Marking the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek paid tribute to the European Union for making war on the Continent unthinkable and, “materially impossible.” He had a point; not that the EU was a critical instrument of peace and stability in the years following World War II, but that Europeans enjoy a quality of life unimaginable just 30 years ago, never mind 70 years ago. And he’s right that it is important to remember why. The Transatlantic relationship embodied within …
The newly-elected Mayor of the English town of Doncaster, Peter Davies, has a very curious idea: the purpose of government is not to propagandize its citizens, not to feather its own nest, and not to raise taxes to fund the non-jobs that are advertised in the liberal Guardian every week. It is to administer public business effectively and efficiently. That may sound obvious, but in Britain – as in many other places – it amounts to a revolution. Even apart from his policies, Davies is a rare bird. There are …
Defending President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, Vice President Joe Biden said yesterday: “At the end of the day, these investments are about more than creating jobs.” There is a reason the White House is very eager to establish anything other than jobs as the metric for success that Obama’s economic policies should be measured by: they aren’t creating any. When the Obama administration first unveiled the stimulus plan in November they claimed it would create 2.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. At the time BLS reported …
When Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez steps off his airplane in Tehran for a weekend chat with Iran’s leaders, he is certain to have a little extra bounce in his step. Having engineered a massive political crisis in Honduras, Chavez can now count on Washington and the Obama Administration to deliver what he could not do: the forced return of ousted ally Manuel Zelaya to the presidency. Failure to return Zelaya, the State Department warned ominously today, will swiftly end virtually all U.S. economic assistance. Even more ominous, the Obama Administration …
Reporters pressed health care policy experts to address that question at a health reform panel in light of White House senior advisor David Axelrod’s assertions that President Barack Obama’s joint session next week will lay out a health care overhaul that could forgo the contentious government-run insurance option. For Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project Hope, the public option is “clearly” not dead. “It is the most contentious issue and unfortunately the administration has dug itself [into a difficult situation] by having the public plan become a prized position …
The results of the investigations of voter fraud by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) have become critically important in determining the outcome of the August 20 Afghan election. The Afghan people will not be satisfied with the electoral process until the work of the ECC is completed, which could take several more weeks. A Karzai victory amidst unresolved allegations of vote tampering would leave his new government on shaky ground and damage the credibility of the coalition forces, which would be perceived as supporting a sham election. Commentators are increasingly …
When President Barack Obama sold his $787 billion stimulus package to the American people, he set one metric for success: jobs. Specifically, President Obama promised the American people he would create 4.1 million jobs by the end of 2010. According to the President’s plan, the stimulus should have lowered the nation’s unemployment rate below 8% by this August. That is the objective standard the President set for himself. And according to objective data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, President Obama’s policies, and his stimulus package, have been …
Social Security and Medicare are already tens of trillions of dollars in debt, and if Obama’s national health care program is passed, that will add another $9 trillion in debt. All of that debt gets to be paid for by you, dear taxpayer. As this clever video shows, that’s like adding 2.3 children to every household in America. Only this government-newborn doesn’t come with the joy of raising one of your own or even an “It’s A Boy!” cigar. All you get is a lousy $400,000 in debt. Congratulations, new …
The American people rightly believe that President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package is a miserable failure. Vice President Joe Biden attempted to convince them other wise today announcing that the Obama administration met or exceeded all ten major projects that they claim defined the Recovery Act in its second 100 days. The New York Times reports: Biden took on critics who call the stimulus a “grab bag” of too many programs. “It doesn’t reflect a lack of design,” Mr. Biden said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. “That …
This April President Barack Obama said he wanted to rebuild the entire United States economy based on a foundation of “five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century.” One of those pillars was government “investments” in renewable energy and technology that will create “green jobs” for millions of Americans. To oversee the planning for all these green jobs, President Obama tapped Van Jones, author of the 2008 New York Times best-seller The Green Collar Economy, to be his Special Advisor for Green Jobs, …
