Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Mike Pence (R-ID), and John Campbell (R-CA) recently unveiled a proposal to impose a limit on federal spending of 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This proposal serves as a necessary reminder that current federal spending is out of control and certain to grow further if nothing is done. The sponsors of the amendment explain that the limit “would force Congress and the President to prioritize various spending needs and provide transparency to the difficult decisions and trade offs necessary to ensure that the federal …
In his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama proposed “a modest fee” on banks that “would pay back the taxpayers who rescued them in their time of need.” In truth, his bank tax would hit financial institutions who have paid back their bailout funds, with interest, while those who haven’t—Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, General Motors and Chrysler—would get off scot-free. As Politico reports, Sean Ryan at Wisco Research firm says Obama’s tax would have other effects, too. From Politico: “[Ryan] predicts the banks will simply pass on the …
Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) has filed an amendment to a tax extenders bill expected to be considered by the Senate today. The amendment would reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program and, according to a press release from D.C. Parents for School Choice, would “preserve the program for current and future students”. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH), Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are co-sponsors. As Virginia Walden Ford and I wrote last week in a post on The Corner, school …
It appears that Secretary Clinton’s much anticipated meeting with Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Foreign Minister Celso Amorim on March 3 resulted in the diplomatic cold shoulder with regard to cooperative action aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. While in Brazil on her Latin America swing, Secretary Clinton made quite clear the U.S. wants to “send a unified message to Iran that they are perfectly free to have peaceful, civil nuclear power. But they are not, under the very agreements that they signed, entitled to a nuclear weapons program. …
Lost in President Obama’s rhetoric that the science is settled on climate change, the president is willing to shut down Yucca Mountain without scientific justification. Today, the Department of Energy (DOE) filed to withdraw the application for the geologic repository Yucca Mountain that was supposed to begin collecting used fuel in 1998. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 set January 31, 1998, as the deadline for the federal government to begin disposing of used fuel. More than a decade after the deadline, the government has still not settled on …
President Obama and congressional leadership are nearing the end of the road on health care reform. The only option left to pass their grandiose visions of a government overhaul of the nation’s health care system into law is to pass the Senate-passed bill in the House. However, House Democrats will only go along with this if the bill is followed by a side-by-side bill including changes to the Senate bill, which could only clear the Senate using reconciliation, a method which would be both unpopular and unprecedented. This does not come …
Remember President Obama’s trip to Copenhagen last year? Not the failed Chicago Olympics bid, but the Climate Change Conference where he attempted to place America under a cooperative international climate treaty. Now, the President has turned his attention to other avenues of global entente, and the frustrated momentum of the climate treaty has been replaced with a move towards closer cooperation with the International Criminal Court. Committing the U.S. to international accords that threaten to undermine our nation’s sovereignty appears to be a temptation the current administration cannot resist. The …
Three days ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it could take months for new UN sanctions against Iran. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that, in addition to China, the Obama administration is increasingly worried about gaining the support of other members of the U.N. Security Council, including Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon. While Iran’s ballistic missile program continues to advance, a long-range nuclear missile might not be the biggest threat Iran presents to the United States. Iran could place a short-range ballistic missile on one of the thousands of …
From the start the president’s health care cost estimates were much too modest. Here’s why: First, the administration’s accountants left off the books nearly a quarter-trillion dollars in what’s called the “Doc Fix”. Originally, the formula was designed to prevent total Medicare physician spending from growing faster than the Medicare population, the economy, and the amount necessary to implement changes in benefit coverage. The problem is, every year since 2002 physician groups have successfully lobbied to delay the cuts so that we now face a 10-year $247 billion measure to …
On September 11th, 2001, America changed. Since then the United States has been at war with violent Islamic extremists who plot and plan against us every day. We have sent American troops to Afghanistan and Iraq to defeat them in combat. Our intelligence and special operations forces have fanned out across the globe to disrupt terrorist networks and deny them safe havens. And we have cooperated with friends and allies to reinforce existing counterterrorism resources and build new coordinated capabilities. While these actions are necessary to defeat the jihadist threat …
