It’s a small issue, but a telling one. As the Senate continues to debate financial regulation, two senators — Olympia Snowe of Maine and Mark Pryor of Arkansas — have proposed an amendment to ensure that regulators consider the effects of new rules on small businesses. Specifically, the two would require the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to convene a “Small Business Review Panel” to assess the effect of any new rules on small business before formally proposing them. Such “Small Business Review Panels” were first authorized under a regulatory …
In her testimony today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urging the Senate to consent to the ratification of the April 8th Treaty between the Russian Federation and the United States of America on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated the following: Now, some may argue that we don’t need the new START treaty. But the choice before us is between this treaty and no treaty governing our nuclear security relationship with Russia, between this treaty and …
CHICAGO – Protect America Month 2010, the Heritage Foundation’s annual series of events and publications aimed at highlighting key national security issues and promoting sensible defense and homeland security policies, hit the road today with a special address in Chicago by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. Ambassador Bolton began his remarks by explaining why he refers to President Obama as a “post-American” president. The first problem, he argued, is that President Obama doesn’t care about national security. It is not where his attention is focused. The …
An email purportedly written by Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad four years ago reveals that he was motivated to attack the U.S. partly by radical Islamist ideology. In the email, Shahzad questions democracy (which he refers to as “human made laws”) and favors an Islamic system of governance in which the state is ruled by Islamic law. He further criticizes U.S. policy for allowing Pakistan to be ruled by “dictatorship.” (Never mind that under former President Pervez Musharraf — who was leading Pakistan in 2006 — the Islamist political parties …
It appears that Race to the Top (RTTT)–the government’s latest attempt to dole out federal dollars for state education budgets–is turning into more of a wild goose chase. Politico reports: The idea seemed simple: Hold a contest for states to compete for billions in federal aid, right at a moment when school systems are battling budget problems. To win the funding, schools would have to convince Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s team that they were prepared to instill more teacher accountability and tougher standards to help students learn. But simple is …
CHICAGO – We are currently in the middle of Protect America Month 2010, The Heritage Foundation’s way of reminding America’s leaders that protecting America is the No. 1 responsibility of government. Dr. Edwin Feulner, The Heritage Foundation’s President, explained the importance of the initiative to a group of more than 400 people in Chicago today. Open the Constitution, he said, and you will find that providing for the common defense–not providing health care, or regulating the financial industry, or capping carbon emissions–is our government’s first duty. Through Protect America Month …
Later this month, the Obama Administration is expected to submit a plan to Congress seeking additional power to cut specific items from spending bills. This proposal is commonly called the “Line-Item Veto,” named after the law ruled unconstitutional in the 1990’s. However, line-item vetoes did not require Congressional approval, while these rescissions do. Obama’s anticipated proposal, correctly labeled “enhanced rescission,” would give the President 45 days after signing a spending bill to submit items to Congress for elimination. Congress would then be forced to schedule an up or down vote …
At today’s Senate Foreign Relations hearing on the START Treaty (a U.S.-Russia nuclear arms pact) that President Obama is seeking Congressional approval for, I asked Senator Kerry a simple question. Should it be the goal of the U.S. to have a missile defense system that renders nuclear threats by other nations useless, including Russia? To my disappointment, but not surprisingly, Senator Kerry said no. And with his response, Senator Kerry proved why Americans have a hard time fully trusting the left to put American interests first in foreign affairs. While …
Over the past decade, federal spending has leaped 62 percent faster than inflation, to more than $30,000 per household. Not content with this expansion of government, President Obama’s budget would push inflation-adjusted spending to nearly $37,000 per household by the end of this decade. This would create sustained trillion-dollar budget deficits, likely followed by European-sized tax hikes. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) has proposed a commonsense approach to avoid such ruinous spending hikes. The Saving America’s Future Economy (SAFE) Act of 2010 would limit the annual growth of government to the …
Last week, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) launched an innovative new tool in the fight to cut spending called YouCut. It allows regular American citizens to vote to cut wasteful spending in Congress. Its purpose is to challenge the culture of spending that has dominated Congressional thinking and replace it with a renewed focus on savings. Weekly, YouCut will post several wasteful spending programs and give citizens a week to vote on which they favor most being eliminated. The results are announced the following week and House Republicans will …
