The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) between the U.S. and Russia is a throwback to the Cold War and does not address the greatest threats the U.S. faces today, namely ballistic missile attacks by rogue nations, according to Sen. Jim DeMint (R–SC). Far from addressing emerging threats, the treaty would actually prevent the U.S. from defending against them and lock the U.S. into the old Cold War adversarial relationship with Russia of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)—or “balance of terror.” By taking on the logic of advancing the old …
Amnesty is like Jason Voorhees. No matter how many times it seems to be dead, it keeps coming back, each one worse than the last. Washington seems to be following the same script when it comes to immigration. We tried an amnesty in 1986. It failed to stem the growing problem of illegal immigration. So Washington tried again in 2007, but Americans rejected that amnesty bill. So what does the Obama administration propose now? Amnesty. But this time they want to do it by administrative fiat. The chances for an …
One of the promises of Obamacare was that it would give folks working in small businesses access to affordable care. Unfortunately, like so much else in the law, it doesn’t look like that’s going to work very well. To solve the problems small firms have with finding affordable health coverage, Obamacare created a small-business tax credit. But there’s less to this credit than meets the eye. A recent study by FamiliesUSA shows that only one in four businesses employing 25 or fewer employees will get the full credit—and one in six …
Yesterday, President Obama delivered a major speech on education in an effort to garner support for his Race to the Top grant program and his push for national education standards and tests. The President’s remarks came on the heels of a speech delivered by Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday at the National Press Club, during which Duncan attempted to paint the Administration’s policies as part of a “quiet revolution.” Duncan certainly got the quiet part right. Since his Administration came into office, President Obama has quietly been reworking the …
Want to see what Obamacare really looks like? Take a gander at this dazzlingly complex chart mapping out America’s new health care system (the chart was developed by the House Joint Economic Committee). It’s no wonder that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in March said of Obamacare, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.” Well, the health care monstrosity passed and we’re left with a confusing fog of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.
Arizona v. President Obama. This time it’s not about immigration but health care. A recent letter from the Arizona Department of Administration to 135,000 state employees informed them that, depending on their type of coverage, they can expect their monthly health insurance costs to jump by as much as 37 percent. The letter cites the President’s health care overhaul as “responsible for all increases for employee premiums.” The Department points to two provisions of Obamacare as the primary reason for the premium increases: a new requirement for plans to cover …
France’s declaration of war on al-Qaeda is merely a public statement of fact: France takes counterterrorism seriously. Following last weekend’s statement from al-Qaeda that it had murdered a septuagenarian French aid worker, Prime Minister Francois Fillon declared “war.” French troops have since attacked al-Qaeda bases in North Africa and ramped up cooperation with Paris’s regional allies. French President Nicolas Sarkozy should translate this public show of strength to France’s other theater of war against Islamist terrorists: Afghanistan. France has been just one of several European countries to under-resource the U.N.-mandated …
It’s difficult to forget the drama—including riots, fires, and even deaths—that unfolded during Greece’s recent fiscal crisis. But what would happen if bad budget policy led to a financial crisis in the United States? A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) points out the economic casualties of a fiscal crisis in the US would be devastating. First, fiscal crises trigger significant spikes in interest rates, which devastated business investment and consumer spending alike.
One component of education reform that often gets overlooked is online or virtual learning. In the August-September 2010 issue of Reason Magazine, Katherine Mangu-Ward notes the following: During the last 30 years, the per-student cost of K-12 education has more than doubled in real dollars, with no academic improvement to show for it. Meanwhile, everything the Internet touches gets better: listening to music on iTunes, shopping for shoes at Zappos, exchanging photos on Flickr. Education reformers across the nation are listening. In 2000, only 50,000 students were enrolled in online …
If the Senate doesn’t ratify New START, proponents of the arms-control agreement fear, then … well, the world will come to end. The latest warning came from Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, a foundation that advocates a nuclear weapons-free world. “A delayed ratification with a close vote would be a blow to U.S. leadership around the world,” he told the Associated Press, “People would doubt the president’s ability to negotiate other agreements.” More pressure to just “sign the treaty so we can purge the world of nuclear weapons” …
