Senator Barack Obama said the following about the Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court according to Greg Sargent in The Plum Line (Washington Post) in 2005: Harriet Miers has had a distinguished career as a lawyer, but since her experience does not include serving as a judge, we have yet to know her views on many of the critical constitutional issues facing our country today. In the coming weeks, we’ll need as much information and forthright testimony from Ms. Miers as possible so that the U.S. Senate can make …
To fund or not to fund – the State Department’s Hamlet like approach to Internet freedom. Having unequivocally declared Internet freedom one of the Obama administration’s top priorities back in January, the State Department has been sending out confusingly mixed signals ever since. In fact, what is emerging is a picture of a thoroughly schizophrenic policy, pushed and pulled between various parts of the State Department and Congress. This is too bad, for Internet freedom could well become one of the defining political and human rights issues of the 21st …
CHICAGO – This morning, the Chicago Committee for Heritage hosted a panel discussion titled “Lawyers, Terrorists, and the Common Defense: Has the Obama Administration Signaled Surrender to America’s Enemies?” The discussion featured Heritage policy expert Secretary Cully Stimson and Senator Jim Talent, and focused on the Obama Administration’s approach to foreign policy and terrorism. Sen. Talent opened the discussion by stressing the U.S. Constitution’s emphasis on the government’s duty to provide for the common defense, to provide and maintain a Navy, and to raise and support Armies. He also pointed …
The federal government’s Head Start program comes under scrutiny today by the House Education and Labor Committee, which will examine a Government Accountability Office investigation that discovered fraudulent behavior and unlawful actions in the program’s enrollment and eligibility processes. Chairman George Miller (D-CA) called today’s 1:30 p.m. committee hearing after learning of GAO’s undercover investigation. Last week Miller asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to conduct an immediate review of Head Start, an early childhood education program first started in 1965. The GAO report is not yet publicly available. These …
One of the great promises of Obamacare, you’ll recall, was that it would give folks working in small businesses better access to affordable care. “It works for small business owners,” Nancy Pelosi announced, “providing access to affordable group rates and creating a tax credit for them to help them insure their employees.” This sounded like it would be a huge help, because small firms struggle to find affordable coverage for their workers. Unfortunately, the Obamacare small-business tax credit just doesn’t get the job done, according to the National Federation …
On March 26 the White House released a fact sheet on the New START Treaty. It claimed that the agreement signed by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev “does not contain any constraints on testing, development or deployment of current or planned U.S. missile defense programs.” But the Russians seem to have a different interpretation of the document they signed. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on April 6th that Russia would exit the treaty if “the U.S.’s build-up of its missile defense strategic potential …
Greece’s recent escapades in economic disaster are a sobering example to the United States of the consequences of allowing government spending to far exceed revenue. But though Americans’ concern regarding the financial outlook of the federal government grows, those with the power to act something seem largely unaffected. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released a report that the United States’ debt could surpass 100 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as early as 2015. According to the Hill, “The IMF predicts that the U.S. would need to reduce its …
What’s the main selling point for the financial regulation bill Congress is debating? That it would end taxpayer bailouts. The Senate even added an amendment directly noting that the bill is intended to “prohibit taxpayers from ever having to bail out the financial sector.” But don’t breathe a sigh of relief too quickly. Because the bill’s many problems include this frequently overlooked fact: It does nothing to fix the problems with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, both of which A) played a major role in the meltdown of 2008 and …
Iran announced today that it had reached an agreement with Turkey and Brazil to exchange some of its stockpile of low enriched uranium for more highly enriched uranium that can be used to fuel its research reactor in Tehran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the controversial deal in a three way press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Tehran. Under the proposed deal, Iran would send 1200 kilograms (2,646 pounds) of low enriched uranium to Turkey within a month in …
Instead of concentrating on the cause of the oil spill, lawmakers on Capitol Hill appear to be focused on liability limits and oil tax increases. The White House and some Members of Congress are pushing for a one-cent increase per-barrel of oil produced – from eight cents to nine. In reality, this is an indirect gas tax that will be passed onto the consumer. Currently the direct federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon with the mean state tax being 27.2 cents per gallon. The purpose of the newly …
