Congress may be turning the corner on missile defense. It is reported that the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces added $361.6 million to the Obama Administration’s inadequate $9.9 billion request for the overall missile defense program in fiscal year 2011. This is a significant departure from last year, where Congress, with the notable exception of the valiant effort by House Republicans to oppose it, acquiesced in the Obama Administration’s $1.6 billion reduction in the broader program. The increase in funding is to go to the following components of the broader …
The term ‘fiscal responsibility’ is en vogue in Washington these days. Lawmakers have been quick to claim they will tackle the federal government’s impending financial crisis, a claim showcased by the President’s commission to reduce the federal deficit. But Congress’ recent behavior proves they are no more serious about reining in spending than they were before, exposing the deficit commission for the fig leaf that it really is. Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) announced that, for the first time since 1974, the House will not pass a budget …
In his latest New York Times column, Paul Krugman manages to make some useful observations before slipping into his usual role of distorting propagandist. His most important observation is in his title, “We’re Not Greece”. For that matter, we’re not Portugal or France, either, for all of which we can be thankful. Greece suffers from a quadruple whammy. Its fiscal policy is a disaster, with a debt-to-GDP ratio push rapidly toward 150 percent and beyond. Its political system is very shaky and its social fabric appears to be fraying judging …
The National Federation of Independent Business, representing the interests of small businesses across America, today joined more 20 states on the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. The move is the latest blow to President Obama’s post-passage public relations effort. NFIB’s involvement was prompted by the individual and employer mandates, new taxes and onerous paperwork requirements. An accompanying statement said the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would devastate small business, threatening their viability. The lawsuit’s two main legal claims involve the unconstitutionality of the individual mandate. Last month Heritage’s …
Much of the discussion and speculation about Elena Kagan’s legal philosophy is limited by her very thin record of scholarship, along with an almost complete lack of experience in the courtroom or participation in litigation through amicus briefs prior to her appointment last year as solicitor general. So we must parse what evidence exists more closely, and a lack of action — particularly in her current job — can be an important indication of her views on an issue. The Supreme Court is in the process of deciding a landmark …
How should a city treat one of its long-time, law-abiding citizens if her mature, decades-old hedges offend aggressive new standards set by city bureaucrats? What if this citizen is a 61-year-old grandmother fighting breast cancer? The answer the City of Palo Alto, California, provided to these questions was to send out two police officers to arrest Kay Leibrand in front of her home and neighbors and to charge her as a criminal. As explained in One Nation Under Arrest, The Heritage Foundation’s new book on overcriminalization, this was an oppressive …
An interesting, if alarming Op-Ed in the Washington Times by Ernest Christian and Gary Robbins this week, outlines what is likely to happen due to Washington’s Devil-may-care spending habits. The authors point out that according to the Obama administration’s planned budget, the gross national debt will reach 123% of GDP by 2020. Greece’s Debt to GDP ratio stands at 133% this year however there is no conglomerate of comparable size to the U.S. as The European Union is to Greece so no rescue of America will be imminent. Christian and …
Sheltering Arms Senior Services won a contract worth $22.3 million in stimulus funds to weatherize homes of low-income families in Houston, but a new report from Texas Watchdog reveals the work performed was so shoddy that 33 of 53 homes will need to be fixed. The contract, awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is the second largest weatherization contract in Texas, running through March 2012. Yet with nearly two years left on the agreement, Sheltering Arms Senior Services is already under fire after a state report criticized the …
President Obama’s disdain for new media has become so consistent that it is hard to dismiss as mere posturing. This is all the more ironic because Obama’s political movement supposedly mastered the new art of communication. During the 2008 campaign, the Obamistas let the world know they were cool by, among other things, speaking digital as a first language. By contrast, since taking office, Obama has sounded downright nostalgic about the old newspaper era, all the while warning that the new communication revolution is producing more information than people can …
The headline of Peter Baker’s New York Times article “Obama Expands Modernization of Nuclear Arsenal” could not be more misleading. The article touts the release of a presidential report to Congress outlining the President’s plan to spend $80 billion. What the article does not tell you is that in all that spending there is no commitment from the White House to modernize nuclear weapons, all the President plans on doing is dumping tens-of-billions of dollars into federal labs and universities without spelling out a clear military mission their activities are …
