The Missile Defense Agency is scheduled to test its Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptor over the Pacific later this month. The test target it will be directed against is being designed to mimic an Iranian long-range missile attack on U.S. territory. This test is a valuable undertaking and will serve to educate the Missile Defense Agency and others in the U.S. government about important aspects of what is required to defend U.S. territory against such an attack. What the test will not reveal, however, is the extra level of protection …
While House and Senate leaders negotiate over the final version of a health care bill, they seem to have forgotten one thing: many of them, including the President, pledged to deny support to any bill which would add to the federal deficit. Until now, budgetary gimmicks have hidden the true cost of the health care bills, but neither chamber of Congress has succeeded at creating a bill which is deficit neutral and falls under $900 billion—the limit set by President Obama himself . In a recent paper, Heritage expert James …
One year ago, President Barack Obama delivered his inaugural address at the foot of the Capitol, laid out an agenda of “big plans” for his administration, and chided “cynics” who “fail to understand that the ground has shifted beneath them.” One year later, as voters head to the ballot box in Massachusetts, it seems that the ground very well may have shifted under President Obama. And that ground shift might spell trouble for the President’s health care magnum opus. In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released yesterday, President Obama’s approval ratings …
In a few weeks, President Obama will submit his fiscal year (FY) 2011 defense budget request to Capitol Hill along with a myriad of important supporting documents including the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP), long-range shipbuilding and aviation plans, and the Quadrennial Defense Review. While many expect a minimal topline increase for defense spending again in FY 2011 (one to two percent real growth), this modest bump is still insufficient to pay all the Pentagon bills. The underfunding of defense plans has become predictable and why many analysts discount as …
Government-sponsored text messaging? You got it. Welfare recipients in approximately 20 states–with more to follow– are currently eligible to receive a free cell phone with a limited number of monthly minutes. All individuals that qualify for state or federal welfare–food stamps, Medicaid, etc.–and have an income at or below 135% of the poverty level, are eligible. According to a Fox News report, the cell phone service is currently the fastest growing welfare program in the country. In 2008, the fund that foots the bill for this program contributed $819 million …
Reuters today reports Somali pirates just released a captured tanker after getting a record-breaking ransom. Pirates may seem so “last year,” but they are as menacing as ever. More troubling, they have links to an al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, which also has links to the terrorist group in Yemen that organized the Christmas Day bombing against a Detroit bound flight – part of a new “axis of evil” we need to worry about. Last year we wrote a comprehensive assessment of how to deal with the pirates. We concluded there …
On January 17, voters in Chile’s presidential run-off selected conservative Sebastián Piñera to become their next chief executive. The win for Piñera ended the 20-year hold on the presidency exercised by the center-left Concertación coalition and made Piñera Chile’s first elected conservative president in 52 years. Piñera, a billionaire businessman and leader of the Coalition for Change, successfully managed to ward off negative campaigning by former president Eduardo Frei, who tried to link Piñera to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. Piñera captured an estimated 52% of the vote in …
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial and admonished America to return to its First Principles. In his I Have a Dream Speech, he announced his dream that “one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” He longed to see a day when all “would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” Dr. King did not talk …
Senate Cloakroom: Analysis: The Senate returns this week after a three-week absence. In the wake of passing an unpopular health care bill, the Senators must now contend with another unpopular issue – increasing the nation’s debt limit by nearly $1 trillion. The debate, which is expected to last into next week, will highlight our looming entitlement crisis, excessive spending and the increasingly aggressive involvement of government in our economy. Major Floor Action: A vote on Beverly Martin to be a US Circuit Court judge will kick off what is likely …
One year after taking office, President Obama has yet to usher in the new dawn in relations with Latin America he talked about during his campaign. It was a huge promise, given his predecessor’s visits to the region, free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama, the newly created Millennium Challenge Account directing more effective aid to countries there, the Merida Initiative for fighting drugs in Mexico, and the continuing success of the Clinton-era Plan Colombia. Thus far, the Administration’s involvement with the Americas has been more reactive than proactive, dominated …
