For 233 years, Independence Day has been the celebration of the day we declared our independence from the tyrannical reign of King George III. Since Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence it has been a symbol of freedom known worldwide. Thomas Jefferson noted, in a letter to John Adams in 1821 that: [T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who …
Gallup recently asked a sampling of Americans, “How serious of a threat to the future of the United States do you consider the following…” The results are clear: Americans judge the national debt on par with terrorism as the top threat facing the nation. Further, independents – a crucial constituency during an election year – believe the debt to be the single most threatening issue facing the country, even topping terrorism. A quick analysis of the numbers reveals why the public is alarmed. Today debt held by the public stands …
United States Senators went on record this afternoon and the result was unfortunate. 53 Senators voted against a resolution offered by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that would have disapproved of the Environmental Protection Agency’s backdoor global warming regulations. Today’s outcome was a victory for anti-growth environmentalists, but a devastating loss for the American people. The EPA’s regulations will marginalize any potential economic recovery by making investment and job creation more expensive. Why? Because the costs of regulation are staggering. The EPA estimates the average permit will cost applicants $125,000 and …
In a rather confessional tone, Jeffrey Sachs declared in his recent op-ed: The global fiscal stimulus championed last year by the Obama administration is coming undone, repudiated by the same Group of 20 that endorsed it last year. Now, against a backdrop of a widening sovereign debt crisis, we need to abandon short-term thinking in favour of the long-term investments needed for sustained recovery. Indeed, the current period of uncertain and fragile economic rebound poses a critical opportunity to ponder the principles that can revitalize economic growth. More than ever, …
All across America, on web sites and among social networking groups, sports fans are playing in fantasy baseball leagues. Even Major League Baseball operates a particularly sophisticated site that allows participants to draft players and create their own rosters, all to compete against other fans. The goal is to demonstrate skill in assessing the attributes and predicting the performances of athletes. Harmless fun. Now it’s come to light that a group of male students at Landon School, an upscale Maryland college prep academy, created their own fantasy sex league last …
This week, we learned that the Obama administration is orchestrating a $125 million propaganda campaign to sell the recently enacted health-care law to the public. That effort will be funded by labor unions and other groups from the Democratic political orbit. It comes on top of the misleading government mailer sent to the nation’s seniors, at the expense of taxpayers, touting the supposed benefits of ObamaCare for the elderly. On Tuesday, the president himself will join the fray again to make the sales pitch, this time promoting the colossal waste …
Political candidates apparently can choose no better campaign issue this year than excessive government spending and the exploding debt it’s producing. In one campaign after another, voters high and low on the economic ladder respond in the same way when challengers berate incumbents for reckless debt accumulation: raucous, fist-pumping applause and that same grimace that must have graced the faces of our revolutionary forebears. This prime issue of the 2010 election season no doubt will be the subject of analysis by students of politics for years to come. Even now, …
Did you know that the federal government spent $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly? Were you aware that Washington is on track to spend $30,543 per household in 2010? What about a recent audit that classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled? The federal government is addicted to spending our money and can’t seem to kick the habit. Heritage scholar Brian Reidl has released a new paper chronicling all this spending. Our latest video highlights just some of the startling figures …
Typically, international conferences like the Review Conference of the International Criminal Court are predictable, even boring. The months (or, in this case, years) prior to the conference are spent in meetings, sifting through various positions and policy red lines among the delegations, so that differences are minor by the time the conference kicks off, making the path to a consensus agreement clear. The most important priority for the conference organizers and many of the delegates is that the conference be viewed as a “success.” On rare occasions, conferences deadlock on …
Last week the Obama Administration released its National Security Strategy for 2010. The document waxed fulsome in praise of Brazil as an “emerging center of influence.” It welcomed “Brazil’s leadership” which promises “to move beyond dated North-South divisions to pursue progress on bilateral, hemispheric, and global issues.” Brazil’s decision, along with Turkey, to vote against new sanctions on Iran was certainly not the type of leadership the White House envisioned from Brazil. For months Brazil has stood, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, in support of Iran’s right to “a …
