For the past two weeks, the Heritage Foundation has been down in the Gulf raising awareness about what is and is not working in the oil spill cleanup and what possible solutions exist that are being ignored by the media. Last Friday, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) led a group of eight Congressmen on a Gulf Coast visit and Distinguished Fellow Ernest Istook joined them, recording what they saw. During a boat trip at Grand Isle, Louisiana, local officials, including Jefferson Parish Emergency Management Director Deano Bonano, described how bureaucracy—both from BP and from …
NEW ORLEANS — Yesterday marked a significant milestone for recreational fishermen in Louisiana. After weeks of closures, the state opened approximately 86 percent of recreational fishing areas. Recreational fishing differs from commercial fishing, which remains off limits in many areas. The move, however, was hailed by Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham as a major step for returning to normalcy. “I consider [yesterday's] action the first step in opening state waters to all fishing, both recreational and commercial,” Barham said. The opening includes licensed charter boat guides …
Today, President Barack Obama will attend a groundbreaking ceremony in Holland, Mich., for a South Korean-owned factory that will make batteries for electric cars. The purpose of the trip is to highlight the “success” of the President’s $862 billion economic stimulus package which the White House claimed yesterday has already “saved or created” 3 million jobs. Specifically, this factory is being subsidized by $151 million of stimulus funds from an even larger $2 billion honey pot of stimulus money set aside for electric car battery investments. This one plant is …
One of the many questions Heritage’s team in the Gulf asked locals when they visited last week was how they thought the President’s drilling moratorium would affect them. We have highlighted some of the many concerns they shared in a new video. They were roundly critical of the composition of the President’s oil spill commission and the devastating effects they expect to see from his drilling moratorium. As Ted Falgout, Former Director of Port Fourchon, says in the video, “We’re going to start losing rigs quickly and they may not …
NEW ORLEANS — With the Gulf oil spill approaching its 90th day, Gov. Bobby Jindal outlined an ambitious plan Wednesday to restore confidence in Louisiana and revitalize its oil-infested coast. His four-point plan puts the federal government and BP on notice for their role in the cleanup. Jindal was joined at the Port of New Orleans by 10 local leaders, including Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young, who will headline a Heritage Foundation event today at 2 p.m. They came with a clear message: Louisiana isn’t going to rest until the …
To many along the Gulf Coast, the oil spill response is Katrina… with a difference. With Katrina, says Mark Riley, an official in Louisiana’s Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Department, the problem was that the federal government showed up with its “hurricane bag” and found a disaster. This time, they showed up with “oil spill bag and found a catastrophe.”
On July 13, the government released international trade statistics for the first five months of the year showing a growing trade deficit—and almost no one got the story right. Here are some examples: “Trade Deficit Gets even Worse,” announced the July 13, 2010 Yahoo! Finance headline. “Trade Deficit’s Increase Seen as an Unwelcome Surprise,” reported the Sacramento Bee. “Surprise Jump in Trade Deficit Worries Economists,” warned the Los Angeles Times. “U.S. Trade Data for May Presented yet More Unfortunate News for the U.S. Economy,” reported The Wall Street Journal.
The new Broadcasting Board of Governors, announced on Friday by the Obama White House, have their work cut out for them. For a variety of not very satisfactory reasons, the U.S. broadcasting entities (Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, et al.) on whom the federal government spends $745 million a year of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money, have been without strong leadership and management for an unconscionably long period. Members of the board whose terms have long since expired have been doing yeoman service holding down the fort at the BBG …
“If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.” This is the government’s view of the economy, according to the late President Reagan. The Department of Education (DOE) is clearly using this flawed approach as it pursues regulation of the highly successful for-profit university system. Higher education enrollment increased by 31 percent from 1998 to 2008. During this same period, enrollment at for-profit schools, such as DeVry University and the University of Phoenix, rose a staggering 225 percent. These schools are meeting …
Obamacare promises that, some years down the road, every American will have health insurance. But the whole point of having health insurance is to get medical care when you need it, and that’s not part of the Obamacare promise. The new law aims to use Medicaid to cover 16 million otherwise uninsured Americans in 2019. But there’s a problem with Medicaid. It reimburses doctors at rates dramatically lower than private insurers do. In fact, it pays doctors far less than even Medicare does. In many cases, Medicaid reimbursement does not …
