Sen. Arlen Specter, who opposed the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) when he was a Republican, recently announced that he has flip-flopped on the issue and will now be supporting EFCA-lite. As Specter described it, the latest version of the bill drops the card-check provision that has attracted so much controversy. This is a victory for workers who will not lose their right to a secret ballot. Unfortunately, the new EFCA replaces card-check with snap elections, which are intended to deprive employees of an informed choice. Instead of a …
When a trade reporter asked a group of health policy analysts this week to identify the one issue Democrats in Congress won’t address as they push health reform legislation, Heritage health policy analyst Dennis Smith was quick to point out that a Medicaid expansion is an incoming pandemic to federal and state budgets. Expansions of Medicaid — the federal health program for the poor that is administered and partially paid by the states administered — are in nearly all of the health care overhaul bills currently being considered in Congress. …
Citizens and shopkeepers not doctors and nurses will be the most important “first responders” for getting through this year’s flu season, which thanks to the swine flu (H1N1) looks like it could be one of the worst on record. That is the conclusion of a recent Heritage research paper, Swine Flu: What every American Should Know: Individuals, families, businesses, and community groups,” the study concludes, “can help to mitigate the effects of the flu season. Their plans should focus on contingencies if individuals need to stay home from school or …
This Monday the Senate voted 83 to 7 to strip funding for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) from this year’s housing and transportation appropriation bill. The move came after upstart website BigGovernment.com posted videos showing ACORN employees in multiple cities across the country conspiring to help under cover reporters avoid taxes for criminal enterprises. Despite the swiftness with which the Senate acted, this is hardly the first time ACORN has been accused of illegality. Last fall when ACORN was investigated for vote fraud in a dozen …
At a speech at a General Motors Assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, President Obama restated his regret for government interference in the auto industry claiming the decision was out of necessity rather than choice. In what many called a campaign-like speech, the President asserted: As I’ve said before, I didn’t run for president to manage auto companies. It wasn’t something on my to-do list. It wasn’t even something on my want-to-do list. I like driving cars — sometimes, you know, I can change a spark plug or change a tire, …
Take good care of your current car. Given what the proposed Environmental Protection Agency/Department of Transportation regulations are going to do to new vehicles, you may want to hang on to it for as long as possible. Pursuant to federal law as well as a 2007 Supreme Court case, these two agencies have proposed a sharp increase in vehicle fuel economy. The proposal requires a 5 percent annual increase in fuel economy starting with the 2012 model year, reaching 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016. Note that this would be …
Much has been made over the attendance at the march and rally in DC on September 12. Reports varied, with many on the left clinging to an unofficial DC Fire Department estimate of 60,000 to 70,000. Some reports from overseas went as far as to say two million. However, one completely objective source of information is the number of people who rode Metro, Washington, DC’s mass transit subway system. Washington Metro measures and releases its ridership numbers and these numbers have been used in the past to judge the size …
Two weeks ago, we alerted you to an event invitation on President Barack Obama’s ongoing campaign website, barackobama.com, which used startling language to describe the opposition. The message urged Americans to call their U.S. Senators on September 11 and “fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.” It went on to call conservatives the heirs to Bin Laden. After we reported this, the posting was removed and the …
In today’s Cap- and-Trade Calamity, we continue on with our critique of government-mandated energy efficiency standards. The newest target is national lighting efficiency standards – detailed in Section 211 of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. Waxman-Markey dictates specific efficiency standards and specifications for specific light bulbs (Sec. 211, g); Sets regulations for several kinds of “luminaires,” “outdoor luminaires,” “portable lighting,” “portable light fixtures,” “light fixtures,” “GU-24 base lamps,” “art worth light fixture,” LED light engines – most of which can be found walking through your home (Sec. 211). The bill also …
Yesterday in Belleville, Missouri, a 17-year-old high school student was beaten on a school bus while fellow students looked on and cheered. Today, in Miami, Florida, a student was stabbed to death at Coral Gables Sr. High School. No family should have to submit their child to such violence prone environments a daily basis. In fact, a study by the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Institute for Education Sciences released in March of this year found that those parents participating in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program cited school safety as …
