In an odd reversal, President Obama went all out to welcome Britain’s newly elected conservative Prime Minister David Cameron Tuesday at the White House—this, after getting off to a terrible start last year with Cameron’s Labor Party predecessor Gordon Brown. Whereas Brown was humiliated by the extremely low-key reception accorded him by the new Obama Administration in March of 2009—a reception which did not even include a proper press conference—Prime Minister Cameron got the full court press, as well as superlative praise for the “Special Relationship” from President Obama. Maybe …
In an interview with National Journal (subscription necessary) Senator Richard Lugar (R–IN), responds to a series of objections to the new START Treaty and outlines why he believes ratification is necessary. Sen. Lugar addresses the question of tactical nuclear weapons, yet gives a less than satisfactory response. He states, “A large percentage of Russia’s short-range tactical weapons are actually deployed along its border with China.” While he states a problem, he ultimately fails to connect the dots. By not addressing Russia’s tactical arsenal, the START treaty allows Russia to continue …
The American people are already well aware of President Barack Obama’s historic expansion of government spending: his $862 billion economic stimulus that has completely failed to keep unemployment below 8% as promised; his still-expanding health care law which the Congressional Budget Office now admits will cost more than $1 trillion; and an Obama budget that increases government spending by $12,000 per household. But all that spending is just the first half of President Obama’s game plan. The second half of Obama’s attempted transformation began last night when the Senate rejected …
There have been several press accounts lately outlining Democratic plans to hold off on taking difficult votes before November, and then to have a robust “lame duck” session in November and December, where they can get the rest of their liberal agenda and pork passed. I couldn’t think of a worse idea for America. Not only are cap and trade, card check, and ratification of the START being thrown around as possibly getting legislative action during the lame duck , there will also be a need to wrap up the …
According to press reports, an undisclosed State Department report on the new strategic arms control treaty with Russia, called New START, reveals that the Obama Administration is not concerned about the implications of Russian cheating under the treaty. Specifically, the State Department report supposedly states that “any Russian cheating under the treaty would have little effect, if any, on the assured second-strike capabilities of U.S. strategic forces.” New START is now being examined by a variety of Senate committees in advance of a possible future vote in the Senate on …
Reps. Gary Peters (D-MI), John Adler (D-NJ), Peter Welch (D-VT) and Jim Himes (D-CT), should be commended for forming their new Spending Cuts and Deficit Reduction Working Group. Peters told The Macomb Daily: “Congress has to get serious about reducing the deficit now. Transforming the deficits generated over the past decade back into the surpluses of the 1990s will take rooting out and slashing wasteful spending. We have formed this work group to seek areas to cut billions in unwarranted spending and subsidies.” Huzzah! To that end the group has …
As President Obama today signed into law the Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, two words were left unspoken: Fannie and Freddie. Yet they not only played a major role in creating the housing bubble that led to the meltdown of 2008, they stand today as the primary remaining bailout debtors to the U.S. treasury. As shown in this chart, the two bankrupt mortgage giants owe almost half — 45% — of the outstanding bailout money from the federal treasury. And as Heritage fellows David John and James Gattuso pointed out in …
Like the monster in a third-rate horror movie that seems to be destroyed but comes back again and again, some bad ideas in Washington keep popping up. Adding wind insurance coverage to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a program that already needs to be bailed out every few years, is one of those irresponsible policy mistakes that legislators continue to push well after it should have been declared dead and buried. Its latest incarnation, H.R. 1264, the Multiple Peril Insurance Act, introduced by Representative Gene Taylor (D–MS), contains all …
Though Democrats’ health care bill has already been signed into law, work on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is anything but complete. Last Wednesday, the House passed a bill that would make several technical corrections to the health bill hastily passed last March. The authors of the PPACA never expected the version that passed the Senate on Christmas Eve to become the final version signed into law. But Scott Brown’s election in Massachusetts made it the only possible way Democrats could have passed their desired health care …
The Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on Tuesday on the implementation of the New START Treaty. Two weeks ago, Sen. John Kerry (D–MA) wrote in an op-ed that given all the testimony there was a clear record in favor of treaty ratification. However, had Sen. Kerry waited for the statements of The Honorable James Miller, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, and General Kevin P. Chilton, Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, he may have been a little more hesitant to make such a proclamation. Dr. Miller and …
