Businesses have to deal with nearly unprecedented levels of uncertainty due to Washington’s inability to give them a clear roadmap of what policy changes lay ahead. A large part of this uncertainty is about the level of future taxes and increased regulations. Businesses are reluctant to hire when they could be facing additional labor costs due to government policies. This, at a particularly vulnerable time due to the credit crunch and financial crisis, spells a death sentence for many small businesses, and stunts the growth of others. The health care …
Cuba’s communist regime lashed out at the Obama Administration over the weekend following bilateral meetings in Havana. A visit by a senior State Department official — Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Craig Kelly – marked the highest-level contact thus far. The chief aim of the visit: a discussion of migration issues. Ambassador Kelly also tested the political waters by meeting with prominent Cuban dissidents and civil society figures. The Cuban reaction was swift and predictable. The Castro regime fulminated: from the very day he [Kelly] arrived in the country, [he] was …
Flacking for President Barack Obama’s “new” health care plan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters assembled for yesterday’s press briefing: “The president posted ideas of his on the White House website today. We hope Republicans will post their ideas either on their website, or we’d be happy to post them on ours, so that the American people could come to one location and find out the parameters of what will largely be discussed on Thursday.” And this might have been a small bit of successful Obama administration gamesmanship …
Possession of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands in the South Atlantic is again being disputed. The United Kingdom’s 180-year control over the islands and the will of its English-speaking inhabitants as well as the sacrifice of British blood and treasure that reversed the 1982 Argentine aggression give the UK clear possession of the islands. Nonetheless, Argentina rejects what it calls “a colonial enclave.” Last year, it laid claim to vast amount of the South American continental shelf. The current bone of contention involves oil. Exploration begun by British firms this month will …
In 2006 University of South Florida computer-science professor Sami al-Arian pled guilty to aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad and was sentenced to more than four years in prison. At the time of al-Arian’s arrest, then Attorney General John Ashcroft called it “one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world.” Before al-Arian pled guilty, Rashad Hussain (appointed Deputy Associate Counsel to President Obama in January 2009) told a 2004 panel discussion on civil rights at a Muslim Students Association conference in Chicago that al-Arian’s very prosecution was “a travesty of …
Who said the 111th Congress has never accomplished anything? Today, major parts of the Credit Card Act of 2009 take effect. Enacted last May with great fanfare, the legislation restricts rate increases on existing balances, requires promotional rates to last at least six months, limits over-limit fees, mandates 45 days notice before certain terms of service can be changed, and imposes a host of other requirements intended to help credit card users. So should consumers be celebrating? Maybe not quite yet. As it turns out, the legislation ran smack dab …
Today, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, stopped by The Heritage Foundation for a lecture titled, “NATO and the Fight for Security in a Dangerous World“. Afterwards, he joined us for a segment of In the Green Room where he discussed current NATO successes and the future of the organization. To find out more details about Admiral Di Paola’s speech or to watch it in its entirety, visit the Heritage website. Visit the archives for more “In the Green Room” interviews.
At least when there was a housing bubble, there were actual houses involved. The next bubble could ostensibly be a carbon dioxide bubble; the newly-created, artificial market for a clear, odorless gas is growing at rapid rates. According to a new article from Mark Shapiro in Harper’s: Carbon trading is now the fastest-growing commodities market on earth. Since 2005, when major greenhouse-gas polluters among the Kyoto signatories were issued caps on their emissions and permitted to buy credits to meet those caps, there have been more than $300 billion worth …
“Vouchers drain money from public schools so that some students can go to private schools.” Somewhere in the vicinity of that declarative sentence – which school choice critics regard as some sort of argument -lurks the thought that vouchers must equal special advantages for some students that are denied to others. Guess what? That’s what the system of public schools is. A new report from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute has identified 2,817 public schools around the country that serve very few poor students. These “private public schools,” as the …
The White House has just issued an 11 page concept paper (PDF) for yet another health care bill that, among other items, includes a proposed new Federal “Health Insurance Rate Authority.” The Administration has yet to provide any legislative language on how this new Federal regulatory regime would operate, but based on statements by the President and other officials, as well as similar provisions included in the bills already passed by the House and Senate, there is good reason for concern as to whether the President and Congress really know …
