As censorship in Iran continues to increase, more journalists are being detained, tortured, and sentenced to long prison terms and in some potential cases, execution. According to a report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Iran has hit a new high in the detainment of journalists. There are now 52 journalists in jail, making Iran the top jailer of press in the world. China comes in second place with imprisoning 24 journalists and Cuba follows closely behind with 22. In response to this crackdown on free press, at least …
President Obama’s budget outlines a plan to pay states to grow their welfare roles and eliminate efforts to fight family breakdown in low-income communities. Despite the fact that low work hours and fatherlessness are two of the greatest contributors to poverty in the United States, the newly released budget provides incentives for states to increase the size of their caseloads and also wipes out funding for healthy marriage programs that aim to decrease the number of children growing up in single-parent homes. Prior to 1996, the federal government increased a …
Yesterday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) endorsed the rumored Slaughter Rule to send the Senate passed Obamacare bill to the President without a direct up-or-down vote in the House. Don’t believe those on the left who are trying to argue that because Republicans used deeming resolutions when they were in power, it is ok for Democrats to use a similar tactic to pass legislation without a vote. Under this procedure, the House would vote on a rule setting up debate. The House would then skip a vote on …
Last Friday, Van Jones debated Andy Morriss, Law Professor at the University of Illinois in The Economist on the topic of green jobs. Surprisingly, Morriss says, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Van Jones and I agree that ‘the private sector, not the government, can and must be the main driver in creating green jobs.’ We agree that government subsidies for coal, oil and nuclear power are a serious problem. With the exceptions of their sentiments on corn-based ethanol and the need for innovation, the agreement stops there. …
Last week Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), along with co-sponsors Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Robert Byrd (D-WV), and George Voinovich (R-OH) filed an amendment to the tax extenders bill to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which is currently being phased-out by Congress and the Obama administration. The amendment however, was blocked by Senator Reid, despite the Nevada Senator having pledged over the summer of 2009 to give Lieberman’s reauthorization measure floor time. Lieberman is continuing to push for an opportunity to have his amendment considered. The next …
Ever since the U.S. Senate voted in December to provide new funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers in its version of health care reform, analysts have pointed out that these monies are not covered by the Hyde Amendment, the measure dating from 1976 that sharply limits federal financing of abortion. As a consequence, these new funds appropriated by the Senate bill, which is now being moved through the House of Representatives by an extraordinary legislative device, are available without statutory limit to underwrite elective abortions. Yesterday the Obama Administration issued …
In theory, the federal government has $2.5 trillion stashed away in a nondescript office building in the sleepy little town of Parkersburg, West Virginia. That is where the Treasury Department keeps stacks of nonnegotiable Treasury bonds payable to the Social Security Administration. But as the Associated Press reported yesterday, for the first time since the 1980s, the federal government will not be adding to that stack. Thanks to an aging population and slow economy, Social Security will pay out $29 billion more this year than it takes in. And the …
“Deeming” and “reconciliation” are hardly household words, but for the next week Americans will come to know them as key procedural maneuvers that could push Obamacare across the finish line. But while they might deliver a bill to President Obama’s desk, they will also make it easier to repeal the measure, says former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove. On the road for his “Courage and Consequence” book tour, Rove chatted with The Heritage Foundation about Obamacare, his defense of President George W. Bush’s conservatism, the growth of …
The New York Times, Washington Post, and others today ran front-page stories on economic and political disagreements the U.S. has with China. The headlines mostly distract from the real issue. China is nowhere close to a global military power but it is becoming a global economic power. It is therefore almost inevitable that the U.S. and PRC will clash more often over economic matters. The goal in managing those disputes must always be more open international markets, or the result will be that both sides lose. The next month in …
As written, the current health care bill before Congress already is guaranteed to face serious constitutional challenges on enumerated powers, 5th Amendment, racial discrimination, and unequal state treatment. Now the White House seems determined to add a whole new reason courts will throw out Obamacare on sight. Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and former-federal judge Michael McConnell explains: To become law—hence eligible for amendment via reconciliation—the Senate health-care bill must actually be signed into law. The Constitution speaks directly to how that is done. …
