As the White House prepares for a bipartisan summit on health care later this month, the rhetoric and reality of the President’s plans for health care reform continue to conflict. President Obama claims that he wants to bring congressional Republicans to the table to achieve health care reform. However, he has also expressed the desire to present a final piece of legislation prior to the summit, focusing on marrying the differing ideas of House and Senate Democrats rather than those of Democrats and Republicans. In any case, this is not …
President Obama announced $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees today to commence projection construction on two nuclear reactors in Burke County, Georgia. This is good news. Congress has authorized $18.5 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear energy projects under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which also provided other subsidies for nuclear power to help mitigate the effect of decades of regulatory risk for approximately the first six nuclear reactors built in the U.S. While the administration should be applauded for finally getting this program off the ground and getting …
With wind, solar and geothermal receiving much of the government handouts when it comes to energy production, biomass is back in the game after the Senate Finance Committee unveiled its tax extender plan, which includes a $100 million in production tax credits for biomass energy as part of a larger tax extender package. Politico reports, As drafted, Section 503 breathed new life into an unusual production tax credit, first awarded to the industry in 2004 as part of a one-time, five-year deal benefiting nearly 80 biomass electric-generating plants, most of …
Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama launched a campaign against childhood obesity, which is interesting considering President Barack Obama’s past statements on hunger in America. In November of 2009 — only three short months ago — President Obama “reacted with concern” at a report that Americans are suffering “record levels” of “food insecurity,” according to a report from the Boston Globe. President Obama was quoted as saying that “it is particularly troubling that there were more than 500,000 families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times over the course …
Over the past year, Iran has declared itself a nuclear state and continues to expand their ballistic missile program, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair has testified to Congress that Al Qaeda and its affiliates are planning a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months, and failed Flight 253 Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has told the FBI that he met with other English speakers at a terrorist training camp in Yemen. Meanwhile, the scientist at the center of Climategate now tells BBC News that there has been no …
A video from a David Horowitz retreat several months back has already cost one person a job. The video shows Patrick Caddell, former pollster to Jimmy Carter, lament that “the whole idea of the environmental movement isn’t to clean up the environment” but rather to “basically deconstruct capitalism. They are against capitalism.” A little later Caddell continues, “I happen to believe this country needs a good dose of what it believes in: real democracy and real free enterprise.” While embarrassing to those on the left who promote the sort of policies Caddell refers to, the remark …
Looks like Mother Nature didn’t get the message about the budget crises in most of the states. So, she twice dumped a bunch of snow on the Midwest and East that required states, cities, and counties to plow – in between frantic calls to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for reinforcements. The calls prompted FEMA to fire-up its fleet of snowplows and dispatch its army of snow shovel crews. Not really. FEMA doesn’t have snowplows or snow shovel crews, so why the frantic calls to Washington? Answer: FEMA has …
Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or as it is more accurately described, President Barack Obama’s Failed Stimulus. When President Obama signed the now $862 billion deficit-spending bill into law, the unemployment rate stood at 7.6% and the U.S. economy employed 133.5 million people. At the time President Obama promised the American people that, thanks to his stimulus, unemployment would never go higher than 8.2% and the U.S. economy would support 138.6 million jobs by December 2010. At the one year mark unemployment is …
Last week, two blizzards knocked Congress (and the rest of the federal government in Washington, DC) out of commission. The snow kept the House out the entire week preventing them from taking any votes. The Senate was only slightly more productive—confirming Joseph Greenaway to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit. Also, the controversial nomination Craig Becker to be a member of the National Labor Relations Board was blocked. On February 22, the Senate will begin debate over another stimulus/special interest spending bill.
While the nation suffers an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent, Barack Obama spent last week talking about job creation with “civil rights” leaders — despite the fact that President Obama’s last job creation ideas haven’t even been properly analyzed, let alone proven to work. The New York Times reports that President Obama met with Benjamin T. Jealous of the NAACP, Marc H. Morial of the National Urban League, and Reverend Al Sharpton on Wednesday to discuss “how the economic crisis was affecting all manner of poor people.” According to …
