So now President Obama is threatening to veto financial reform legislation Democratic leaders in Congress are working to pass if it is not tough enough on derivatives. There is really no disagreement between Obama and Congressional Democrats on the issue, just a bizarre attempt to make non-news. Obama is in high dudgeon because his advisors claim derivatives caused the 2008 financial crisis. The problem is this claim is false, and the proposals Obama offers would make future crises in the derivatives market more rather than less likely. There is actually …
Next week over 500 think tankers, activists, scholars, film makers, journalists, public-interest lawyers, and other assorted upstanding citizens will gather in Miami for the annual Resource Bank, the nation’s premier conservative public policy conference. There are also sunny beaches in Miami, we hear. Maybe you should be there, too. The theme of this year’s conference is: “From Tea Parties to Taking Charge: Ideas and Strategies That Will Lead the Way.” Highlights from the agenda include sessions on reforming education without waiting for Washington, advancing reforms through investigative journalism, a Q-and-A …
Conservatives say the Dodd Finance Bill means Wall Street Bailouts Forever. Progressives say the Dodd bill “makes bailouts impossible.” Who’s right? Well lets ask Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who described the bill this way in The Washington Post: The Senate bill gives the government the authority to wind down the firm with no exposure to the taxpayer. No more bailouts. Instead, we will have a bankruptcy-like regime where equityholders will be wiped out and the assets will be sold. “No more bailouts.” Sounds nice. But what does “bankruptcy-like regime” mean?
Justice Breyer’s suggestion yesterday at a congressional budget hearing that the Supreme Court will likely wind up passing judgment on various aspects of the Obamacare law should surprise no one. The Court’s shrinking docket has been a topic of Congressional inquiry for years, and it is not unusual for lawmakers to ponder whether Congress should require the High Court to take more cases or at least certain important ones (as it sometimes does). It is also true that the recent health care “reform” violates many provisions of the Constitution. Any …
The recent health care debate has shown that many in Congress do not always vote in favor of what is best for their constituents. Families, specifically, will suffer many negative repercussions from the passage of the health care bill. Heritage’s Chuck Donovan explains the immense impact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will have on families by decreasing family choice, undermining the role of parents, penalizing marriage, and undercutting freedom of conscience. More Families Covered but Less Family Choice: “Families gained nothing from PPACA that will permit …
Voice of America is finding itself in the news again, and not for reasons that should please the leadership of the institution. This time the spotlight has landed on VOA’s Persian News Network. Over the years, VOA has on occasion strayed from good judgment and allowed voices on the air that have no business being represented on a U.S. government funded network. Back in the 1990s, VOA raised Congressional hackles by putting the families of Palestinian suicide bombers on the air. In 2007, another U.S. broadcasting service, Al Hurra television, …
Believe it or not, there is currently no death tax. The 2001 and 2003 tax cuts repealed it but because of budgetary quirks the death tax remains dead only through the end of this year. And because Congress is itching for any revenue it can get its hands on, most regretfully expect the death tax to come back to life sometime soon. That is unless Congress can be persuaded to do the right thing and abolish the death tax once and for all. All this uncertainty can be boiled down …
In 2009, environmentalists were sure global warming was the reason California’s Bay Area fog was increasing. Now they’re saying global warming is making the fog go away—indicating that the science may not be as “settled” as some seem to think. Gateway Pundit noted that in 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle claimed that “The Bay Area just had its foggiest May in 50 years. And thanks to global warming, it’s about to get even foggier.” Yet, in 2010, The Telegraph has asserted that “the sight of Golden Gate Bridge towering above …
As Race to the Top – the Obama administration’s $4.35 billion grant program designed to spur education reform – becomes a summer-long marathon for the remaining states that did not win grants in the first round of competition, the U.S. Department of Education has added an additional contest to the education grant Olympics. The Race to the Top Assessment (RTA) will provide $350 million to a consortium of states to develop an assessment system tracking student mastery of common college- and career-ready standards. While the prospect of additional funds might …
The folks over at Reason.tv have produced a great video explaining how public sector unions are stifling economic recovery. It notes that unionized workers already made more than their private sector counterparts before the recession and that the pay gap has only grown since then. Government jobs don’t create wealth because all the money they spend comes from tax dollars that are taken from another part of the economy. Government union jobs are not a net gain like a private sector jobs are. With the Obama Administration hiring more and …
