A big reason Europeans adopted a value-added tax (VAT) was to raise enormous sums to underwrite their social welfare state, but another was that the VAT was supposed to be much more difficult to evade than most other taxes. Europeans have a well-deserved reputation for tax evasion and so their governments need a tight, reliable, auditable, mighty revenue source and the VAT seemed to fit the bill. Well, maybe not. According to a recent study commissioned by the European Union, Member States lose more than $150 billion annually to fraud. …
In April 2009 in Strasbourg, France, President Barack Obama was asked at a press conference if he “subscribe[d], as many of your predecessors have, to the school of American exceptionalism that sees America as uniquely qualified to lead the world, or do you have a slightly different philosophy?” President Obama then responded: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” In other words, the President does not see anything unique about America’s role in history …
The New START Treaty, which was signed on April 8th, 2010, in Prague, is being heralded by the Obama Administration as a major national security accomplishment. However, it is coming under close scrutiny and criticism by the leading US experts. This is not surprising as the document raises grave concerns – either directly in the text of the treaty or through implicit linkages and deals that were made during negotiations. Such concerns have prompted some U.S. senators to consider requesting the negotiating record of the treaty and the supporting documents …
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is an unfortunate and terrible accident that poses economic and environmental challenges to the Gulf coast. The fact that the explosion took eleven lives is regrettable and condolences to friends and families who lost their loved ones. Many questions are yet without answers; the most general and pressing being: what went wrong? Along with stopping the leak and containing the oil slick to minimize, the imperative concern is to figure out what went wrong. There will be lots of finger pointing and …
During the weekly round table discussion on ABC’s This Week, Bill Maher made an astonishing claim. He claimed that Brazil has “gone off oil” in the last 30 years. He said: So, you know, I could certainly criticize oil companies, and I could criticize America in general for not attacking this problem in the ’70s. I mean, Brazil got off oil in the last 30 years. We certainly could have. Well, Mr. Maher certainly has an odd view of what constitutes “getting off oil” because according to the Central Intelligence …
Due to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the nation’s health care system is on its way to undergoing a tremendous overhaul. The impact of the implementation process will be felt by all, but state and local governments will play a significant role. As former Heritage senior fellow Dennis Smith writes in a recent paper, “While the White House would like to give the impression that the debate on health care is over, the truth is that it has just begun. Like welfare reform legislation …
No, this isn’t a Geico commercial. Come 2013, America’s bachelors may want to think twice before popping the question. Thanks to Obamacare, some couples can save thousands on health insurance just by opting to cohabit rather than marry. How? The subsidy system erected in the complicated new health law manages to create a brand new “marriage penalty.” Under the law, individuals who earn between 133 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level and can’t get health coverage through their employers qualify for generous subsidies to buy insurance in the …
“Live from Tehran. It’s Nuclear Summit Too!” That’s how Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should have opened his “nuclear” summit with representatives from 60 countries. Ahmadinejad’s two-day forum convened the week after President Obama’s star-studded nuclear security summit in Washington. The Iranian kicked off his summit with a monologue laced with howlers, including a demand that the United States be the first to disarm. “Threatening with nuclear weapons only dishonored the American government officials and more fully exposed their inhumane and aggressive policies,” he declared. Ahmadinejad’s not funny. But he’s no …
You probably have seen that new General Motors ad were CEO Ed Whitacre claims his company has repaid their taxpayer bailout “in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule.” Don’t believe it for a second. Nick Gillespie explains why in the video to the right. The New York Times is also calling out the Obama administration for signing off on GM’s Enron-style accounting: But what neither G.M. nor the Treasury disclosed was that the company simply used other funds held by the Treasury to pay off its …
Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final cost projections for Obamacare, finding that, contrary to White House claims, the legislation will increase national health spending by $311 billion over the next decade and will cause 14 million Americans to lose their current employer-based health coverage. President Barack Obama unleashed his staff to attack Foster’s work. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, and White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer downplayed and criticized Foster’s analysis on the White House website. As …
