The U.S. government is a favorite target among spinners of conspiracy theories. From the Kennedy assasination to the Apollo Moon landing, the government has allegedly been at the heart of dark plots to deceive the public. Washington, however, can spin its own conspiracy theories. Case in point, Tuesday’s announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it will explore restrictions on speculators who are supposedly increasing the price of oil. Blaming speculators, of course, is a time-honored tradition for politicians. The word itself
To correspond with Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings next week, I am launching a new daily feature: highlighting a key activist case and, separately, a notable quote for each day. In light of the renewed interest in Sotomayor’s Second Amendment jurisprudence, it is appropriate to begin with Maloney v. Cuomo. James Maloney was arrested at his New York home and charged with possession of a weapon—in this case, a chuka stick—in violation of New York law. He challenged the weapons prohibition as violating his rights under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. …
Earlier today, Representative Steve King was here at the Heritage Foundation. He took a few minutes to articulate to Foundry readers why cap and trade is a bad idea and cannot be improved to the point where it would help the economy or the environment.
Buried in Tuesday’s New York Times interview with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Q: If you were a lawyer again, what would you want to accomplish as a future feminist legal agenda? JUSTICE GINSBURG: Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious. The states that had changed their abortion laws before Roe [to make abortion legal] are not going to change back. So we have a policy that affects only poor women, …
The Wall Street Journal reports today: The reason left-flank Democrats are so adamant about a public option is because they know it is an opening wedge for the government to dominate U.S. health care. That’s also why the health-care industry, business groups, some moderates and most Republicans are opposed. Team Obama likes the policies of the first group but wants the political support of the second. And they’re trying to solve this Newtonian problem — irresistible forces, immovable objects — by becoming less and less candid about the changes they …
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently warned that entitlement-driven growth is unsustainable and would debilitate the economy over the long-term. In their best-case scenario, the national debt would become three times the size of the entire economy in the next 75 years. (In 2008, debt was about two-fifths of the economy). Given that the budget is already on an unsustainable course, it is strange that Congress is considering making things worse by tacking on an expensive national health program. While many members of Congress are claiming they can find …
General Counsel Bob Chanin explains to NEA convention why Big Labor is so powerful: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-piPkgAUo0w[/youtube]
Senate Democrats are desperately trying every trick in the book to get the lowest possible cost scoring out of the CBO. Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow James Capretta descends into the weeds to explain the latest regressive tax they have come up with to pay for their health care plans: Senate Democrats, including, have also Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus discovered the budgetary virtues of heavy-handed government decrees. If you want to expand insurance coverage, you can simply make people sign up for a plan — whether they want …
Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, often described as the U.N.’s “nuclear watchdog,” criticized NATO earlier this week for encouraging nuclear proliferation. He urged NATO to drop any reference to nuclear deterrence in its new strategic statement, saying it encouraged proliferation: “You are sending a message to anyone around the world who reads your concept that they too need nuclear weapons,” he said. “The idea that nuclear is the supreme guarantee should be dropped because it’s absolutely the wrong message to the rest of the world.” ElBaradei …
Last night, the House Appropriations Committee marked-up the spending bill that included funding for the D.C. government. The package included $12 million in funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program to allow current scholarship recipients to continue in their private schools. But the appropriations bill included language preventing any new students from receiving scholarships. Republicans proposed two amendments: one stripping out the “no new student” language, another to at least allow the siblings of current recipients to receive scholarships. The majority on the Committee voted them down.
