Apparently $80 billion of stimulus funds for public education wasn’t enough. The Obama administration now says that the federal government should fork out $23 billion more in taxpayer money to save teaching jobs. If not, according to education Secretary Arne Duncan, we will see catastrophic teacher layoffs. Before calling for a crisis and demanding more taxpayer money, it would be a good idea to look at the facts. First, from the $80 billion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), states received $49 billion in a portion of the …
As President Medvedev of Russia is coming to visit Barack Obama, the Administration’s spokesmen are desperately trying to convince us that the “reset” policy with the Russia has paid off. They argue that Russia and the United States have developed a real partnership, as demonstrated by the signature of the New START treaty, Russian support for the U.N.’s sanctions on Iran, and transit agreements to move troops and supplies into Afghanistan through Russian territory and air space. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, thinks …
In its lead editorial yesterday, The Wall Street Journal pointed out the lack of scientific and engineering expertise of President Obama’s appointments to the seven-member “National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling,” as well as the obvious biases of a majority of its members who have either stated publicly their opposition to drilling or are members of organizations that oppose offshore drilling. There is only one member with any engineering background at all, although her specialties are physics and optics. Of course, it is hard …
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit the United States from June 22 through 24 at the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama. Topping the agenda will be the New START Treaty between the two countries, a treaty that is likely to arouse controversy in the Senate. The visit occurs after the United States was able to secure a vote by Russia on the United Nations Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran. The Obama Administration hails its “reset button” policy with Russia as an unqualified success. …
Major Stephen L. Godin thought he had retired from battle after logging over 2,000 hours during five overseas deployments as an F-4 Phantom pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps. However, thanks to forced unionism in Massachusetts, the fight continued for this honorable veteran. Major Godin has taught Naval Junior ROTC at North High School in Worcester, Massachusetts, for 15 years without paying any kind of union fees. He chose not to join a union because the military pays half of his salary, as well as his medical and dental insurance. …
In the often Orwellian world of government policy pronouncements, the Obama economic team is trying for new ground, with “self-sustaining” recovery, understood at least by the dictionary to mean “maintaining itself by independent effort,” now understood, according to Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, as requiring extensive government support and intervention. In an op-ed published June 23 in The Wall Street Journal, the two most senior Administration economic officials call on their G-20 colleagues to maintain government spending, establish a global framework for financial regulation, and to make efforts in agricultural …
We need all the international help we can get to clean-up the Gulf of Mexico, but an Associated Press account seems to gripe that the help is not free. After almost two months of delay, the U.S. last week agreed that foreign oil spill response vessels (but not other foreign ships) can join the effort. Our official government finding says, “there are an insufficient number of specialized oil skimming vessels in the U.S. to keep pace with the unprecedented levels of oil discharges in the Gulf of Mexico.” Rather than …
Today’s firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, our top commander in Afghanistan, dealt only with a symptom of the disease eating away at our Afghan strategy, and at the risk of perhaps worsening the condition. The general’s disdain for his civilian leaders, expressed to a magazine and which led to his dismissal, stems from systemic disarray at the heart of President Obama’s war policy. This shambles cannot be blamed on a wayward general; the buck stops firmly where it should, at the Oval Office. Naming the very able Gen. David Petraeus …
The president is commander-in-chief. He gets to decide who leads the fight in our nation’s war. He is our leader, and he is responsible for securing victory against our nation’s enemies. There are vital U.S. interests at stake in Afghanistan. Failure is a terrible option. Failure will mean a vicious civil war that could lead to genocide in Afghanistan and a resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda that could prompt a war between India and Pakistan, and ultimately lead right back to another 9/11. Whomever the president chooses to command our …
If there were ever a time to pull out the Ronald Reagan quote “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help,” it would be here and now with this oil spill. Either no one’s in charge or everyone is. Either way, it’s not working and is creating needless delays that waste valuable time to suck up the oil and protect our coastlines. The latest example of federal government obstruction is the United States Fish and Wildlife Service preventing the …
