I’m looking forward to Heritage’s celebration on Thursday, November 5, of Matthew Spalding’s new book, “We Still Hold These Truths.” Our most underappreciated President, Cal Coolidge, wrote: “We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. They did not create our Declaration [of Independence]. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first.” Our material prosperity and our freedom both seem to be diminishing. Dr. Spalding’s book reminds us that the “things of the spirit” must be our priority. Americans sometimes take for …
Following major defeats at the ballot box on Tuesday, the left’s legislative agenda suffered another huge setback yesterday when once wavering Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME) all signed a letter supporting Sen. George Voinovich’s (R-OH) demand that the Environmental Protection Agency provide a thorough analysis of how the Kerry-Boxer cap and trade legislation will impact the U.S. economy. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had been pressing for swift passage of her cap and tax legislation, but conservatives on the Environment and Public …
On November 9th, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments challenging the constitutionality of juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences. In preparation for oral arguments, JLWOP: Faces & Cases will be an on-going series on The Foundry that will tell real stories about juvenile offenders who are currently serving LWOP sentences. Defendant: Martize M. Smolley (16) Victims: Kelly Houser, Amy Allen Crimes: Two counts, felony first degree murder & other charges Crime date: June 14, 2004 in Peoria, Illinois Summary Martize Smolley shot and killed a mother and daughter …
On May 10, 2007 sixteen-year old Blair Holt and his friends were riding the bus home from school in Chicago. This was Blair’s last ride. A Chicago juvenile gang member looking for another gang member pushes his way onto the bus and fires wildly at the other gang member who is sitting just behind Blair. The shots hit five people, including one which killed Blair. The juvenile was convicted and sentenced to life. Blair’s father, Chicago Police Officer Ron Holt, tells Blair’s story and explains why juvenile life …
Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, two lawyers currently working at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), spoke out against cap and trade in their Washington Post column. Zabel has first hand experience with cap and trade, overseeing California’s cap and trade and offsets programs. The article is full of good reasons why a cap and trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is a bad idea. They also highlight how it differs substantially from the acid rain cap and trade plan, which proponents tout as a reason to cap and trade …
For the second day, Republican Senators boycotted the scheduled markup of the Kerry-Boxer (S.1733) cap-and-trade bill. Senator Inhofe (R-OK) appeared briefly to emphasize that the minority is holding firm to their demands that the Environmental Protection Agency complete a comprehensive economic analysis. Rather than use a procedural gambit to trounce the rights of the minority, Senator Boxer announced the committee would receive a briefing from committee staff on the actual provisions of the latest version of the bill. That is certainly not objectionable, but common sense suggests a thorough understanding …
Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty proclaiming, “the Czech Republic will cease to be a sovereign state.” He’s right. The Lisbon Treaty contains the building blocks of a United States of Europe and will shift power from the member states of the EU to Brussels in critical areas of policymaking, including defense, security, and energy–areas in which the United States finds more traction on a bilateral basis. The treaty is a blueprint for restricting the sovereign right of EU member states to determine their own …
Yesterday the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment unanimously approved legislation to ban the importation of foreign radioactive waste for disposal in the U.S. Congressman Bart Gordon (D-TN) introduced H.R. 515: Radioactive Import Deterrence Act in January of 2009 and the bill could soon be up for a vote in the House of Representatives. The full committee will vote on the bill tomorrow with a full House at some future point after that. When the subcommittee approved the legislation Gordon said, We’re the only …
In February 2009, President Obama revealed his trade policy agenda in the opening chapter of the 2009 Trade Policy Agenda and 2008 Annual Report. Short on substance, the agenda outlined many of the same broad ideas presented during his presidential campaign: enforcing trade rules and making trade “fairer” rather than freer. While the chapter did provide for America’s commitment to the World Trade Organization, moving forward with at least one of the three pending U.S. free trade agreements awaiting congressional approval and keeping any new climate legislation consistent with America’s …
A Lewin Group study commissioned by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, finds that although the Baucus health care bill (the legislation that recently passed the Senate Finance Committee) is often touted as the most fiscally responsible of all of Congress’s reform plans, it “relies on certain cost containment approaches that have not worked in the past” and therefore “does not bend the total health care cost curve downward.” Rather than fundamentally realigning incentives in the health sector to lower the overall cost of care, the Baucus bill imposes top down …
