GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – Ibrahim al Qosi, a Sudanese-born al-Qaeda terrorist, held at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002, pleaded guilty Wednesday at his military commission to both charges—conspiracy to provide material support for terrorism and material support for terrorism. His much-anticipated plea caps an eight-year saga spanning two separate Administrations and represents the fourth conviction for the on-again-off-again military commissions and the first such conviction in the Obama Administration. Flanked by his three lawyers (two military, one lead civilian counsel), al Qosi arrived in the Guantanamo Bay main courthouse dressed …
Exactly one hundred days ago today, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. The President promised that the law would extend access to high quality care to the millions of uninsured Americans, while at the same reducing costs and overall health spending. Forget it. It’s not going to happen. It is clear that none of these promises will come true; instead, the legislation is likely, even certain in some cases, to make existing problems worse. To mark the 100 day anniversary of the health care …
Here’s a principles-of-economics question: Suppose the U.S. gross domestic product (national income) is currently $14 trillion. Then suppose the U.S. raised all tariff, income tax, and sales tax rates to 100 percent. How much money would the government collect? If you realized that nobody would generate taxable income under such a regime and answered “zero,” congratulations. If, instead, you answered $14 trillion, you may have a future at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), because that is how they analyze (score) the fiscal impacts of the Kerry–Lieberman climate change bill. In …
Today, the White House is launching its second annual SAVE Award, which encourages federal employees to submit ideas on how to save taxpayer dollars. Federal employees will be able to rank the submissions submitted by colleagues, and then the general public will be able to vote on the top submissions later this year. Last year’s contest generated more than 38,000 submissions from government employees and more than 84,000 votes. Last year’s winner? A Department of Veterans Affairs employee from Colorado who suggested that VA medical centers should permit patients to …
On June 30, The Heritage Foundation released a list of ten actions President Obama could immediately take to make a positive impact on the increasingly overwhelming Gulf oil spill. Since then, there has been some action on two of the items. The skimmer known as “A-Whale” is finally being tested in the Gulf, despite harsh weather. In fact, when weather was at its worst, the A-Whale was the only ship able to remain offshore, which is a promising sign. We hope the tests continue to prove its value and the …
Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, current Chairman of ASEAN, has returned from the G-20 summit in Toronto, just in time to host the upcoming 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam. Dung has proven himself to be more of an active leader than prior ASEAN chairmen. This past year has been marked by a push for new projects such as the ASEAN Customs National Single Window Initiative, TPP agreements, and a call to meet the goal for regional integration by 2015. At the end …
Before passage of the president’s health care legislation in March, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) infamously exclaimed that “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” It has now been months since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law, and as Heritage expert Stuart Butler explains in a recent paper, the consequences of the bill remain to be determined. Moreover, the ambiguity of the legislation and the amount of decision-making left to administrators means that several controversial questions surrounding the …
Stephen Moore has a good case study in the July 7 Wall Street Journal detailing the intransigence of the Milwaukee Teachers’ union, which is refusing to give an inch in negotiations with the local school board as it tries to close a funding gap and avoid teacher layoffs. Rather than agree to a sensible and fair proposal to reduce the cost of teacher health benefits, the union is stonewalling and counting on the Obama Administration to bail it out one more time. For a nightmarish vision of where this sort …
We reported yesterday about the Army Corps of Engineers rejection of a plan by Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish to block oil from entering the Barataria Bay. Outrage has been growing over that decision, buoyed by news that oil has reached nearby Lake Pontchartrain. According to a reports, responders retrieved roughly 1,000 pounds of “tar balls and waste” from the waters. Not only are locals upset by the rejection–a shock after initially offering support for the measure–but there is increasing concern that the government has no alternative plan in place: “One of the things that …
The states are in Big Trouble. While Americans are fearful of record federal deficits, the states also are facing increased costs. Most of the exponential growth comes from increased Medicaid costs, and the taxpayers in the states are going to pay for it. A new Deloitte study gives predictions that by 2030 Medicaid costs could rise to somewhere between 35% and 50% of states budgets. The study referred to these exploding costs as a “ticking time bomb” that “has the potential to debilitate government effectiveness.” State budgets will be stretched …
