The United Nations General Debate (the traditional opening of the annual General Assembly session featuring speeches by heads of state) is very predictable. World leaders use their speeches to laud themselves, their countries, and praise the United Nations with assurances that the world body is indispensable amid calls for it to assume even more projects, initiatives and responsibilities. The predictability of the speeches by most world leaders serves to highlight the speeches that are bizarre and, sometimes, appalling. However, even these bizarre speeches have become troublesomely regular and sadly tolerated. …
Yesterday, President Obama traveled to New Mexico to deliver remarks on education at the home of a local Albuquerque family. According to the Associated Press, “Obama argued that Republicans would cut education spending to pay for tax cuts for the rich.” While the politics of Obama’s assertion can be left to debate by Members of Congress, it is clear that over the years, conservatives have pushed for policies that better target educational dollars. Instead of just throwing more money into the monolithic public education system, which in many instances ends …
Topping the list of reforms in the Tea Party’s Contract From America is “Protect the Constitution.” Additionally, as part of their pledge to America, House Republicans will require all bills to cite specific constitutional authority. While some criticize such emphasis on the founding document, branding it “constitution-worship,” the fervor is not without substance. Because both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence contain core principles that are the foundation of America’s success, understanding the meaning of these documents and principles they contain is absolutely imperative. A Citizen’s Introduction to the …
State officials around the country are getting a lesson from the California legislature in how not to respond to Obamacare. While the new federally supervised, state-based health insurance exchanges are to be up and running by January 1, 2014, the California legislature is poised to create the California Health Benefit Exchange through enactment of two bills (AB 1602 and SB 900). If Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger—who ran for office as a champion of conservative economic policy—signs these bills, California would be the first state to enact an ideologically compliant set of …
Long before President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law, Iowa state representative Linda Upmeyer knew she opposed it and attempted to prevent the most objectionable provisions from affecting her state. Six months after its passage, she’s still against Obamacare — and willing to do whatever it takes in Iowa to protect her citizens. As a registered nurse, Upmeyer knew as soon as she learned about the major measures of Obamacare that it would force health care providers to jump through new hoops. “Providers are going …
A recent article by Fox News led with a quote from the Department of Homeland Security: “We are not engaged in a backdoor amnesty.” Well that certainly is news, considering that the actions of the Administration, or lack there of, scream otherwise. The article goes on to highlight recently published memos by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which outline “administrative alternatives to comprehensive immigration reform.” The Department defends themselves by asserting that these documents were only drafts, meant to convey ideas, rather …
They remade the Brady Bunch, Charlie’s Angels, and The A-Team—why not replay the presidency of Jimmy Carter? The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund joined the chorus last week with a piece titled The Carter-Obama Comparisons Grow: “Mr. Carter himself heightening comparisons with his own presidency,” Fund wrote, “by publishing his White House diaries this week. ‘I overburdened Congress with an array of controversial and politically costly requests,’ he [President Carter] said on Monday. The parallels to Mr. Obama’s experience are clear.” Nowhere does the comparison seem more apt than issues …
Just days before Congress recesses for the upcoming elections, House Commerce Committee chair Henry Waxman stepped into the debate over Internet regulation yesterday, releasing draft legislation to impose certain “neutrality” rules to providers of broadband Internet service. Hammered out in negotiations over the past few weeks with the active participation of Google, Verizon, and other competing broadband industry players, the final product—not surprisingly—looks a lot like the Google–Verizon consensus plan announced last month. Specifically, the Waxman proposal would ban Internet access providers such as Verizon from blocking content outright but …
A financial bubble fueled by easy money and loose credit bursts. Unemployment shoots up, and gross domestic product falls sharply. Some in the U.S. Congress blame foreigners for unfair trade practices and pass a trade bill that prompts widespread retaliation, exacerbates the popping of the bubble, and sends the country into further economic trouble. That is what happened with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 and the Great Depression. Americans might hope our leaders would learn from our past mistakes. But the leftist majority …
Heads of state from across the developing world arrived in New York last week for the annual United Nations meetings. Heading up the agenda this year was a summit examining the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These leaders – generally clad in expensive suits and heading enormous entourages – again shamelessly moaned and complained over the lack of adequate progress on the MDGs as if they and their governments were helpless bystanders in whether or not the MDGs are met. There is nothing egregious about the eight MDG targets. Halving …
