Like Presidents Clinton and Bush before him, Obama now has a Robert Mugabe problem. Foreign Policy Magazine recently awarded Mugabe, president of failed Zimbabwe, the dubious distinction of being the world’s second worst dictator, finishing just behind North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il. Robert Mugabe is a liberation ‘hero’ in the struggle for independence who has since transformed himself into a murderous despot, Mugabe has arrested and tortured the opposition, squeezed his economy into astounding negative growth and billion-percent inflation, and funneled off a juicy cut for himself using currency manipulation and …
“Can we improve the Afghanistan Government? Maybe. Can we do it by July 2011? No.” This statement came from Dr. David Kilcullen, an expert in counterinsurgency and former advisor to General Petraeus, during rigorous questioning at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) hearing last week titled, “Perspectives on Reconciliation Options in Afghanistan.” Along with Kilcullen, the two other expert witnesses—Ryan Crocker, former Ambassador to Iraq and Pakistan, and Ms. Zainab Salbi, founder and CEO of Women for Women International—echoed concerns about the Obama Administration’s insistence on setting a deadline for …
You can always tell you’re winning a policy debate when your opponent starts name-calling. Now that Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) has pulled New START off his Senate Foreign Relations Committee schedule, that’s exactly what the treaty’s supporters are doing. So Brent Scowcroft, U.S. National Security Advisor under President Gerald Ford, tells The Washington Post that the treaty is losing support because “some just don’t want to give Obama a victory” before the midterm elections. And Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) tells The Associated Press: “We are in the midst of an …
In the battle over the extension of the 2001/2003 tax cuts, a lot of myths about the tax cuts are being perpetuated. One of the common myths is that the Bush tax cuts disproportionately favored the wealthy, shifted the burden of taxes from the rich to the middle class, and made our tax system less progressive than most wealthy nations. First, although there was a slight shift of burden to the middle class immediately after the 2001 tax cuts were passed, as the higher earners (and businesses) grew their savings, …
On Monday, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, who was appointed by President Barack Obama to lead the federal government’s oil spill recovery efforts, held a town hall meeting in Theodore, Alabama. Rather than dictating their plans to the citizens, he said the government wants to listen to the residents of the coast as it makes decisions on the best long-term recovery plan for the region. Better late than never, right? The Alabama Press-Register reports that during the meeting, Mabus told residents that the projects that have the best chance of being …
The effects of Obamacare are getting weirder with each passing month. Now, new requirements created by the law are causing some insurers to consider no longer offering “child-only” policies to avoid having to raise rates. Most children are covered by parents’ employer-provided insurance or by government programs. But some parents buy individual health insurance coverage just for their kids. Starting next year, Obamacare prohibits insurers and employer plans imposing any pre-existing condition exclusions on children and requires them to accept all applications for children who qualify for coverage under their …
Yesterday, we shared a video of our own Hans von Spakovsky speaking at a Second Amendment Task Force event earlier this summer. Hans focused on Kagan’s record and how her inaction on certain Second Amendment-related issues speaks volumes about how she would deal with them on the bench. In today’s video, Stephen P. Halbrook, a 30 year veteran of litigation on 2nd Amendment rights, explains some cases that he worked on relating to the Second Amendment while Kagan was the point person on gun control during the administration of President …
Last night after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) pulled his oil spill response bill, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) told reporters: “The key question is, whose side are you on? Are you on the side of Big Oil, or are you on the side of citizens in coastal communities?” Menendez does not represent any constituents who live on the Gulf Coast, so we should forgive him for not knowing that thousands of Gulf residents recently packed the Louisiana Cajundome to protest President Barack Obama’s oil drilling ban, a policy reinforced …
Missouri voters dealt Obamacare a significant setback yesterday, approving a statewide ballot measure with an overwhelming 71 percent of the vote. The vote was the first time citizens had an opportunity to cast a ballot on the unpopular health care law. Missouri’s measure prohibits the federal government’s enforcement of the individual mandate to buy health insurance. The victory sends a strong message about Obamacare in a bellwether state. “We’re excited and proud to be ground zero in the battle against this misbegotten federal health care reform,” said Missouri Lt. Gov. …
The Senate today commenced debate on the nomination of Elena Kagan to serve a lifetime appointment on the U.S. Supreme Court. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) opened the proceedings with a strong statement of how conservatives should assess nominees to the High Court. Senator Sessions started with a discussion of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and Elena Kagan’s efforts to bar the military from recruiting on campus in her role as Dean of the Harvard Law School.
