On July 9, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias began a very difficult process of seeking to mediate a restoration of constitutional order in Honduras. It is a thorny challenge, given the sharp divisions between Mr. Manuel Zelaya, ex-President of Honduras, and the new reconstituted government, led by Robert Micheletti. The current incumbents in office feel very firmly that what they did on June 28th was an action aimed at protecting the Constitution, its system of checks and balances, and democracy against Mr. Zelaya’s illegalities. They also feel they took a …
Since 2003, when negotiations began over Iran’s nuclear program, there has been no shortage of warnings, reports and punitive sanctions voiced, written or imposed by the international community. (A quick count shows at least three punitive European Union sanctions, four US sanctions, five U.N. resolutions, 20 IAEA reports, and an untold number of informal warnings.) Unfortunately, none have succeeded in slowing–much less stopping–Iran’s atomic ambitions, which many increasingly believe has a military dimension. But despite this track record, President Nicholas Sarkozy of France issued yet another ultimatum, stating: “Group of …
Soon, critics of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program won’t have any arguments left. For years, opponents have argued that the scholarship program wasn’t working. But a recent federal evaluation found that scholarship students have made “statistically significant” improvement in reading compared to their peers who didn’t get scholarships. The report confirmed what parents have been saying for years: the program is improving students’ educational opportunities. Another common criticism is that Congress and the Bush administration somehow imposed this program on an unwilling District government. Of course, this ignores that former …
What has been going on in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee for the past three weeks? Unless you’ve been carefully watching the mark-up of the Kennedy health bill, you wouldn’t be aware that Senators have been battling over many of the 398 amendments proposed to the legislation. You also wouldn’t know that all attempts to protect patients from health care rationing were defeated. Comparative effectiveness research (CER), which is research that compares the clinical and/or cost-effectiveness of two health care treatments for the same condition, has …
Tourists might buy souvenirs, but President Obama is seeking “deliverables” he can bring home to convince Americans that the millions of their tax dollars spent to send the huge U.S. delegation to the G-8 Meeting in Italy this week was money well spent. So, he has been leaning on other G-8 leaders to support his plan to provide new development assistance funds for programs in poor countries in Africa and elsewhere to help farmers learn how to grow more food. No doubt the President would also like to travel from …
During the course of his presidency, President Obama has placed little value in encouraging democratic developments abroad, stating the need to focus on the “substance” of a government, rather than its “form.” While the president’s abandonment of democracy is certainly discouraging, he has raised an important point: We spend so much time talking about democracy…[b]ut democracy, a well-functioning society that promotes liberty and equality and fraternity, does not just depend on going to the ballot box. However, although the president recognizes that democracies in name do not always yield democracies …
Last Sunday, in an appearance on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) repeated yet another justification for including a “public plan” option in health care legislation. Since other advocates of a public plan have recently been offering the same justification, it is worth taking a moment to point out that the claim is factually incorrect. HOYER: Chris, can I just say something? When they adopted a prescription drug program, they provided for the possibility of a public option in their own plan if it …
As of late, when it comes to policymaking in Washington D.C., the trendy thing to do has been to point to Europe. Our Members of Congress are doing it with two of the largest reform policies currently on the table: health care and energy. With regards to energy, advocates of a cap and trade program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions say if Europe can do it, so can we. But the reality is, we’re lucky Europe’s gone through with a cap and trade program, because it is a perfect example …
Throughout his campaign, President Barack Obama repeatedly promised the American people: “If you’re a family that’s making $250,000 a year or less you will see no increase in your taxes. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your personal gains tax, not any of your taxes.” Just 15 days into office, President Obama signed a bill expanding Medicaid eligibility that was paid for with a 156% tax hike on tobacco. Since slightly more than half of today’s smokers (53%) earn less than $36,000 per year, Obama’s first effort …
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has abandoned her plans to draft and mark-up a comprehensive national energy tax modeled after the House-passed Waxman-Markey bill before Congress’s August recess. According to Reuters, Boxer promised, “we’ll do it as soon as we get back” from our month-long vacation. This should not come as surprise, as problems with the bill were beginning to mount. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have engaged in a very public debate over “carbon tariffs” with Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and …
