program modeled after Medicaid. While it covered more uninsured adults, the budget-busting program grew at a 1.5-percent annual rate, …
From the creators of Obama’s Bogus Budget Cuts and The National Debt Road Trip, we now have The Obama Stimulus: Predictions vs. Reality: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJu0DgpiK8c[/youtube]
The last few years have been bumpy ones for energy supplies and prices, but one piece of good news has been the upturn in domestic natural gas production. The reason is a technology called hydraulic fracturing that makes it possible to produce gas in areas where it had previously been deemed infeasible. In effect, high pressure fluids are injected underground to free the gas beneath rock formations where the energy would otherwise be trapped. America has a lot of these formations, which many in the energy industry previously thought were …
The administration recently released its Treaty Priority List, designating the treaties for which it supports – and those for which it does not support – Senate action. The U.S.-U.K. Defense Trade Cooperation Treaty, and its U.S.-Australia counterpart, is on the List. The treaties permit the U.S. to trade most defense articles with these nations without an export license or other written authorization. Currently, the U.S. reviews export license requests on a case-by-case basis. In 2006, the U.S. Department of State reviewed more than 7,000 licenses for defense exports to the …
America’s ability to secure its vital national security interests is intrinsically linked to the capabilities of our Air Force. As the joint enabler, the Air Force’s core capabilities, such as air dominance and strategic lift, serve to enhance the capacity of the entire military. However, the Air Force is at a crossroads, given austere budget constraints that are forcing its leadership—and ultimately all airmen—to accept even greater risks. Despite a looming fighter gap, along with an aging bomber and tanker fleet, President Obama intends to end production of the F-22 …
Did you ever know anyone that would repeatedly go out to the bar, drink themselves unconscious, and then wake up the next morning and promise never to drink again? That is President Barack Obama when it comes to spending. This February, after signing the largest single-year increase in domestic federal spending since World War II, President Obama held a “fiscal responsibility” summit designed to “send a signal that we are serious” at putting the nation on sounder financial footing. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank quipped at the time: “Holding a ‘fiscal responsibility …
Consistent with the highly belligerent posture North Korea has taken in the past three weeks, and the “rapid-fire series of provocations“ it has initiated since the beginning of 2009, Pyongyang yet again chose to escalate its rhetoric, this time threatening to use its nuclear weapons in a “merciless offensive” if provoked. After testing its second nuclear device in less than three years, numerous ballistic missile tests, deciding to withdraw from the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, and sentencing two American journalists to 12 years’ hard labor, North Korea …
