In some respects, the recent attempted Times Square car bombing and the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized citizen, point to a significant success in America’s Global War on Terror. In the aftermath of 9/11, our government quickly reformed the Intelligence Community and established the Department of Homeland Security, moves which have been successful in making it more difficult for foreign terrorists to enter the country and carry out attacks. U.S. military action has weakened al-Qaeda Central. But this has also created a new challenge: the battlefront has shifted from …
For just the second time in its history, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a case on school choice. The high court decided that it will hear an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Arizona’s scholarship tax credit program is unconstitutional. Nearly 30,000 children benefit from Arizona’s tax credit program, which allows individuals to receive income tax credits for contributing to a scholarship-granting organization. A press release from the American Federation for Children stated: The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case provides …
Before the Democratic health bill was passed in March, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attempted to reassure the public that Congress would have to pass the bill before the public could “find out what is in it.” And now they intend to use the same tactics to repeal the misnamed “don’t ask, don’t tell” military eligibility policy passed by Congress in 1993. Democrats are moving swiftly to add the repeal to the must-pass defense authorization bill, leaving it to another day for the public – and most especially the U.S. military …
“Let’s be clear: Every day that this oil sits is one more day that more of our marsh dies,” Gov. Bobby Jindal (LA) said Monday. “We’ve been frustrated with the disjointed effort to date that has too often meant too little, too late for the oil hitting our coast,” he continued. Specifically, Jindal is frustrated by the failure of the federal government to produce the 8 million feet of oil-blocking booms it asked for back on May 2nd and 3rd. So far Louisiana has only received 815,000 feet of boom, …
Congress is at it again, spending more taxpayer money and significantly adding to the deficit in the process. This latest bout of irresponsible spending is $174 billion tacked on to an otherwise necessary bill to extend long-established, mostly sensible tax-reducing provisions known as the “tax extenders.” The legislation, dubbed Stimulus IV by some, is officially called The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010, which either evidences a peculiar form of dark humor or simple political cynicism. The new spending in the bill arises mostly from extending 4 …
The President has announced he plans to send up to 1,200 troops to the border with Mexico, a move that prompts many questions. Sending troops to the border makes sense, when it makes sense—in other words, if it is an appropriate, effective, and efficient use of military manpower. In 2006, President Bush sent over 6,000 troops to the border to assist in the build-up of the Border Patrol. Some National Guard units routinely deploy to the border in support of state and federal authorities as part of annual training duties. …
The Obama administration continues to insist (see this post from White House budget director Peter Orszag) that the recently enacted health-care law will reduce the federal budget deficit by $100 billion over ten years and by ten times that amount in the second decade of implementation. They cite the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate for the final legislation to back their claims. And it is undeniably true that CBO says the legislation, as written, would reduce the federal budget deficit by $124 billion over ten years from the health-related provisions …
Last week, eight former commissioners from the Federal Election Commission (including me) tried to warn a committee in the House of Representatives that a bill it was about to vote on was not only unnecessary, but so burdensome to the right of political speech and advocacy that it violates the First Amendment. We summarized our criticisms of the “Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Election Act,” or DISCLOSE Act (H.R. 5175), in this commentary in the Wall Street Journal. As we pointed out, the DISLOSE Act not …
As Andy McCarthy pointed out over at National Review Online, Attorney General Eric Holder seems to be profiling Arizona. Holder said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” two weeks ago that the Justice Department was “considering” filing a lawsuit opposing Arizona’s immigration enforcement law. Yet a week ago he admitted in oversight hearings in the House of Representatives that he hasn’t even read the bill he so freely criticizing. President Barack Obama has directed the Justice Department to “examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation.” Of course, the …
A while back, we pointed readers towards Heritage’s official entry to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Rulemaking Matters! contest and encouraged others to submit their own videos. The contest solicited entries praising the sort of rampant over-regulation that marks much of government today, but we took a slightly different tack, explaining the harm that over-regulation can and has caused average Americans. The Hill reported yesterday that Representatives Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Pete Olson (R-TX) have joined in with their own entry: Last month, after discovering the EPA contest by chance, Blackburn wrote to the …
