Recently in the Wall Street Journal, David Ranson pointed out what tax economists have known for a long time: no matter what changes Congress makes to the existing tax code, it will continue to raise the same amount of revenue as a percentage of GDP year-after-year. Ranson writes: Despite big changes in marginal tax rates in both directions,”Hauser’s Law,” as I call this formula, reveals a kind of capacity ceiling for federal tax receipts at about 19% of GDP. The income tax is the predominant revenue raiser for the federal …
Senate Democrats secretly agree that Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s (D-AR) proposal to attempt to impose a complete separating on credit default swaps and credit providers (i.e. banks) makes no sense. But they’re too embarrassed to say so while Lincoln uses the proposal to wage a populist campaign for re-nomination against liberal Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter. Now that Lincoln has been forced into a June 8 run-off against Halter, Lincoln’s Senate colleagues are looking for a quiet way to kill her swaps proposal. Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd (D-CT) first proposed, and …
On April 8 President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed what was supposed to be the next historic step in nuclear disarmament—the “New START” treaty. However, a major rift between the two nations immediately arose regarding the effect of the treaty on U.S. ballistic missile defense. In short, the Russians contended that the New START treaty froze current U.S. capabilities while the U.S. responded that the treaty had no effect whatsoever on missile defense. Specifically, on April 8—the day the treaty was signed—the Russian Federation issued a statement saying: …
In The Green Room: Former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley on Effective Counter-terrorism
Each year, The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center hosts the B.C. Lee lecture featuring a prominent guest speaker on international affairs. This year’s guest was Stephen J. Hadley, a former National Security Advisor for President George W. Bush from 2005–2009. Before his lecture, Hadley sat down to discuss whether the Obama Administration was doing enough to keep America safe and his take on Attorney General Holder’s recent comments about changing Miranda laws. Hadley explained the importance of taking the threat of terrorism seriously, saying “We’ve been lucky with the Christmas …
As debate on the Wall Street “Reform” bill winds down in the Senate, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) is still pushing his ban on “naked” credit default swaps. We warned that the idea wouldn’t work. Now we have some real world experience with just such a proposal: Germany banned the practice in German financial markets Tuesday night, and stock prices fell in Germany and worldwide. Observers called the German ploy “an act of desperation and a refusal to address the fundamental problems at hand,” and warned that the move could cause …
Thanks to a vigilant civilian and a cop on horseback, many unsuspecting Americans were protected from another terrorist attack this month in New York City. We were lucky this time, but we will not always be so. Terrorists will learn from this as they do with every failed attempt. Will Washington? Protecting the nation from attack is after all the federal government’s first responsibility. It is serious business, requiring nimble and sufficiently funded military, law enforcement, intelligence, and consular services that are performing at the top of their game. But …
Many who advocate for the appointment of originalist judges believe that the Court will not be worse off when Justice John Paul Stevens is replaced. After all, who could possibly be more of a liberal activist than the leader of the Court’s liberal bloc, Justice Stevens? This mode of thinking is grossly mistaken. Though Justice Stevens was certainly no originalist, there were some areas where his legal analysis was reasonable: certain elements of criminal law and election law, for example. While Stevens was disappointing in Eighth Amendment cases, he could …
Yesterday, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) clashed head on with Obama administration officials in the first hearing over New START, a proposed nuclear arms control treaty that the White House has submitted to the Senate for ratification. DeMint hammered home the point that the treaty would limit how future presidents could pursue missile defenses. Secretary Gates brushed off the concerns as did the Committee Chair John Kerry dismissing the notion that the White House has come up with anything but the perfect missile defense plan. But others argue the White House …
When Britain’s new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, walked into his office last week, he found a letter from his predecessor, Liam Byrne. Laws assumed it contained useful advice. But when he opened the envelope, he found that the letter – which he characterized as “honest but slightly less helpful” than he had expected – had only a single line: Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left. And so there isn’t. Americans don’t realize just how bad Britain’s situation is. True, Britain’s not …
Last month the Pew Research Center reported that only 22% of Americans trusted the government to do the right thing always or most of the time. And that was the good news for incumbents: Favorable ratings for both major parties, as well as for Congress, have reached record lows while opposition to congressional incumbents, already approaching an all-time high, continues to climb. Significantly, a majority of Americans (52%) see the members of Congress themselves as the source of their dissatisfaction. Only 38% attribute their frustration to “a broken political system.” …
