A new report from the General Accounting Office that was released on Capitol Hill last week has found that more than $1 billion in federal funds were expended from 2002-2009 by six controversial nonprofits, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the Population Council, and the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States. The first two of these nonprofits received more than $941 million of this total, and the International Planned Parenthood Federation received another $3.9 million. The GAO notes that these amounts likely understate the federal …
“We were not prepared to make the best use of foreign support. Some foreign governments sought to contribute aid that the United States could not accept or did not require. In other cases, needed resources were tied up by bureaucratic red tape. But more broadly, we lacked the capability to prioritize and integrate such a large quantity of foreign assistance into the ongoing response.” This quote from the previous Administration’s Hurricane Katrina lessons learned report is (unfortunately) equally applicable to the current oil spill disaster. Prior to Katrina, the U.S. …
The House Rules Committee met yesterday to set the rules for debate on the DISCLOSE Act. True to form, the committee kept the public out of a hearing about a bill intended to promote “transparency” in elections. According to the Center for Competitive Politics, they sent one of their staffers to attend the hearing, but she was barred from entry. Apparently, as CCP pointedly said, “their version of democracy wasn’t strong enough to allow regular folks to attend their rubber-stamp hearing for the bill.” The Rules Committee decided to allow …
Michael Copps, a Federal Communications Commissioner, warns that if you propose government funding for newspapers, then “[s]ome guy is probably going to be on cable screaming up and down saying you’re Mao Zedong.” He seems to be scoffing at the notion that such funding is akin to a totalitarian effort at thought control. But should he be so sure? Copps himself cites the ideas of Robert McChesney, a professor at the University of Illinois and founder of the group Free Press. Randolph May writes about McChesney at the Free State Foundation blog, noting some quotes …
Senators Sanders (I-VT), Harkin (D-IA) and Whitehouse (D-RI) are circulating a bill that would drastically increase the death tax at the worst possible time: such a policy move would be a body blow to a weakly recovering economy and would clearly signal to everyone that this Congress has no intention of breathing new life into the American dream. The death tax is currently expired for 2010. The repeal of the death tax was a decade-long policy first brought into law with the 2001 tax relief package. That legislation phased down …
A new study released this week by the Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences found that participation in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program “raised a student’s probability of completing high school by 12 percentage points, from 70 percent to 82 percent, based on parent reports.” The news is a victory for school choice and education reform advocates across the country. Patrick Wolf, lead researcher at the University of Arkansas School Choice Demonstration Project, said: These results are important because high school graduation is strongly associated with a large number …
With a looming state budget deficit of nearly $13 million, many Illinois residents are wondering if their state has its priorities in order. Last night, ABC7 Chicago’s Chuck Goudie revealed $67 million in recent state payments (PDF) for a variety of pet projects. While the state wrestles with the ramifications of such a huge budget shortfall, many wonder why payments continue for the sort of spending exposed in Goudie’s report. Among the expenses: Wilmette received $130,000 to build this bike path that was just one block long. Evanston got a check …
On Saturday, June 26, America Speaks will host a national town hall meeting in which any and all Americans will be able to voice their opinions on the federal budget and the devastating effects that Washington’s growing deficits will have on the U.S. economy. The discussion will focus on ways to address the fiscal crisis before it is too late. Federal deficits are growing due to increasing spending, not because of a lack of revenue. Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl explains in a recent paper: The composition of spending has …
Last week, Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) expressed concern over the U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) now before the Senate. The senator particularly questioned the treaty’s limits on America’s “ability to advance our missile defense” and its “failure to deter proliferation and future attacks on our nation and allies.” Given the consequences that New START poses for U.S. national security and the calls for its swift passage, Inhofe is right to ask questions – and the entire Senate is obligated to do so, as well. One of the Senate’s most …
The Obama administration’s rhetoric on nuclear energy has been promising. Unfortunately, actions speak louder than words and his decision to attempt to kill the waste repository program at Yucca Mountain without a workable replacement speaks volumes. Not only has the nation spent nearly $10 billion on the project, but no technical or scientific justifications were provided. The president and his administration excuse their decision by simply stating that it is “unworkable.” To develop a replacement program for Yucca, the President appointed the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future to …
