Bloomberg reported Saturday: President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy. The Union Leader reports today: More than $400 million in federal stimulus money has come to New Hampshire this year, and more is on the way. The Office of Legislative Budget Assistant reported last week that $413.6 million made its way to the state under a list of programs that involve education, highways, environmental, health and human …
First came the May brouhaha between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and CIA Director Leon Panetta over the agency allegedly misleading Congress about interrogations, which the recently-minted head spook refuted at the time. But like a double-agent, Panetta has now changed sides, reportedly telling Congress that the CIA withheld information from the Hill on another post-9/11 intelligence program, targeting al Qaeda. According to the media, the CIA conceived the program, but it was never “operationalized”; that is, it was never put into practice. Moreover, then-Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly directed that Congress not …
So what would happen to you if President Barack Obama succeeds in passing a health care bill that includes a public option? Law professor Hugh Hewitt explains how others’ decisions will impact you quicker than you might think: Some of my law firm’s clients and some executives in my broadcast audience are quietly preparing for the necessary analysis that will follow the passage of Obamacare by asking their personnel departments the obvious question: Will it make economic sense to discontinue health care coverage for my employees and instead push them …
On Tuesday, the British Government announced that it is beginning a process that will lead to a Defense Review in 2010. The review will take place in two parts. First, a Green Paper will assess the purposes and conduct of British defense policy. Then, after the general election, a broader defense review, with cost estimates, will be published. There is no question: Britain needs a defense review. It has not had one since 1998. And though that review has been supplemented several times post-9/11, it was never as coherent a …
Last month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest Long-Term Budget Outlook. The Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson reports: For the past half-century, federal spending has averaged about 20 percent of GDP, federal taxes about 18 percent of GDP and the budget deficit 2 percent of GDP. The CBO’s projection for 2020 — which assumes the economy has returned to “full employment” — puts spending at 26 percent of GDP, taxes at a bit less than 19 percent of GDP and a deficit above 7 percent of GDP. Future spending …
On July 8, 2009, the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on U.S. Immigration Policy, chaired by Jeb Bush and Mack McLarty, released a report which attempts to give a solution to America’s immigration problem. The report starts off well, emphasizing that immigration has been positive for America and citing the need for more legal immigration avenues and a market based temporary worker program. But then it dovetails, recommending legalization of those illegal immigrants living in the United States. Legalization is a fancy term for an amnesty. We gave amnesty …
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God. – The Judicial Oath, USC Title 28, Section 453. Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences … our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging. Justice …
Pakistani officials have been making a series of surprising statements over the last week. Last Friday, Chief of Army Staff General Kayani told a group of Pakistani naval officers that “[w]hile the external threat to Pakistan continues to exist, it is the internal threat that merits immediate attention.” The statement seemed to signal a welcome shift in Pakistani thinking and apparent acknowledgement of something senior U.S. officials have been trying to drive home to Pakistan’s strategic establishment: the genuine threat to the country’s future comes from terrorists seeking to undermine …
As Congress tries to push through health care reform at a rapid speed and publicize so-called deals with several health industry groups (most recently with hospitals), other members associated with the medical community also have been stepping up their efforts to warn doctors of the potential ramifications with the current health reform. Roughly seven congressmen (who also happened to be physicians) this week warned health care providers at George Washington University Hospital that components being considered — such as a public health insurance plan, health insurance czar and federal health …
Although the timing of its release may be a coincidence, Pope Benedict XVI’s recently published encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate” (Charity in Truth), sets the stage for his meeting on July 10 with President Obama. As readers around the world continue to reflect on the 30,000-word encyclical, many would like to read in it support for Obama’s all-out push for massive government intervention in the economies of the world’s nations. But the encyclical makes strong endorsements of the market-based economic principles necessary for people everywhere to enjoy economic freedom and growth. …
