The Bush administration’s point man for the Jones Act waivers during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita says President Obama should exert his executive authority and suspend the law for 75 days to help with the Gulf oil spill cleanup. Keith Hennessey, who served as the deputy at the White House National Economic Council in 2005, sheds new light on the Bush administration’s thinking behind the Jones Act waivers. The law regulates cargo shipping in U.S. waters and between U.S. ports. Some members of Congress have cited the 1920 protectionist law as …
Nothing is more vital to a nation’s sovereignty than its ability to protect and control its territories, and that’s why it’s so appalling that the federal government essentially has given control over U.S. land to Mexican drug and smuggling gangs. Under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, the federal government is charged with providing for the common defense, which includes protecting America’s borders. Although small compared to the vastness of the border, this implicit bequeath of U.S. territory occurred in 2006 during President George W. Bush’s Administration and continues …
The United States faces a major physician shortage, and it will only get worse. Aging baby boomers will create a growing demand for medical services at the same time Obamacare comes on line with its new demands. Complicating matters is the fact that many physicians are also baby boomers—meaning part of the solution will increasingly become part of the problem. The Washington Post reports that nearly 40% of doctors are 55 or older and a third of all nurses are over the age of 50. These boomers are on the …
This week the House Strategic Communications and Public Diplomacy Caucus got off to a good start in its latest efforts to explore the Obama administration’s new strategy for engaging foreign publics. Room 121 in the Canon House office building was quickly filled as the Caucus held its first briefing on Thursday. Launched in March, the bipartisan group of Representatives is committed to improving the U.S. performance in the war of ideas. The Caucus hosted Administration officials from the primary agencies involved in the White House’s interagency strategy for public diplomacy …
Brace yourselves – America is about to fall into an “education catastrophe,” says Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Up to 300,000 educational workers may receive pink slips this coming fall. The only solution is the same solution to all our other economic problems. Yes, you know the drill. It is time for another bailout, this time to save our education system. Last Sunday, President Obama wrote a letter to Congress urging members to provide $23 billion in relief to state and local governments to supposedly prevent the layoffs of thousands …
As Mike Allen of Politico reports, Vice President Joe Biden has kicked off what the Obama Administration calls its “Recovery Summer.” According to senior adviser David Axelrod, “This summer will be the most active Recovery Act season yet.” It sounds like Axelrod has never heard the popular saying about what to do when you’re in a hole: stop digging. As prominent Keynesian economist and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Jeffrey Sachs admitted last week, the Stimulus Act has already failed. And in failing, it’s created an even …
President Obama has a solution to the Gulf oil spill: $7-a-gallon gas. That’s a Harvard University study’s estimate of the per-gallon price of the president’s global-warming agenda. And Obama made clear this week that this agenda is a part of his plan for addressing the Gulf mess. So what does global-warming legislation have to do with the oil spill? Good question, because such measures wouldn’t do a thing to clean up the oil or fix the problems that led to the leak. The answer can be found in Obama Chief …
A wedding ring on Dad’s finger is more than a symbol of his commitment to Mom. It also proves to be the ultimate anti-poverty weapon for their children. Now that’s something to celebrate and encourage this Father’s Day. It’s fitting on Sunday to honor all the fathers who strive to keep that commitment, even when they grow weary. “The principal cause of child poverty in the U.S. is the absence of married fathers in the home,” Robert Rector, senior research fellow in domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, writes …
“The tragedy of absent fathers.” That’s what Heritage’s Chuck Donovan calls it in an op-ed for the McClatchy-Tribune wire service on the social consequences of the fast-rising number of births outside marriage in neighborhoods across America, “where large numbers of males refuse to mentor or monitor their own children.” Several teen-agers charged in two gruesome homicide cases in Washington, D.C., Donovan wrote, had something in common: They were on the lam from juvenile lockups—and their fathers weren’t in their lives. As a prelude to Father’s Day, watch and listen here …
The Environmental Protection Agency released its economic analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman cap and trade legislation, the latest cap and trade bill to be released in the Senate. The result was nearly the same as the EPA’s analysis of the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill passed in the House of Representatives last year: postage stamp per day costs. Instead of $176 per household for Waxman-Markey, Kerry-Lieberman would cost households $146 by 2050. Unfortunately for Americans, nothing substantial in the EPA analysis has changed; it is still unreasonable, faulty, and fragile. The …
