In order to secure the votes to pass a health care bill, Senate Democrats were forced to scrap the widely-unpopular public option. But before chalking this up as a victory for opponents of government-run health care, though, its replacement deserves a closer look. As described in Sec 1334 of the Senate bill, the Director of the Office for Personnel Management (OPM) would now be charged with sponsoring a set of multi-state health plans to compete with private insurers. As a recently published detailed analysis by Heritage’s Bob Moffit and Kathryn …
In the wake of the Massachusetts election on Tuesday night, liberals in Congress have once again embarked on a course to change the rules to fit their needs. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) intends to introduce a bill that would eliminate the 60 vote threshold to end debate in the U.S. Senate. Ironically, the timing of their newest rule-changing efforts is a direct result of a previous rule-change merry-go-round that they themselves are to blame for. In 2004, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) was running for President, and the Governor of Massachusetts was Republican …
According to a Reuters report, French economy minister Christine Lagarde today applauded President Obama’s call for more regulation of the U.S. financial sector. “I am delighted that [the] president of the United States is following our lead,” she added. In a possibly related story, the Dow Jones yesterday dropped by 213 points, the largest one day drop since last October.
This week’s election of conservative Sen.-elect Scott Brown (Republican) in a very blue Massachusetts has sent shock waves throughout the White House and congressional leadership. In the last few days, the media has filed countless articles about Democratic members dropping their demands to ramrod a massive overhaul on the health care sector and instead start over with smaller components. That’s because despite some political analysis that stated otherwise, the Massachusetts senate vote was in part a referendum on ObamaCare. Politico reported this week that exit polls circulated by Republican polling …
The President asserted during a major speech in January: “One of the greatest contributions the United States can make to the world is to promote freedom,” he said. “A creative, competitive America is the answer to a changing world, not trade wars that would close doors, create greater barriers and destroy millions of jobs. We should always remember: Protectionism is destructionism.” But the President who spoke those words was Ronald Reagan, in his very last State of the Union Address about 20 years ago. How would President Reagan respond to …
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is a man consumed by an obsession. That obsession is the United States. The United States wants to assassinate him; steal his oil; invade his country, etc. Hugo Chavez wakes up in the morning obsessing about the Empire, shorthand for the U.S. and beds down at night with the same thoughts. Most certainly he suffers nightmares about the horrors of the U.S. from dusk to dawn. The U.S. Southern Command! The Fourth Fleet! The Colombian Defense Agreement! Even the sinister designs of the hospital ship, USNS …
Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts sent shockwaves across Capitol Hill as voters rejected the idea that the only true course for health reform was to raise taxes, raise spending, raise premiums and put the federal government in charge of yet another unpaid-for entitlement crisis. Campaigning as the 41st vote against Obamacare and the fiscally-irresponsible policies of the Obama administration, Senator-elect Scott Brown (R-MA) seized on the frustration Americans feel toward the direction Washington is heading. But saying ‘no’ to Obamacare is only a first step. It’s also critical that conservatives continue …
The “First Principles” on which this country were founded are the principles that the Heritage Foundation works to advance everyday. In today’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. FEC, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court upheld some of the most important principles: the right to engage in free speech, particularly political speech, and the right to freely associate. It is no surprise that these rights are in the very first amendment in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. The Founders, who had fought a …
It’s a common refrain among progressives when criticizing free-market economic policy – “Conservatives are out of touch”. Conservatives don’t know how to create jobs, the progressive echo chamber booms. What we need to do is to spend our way out of the recession President Obama announces. The only people who think that government stimulus doesn’t work are at Conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation they go on. In this, as in so many other things, progressive policy analysts are out of touch. In reality, hundreds of experts agree from …
