Much of the justification for subsidies, tax credits, and mandates for increasing wind energy production in the U.S. is that it will create jobs and help cool our planet’s fever. We’ve explained in detail how subsidized green jobs destroy jobs elsewhere, but it also turns out that increased wind power decreases carbon emissions much less than previously thought, and in some instances, could increase emissions. The Manhattan Institute’s Robert Bryce explains why in his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. First, wind power displaces power from natural gas more than it …
Consider these recent print headlines: Economic Growth Slowed by Trade Gap; Economic Growth Cut Sharply Due to Trade Gap; and Economy Slows to 1.6 Percent as Trade Gap Widens. The people who wrote those headlines and the corresponding articles must have awfully short memories. Last year, the trade deficit fell by 46 percent. Imports declined by 23 percent. Analysts who believe trade deficits and imports are a drag on the economy should have been thrilled. But here is the rest of the story: Real GDP fell by 2.6 percent and …
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial and admonished America to return to its First Principles. In his I Have a Dream Speech, Dr King looked forward to the day that “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” He dreamt of the day when all “would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’” Dr. King did not talk …
President Barack Obama lets people break laws that he doesn’t like. The latest example is his backdoor amnesty for thousands of illegal immigrants, as a still-fuzzy but insidious picture is emerging. Obama shows a pattern of refusing to enforce laws (or refusing to permit states like Arizona to enforce them). When he dislikes our laws, Obama forces change by dictate rather than seeking legal change through the political process. Congress gets bypassed. Those benefiting can claim a new category of legal immunity: FBO’s–Favored By Obama.
President Barack Obama finished-up his 10-day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard yesterday by flying down to New Orleans where he gave a speech at Xavier University marking the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. The President specifically linked the 2005 disaster with the region’s most recent troubles telling the audience: “Even as you’ve been buffeted by Katrina and Rita, even as you’ve been impacted by the broader recession that has devastated communities across the country, in recent months the Gulf Coast has seen new hardship as a result of the BP Deepwater …
As Matt Mayer vividly describes in a new Heritage Web Memo, the Obama administration is implementing a de facto amnesty that will allow the vast majority of illegal aliens to remain in the United States without being disturbed by the Department of Homeland Security or any attempts to deport them. We can now add one more general amnesty that the administration is apparently extending – no prosecution of illegal voting by noncitizens and a green light to becoming a citizen even if you have violated federal law. FOX News is …
In the 18 months following approval of President Obama’s stimulus package, the Department of Transportation required recipients of government funds to post placards touting the economic recovery. As a result, signs prominently featuring the recovery act logo appeared everywhere — by the side of the road, in public transportation stations, as bumper stickers on government vehicles. Then, abruptly, on July 15, the Department of Transportation relaxed its requirements. No longer would government agencies require grant recipients to mount the by-then-familiar signs: They would simply encourage them to do so. The …
There is bad news and worse news for state governments faced with underfunded pension promises. First, a new academic study shows that not only is the total gap between the pensions that state governments have promised to pay their employees and the available resources much larger than previous estimates, but that gap cannot be closed with easy changes to those promises. Using the usual method of calculating the cost of pension promises, the study estimates that 116 major pension plans sponsored by the 50 states have assets of about $1.8 …
The CEO of Intel has joined the ranks of those labeling big government as the cause of our economic slump, not the solution. Paul Otellini says it already costs Intel an extra billion dollars to build a microchip plant in the U.S., rather than overseas. In his illustration, it’s an extra 25% to create a $4-billion facility. He told this to an Aspen gathering of the Technology Policy Institute, adding that government is killing America’s leadership for jobs of tomorrow. Otellini said, “We seemed a generation ahead of the rest …
The Commerce Department today revised down its estimate for second quarter gross domestic product from 2.4 percent to 1.6 percent. This is not a sign of a weakening economy but a weak economy last spring. The weakness was especially pronounced as the bulk of what growth did occur was due to a building of inventories and a temporary (and now apparently reversed) blip in home sales. Most of the data since the second quarter ended—from industrial orders to labor markets to housing—has worsened further. What we are seeing is an …
