In recent years, the United States has faced a growing shortage of physicians. Under Obamacare, it will only get worse. Industry experts predict a 40,000 shortfall in doctors over the next decade There are two factors at play here. First, the existing supply of primary care physicians will not be able to keep up with the increased demand posed by millions of newly-covered patients. Second, and even more alarming, many physicians feel compelled to voluntarily leave the profession when the bill starts to affect their practices. Call it a double-edged …
The President’s recently-released Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) has come under intense criticism for its revision of the U.S.’s declaratory policy, the statement that sets out when the U.S. would consider employing nuclear weapons. Declaratory policy has two purposes. Publicly, it’s a warning. Privately, it provides the military guidance for building and modernizing the U.S. force, and so ensures the U.S.’s weapons are actually useable in a crisis. In other words, it makes deterrence creditable, politically and militarily. The new NPR goes into considerable, lawyer-like detail about what the U.S. might …
Three of The Heritage Foundation’s analysts in the Asian Studies Center provided their thoughts on the upcoming Nuclear Summit in Washington DC. Lisa Curtis: “No one can dispute the significance and urgency of the issues to be addressed at the nuclear security summit, namely that of preventing acts of nuclear terrorism and securing vulnerable nuclear materials. But achieving these goals in practical terms will be difficult, given the complex regional security dynamics driving nuclear decision making in different parts of the world. Nowhere are these regional dynamics more complex than …
As the Internet is used increasingly in Russia, the Kremlin is fighting to maintain control of Russia’s new media. According to a poll conducted by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) one in four Russians go online daily and nearly half of these web users go online for the purpose of checking the daily news. According to Eurasian studies expert, Paul Goble, access to the Internet reduces the ability of the Russian powers-that-be to control the messages the citizenry receives. Therefore, Moscow is considering adopting draconian …
Section 1251 of the fiscal year 2010 Defense Authorization Bill Congress warned President Barack Obama not to include any “limitations” on U.S. advanced conventional weapons in New START. Now that New START has been signed, the State Department is putting out fact sheets on the agreement. An April 8th fact sheet from the State Department is entitled: “Key Point: The New START Treaty does not contain any constraints on current or planned U.S. conventional prompt global strike capability.” So it would appear that President Obama listened to Congress’s concern regarding …
Following the retirement announcement by Justice John Paul Stevens today, it is now up to the United States Senate to ensure that the successor justice will be a responsible jurist who will remain faithful to the Constitution. Never has it been more important in our nation’s history that the next Supreme Court justice be a person with a proven commitment to the original meaning of the Constitution and laws as they are written. Many laws being passed and issues being raised in Washington will likely require judicial scrutiny in the …
President Obama’s push to enact a massive tax increase in the form of a new value-added tax (VAT) is now clearly underway. Earlier this week, Obama economic adviser and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker said a “VAT should be on the table.” White House claims that Volcker was speaking as a private citizen simply do not pass the laugh test. A senior statesman among economists, Volcker is one of the president’s closest economic advisers. No doubt Volcker let the cat out of the bag prematurely from the …
Richard and Helen DeVos, two shining examples of American philanthropy and entrepreneurship, are being recognized today with Heritage’s highest honor, the Clare Boothe Luce Award, for their outstanding contributions to the conservative movement. The DeVoses are the guests of honor at a luncheon in Naples, Fla., as part of our annual Leadership Conference and Board Meeting. Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner and Board Chairman Thomas A. Saunders III were scheduled to present the Luce Award on behalf of the think tank’s trustees and over 625,000 members. “Rich and Helen made …
Raising concerns about a new nuclear arms treaty is considered declasse. It’s about as welcome as a wedding crasher who questions the groom’s choice of a bride. Like weddings, nuclear treaties are supposedly joyous occasions. Posing questions is treated as an affront to the very nobility of the enterprise (although for some marriages and certain treaties, the prospective partners would have been better off answering questions before tying the knot). Similarly, some people can’t imagine how reducing the levels of nuclear arms in the United States and Russia could possibly …
The Department of Health and Human Services recently launched its new website, www.healthreform.gov, to serve as an informative source on what’s to come under new health care law. Unfortunately, the website provides little substance and more of the same rhetoric we have heard from the administration regarding health care reform. Americans should not be fooled: HHS will use the new website to frame the issue of health care reform in a way that is favorable to the new law, shedding no light on the crucial details Americans need to know …
