The Heritage Foundation’s 2010 Index of Dependence on Government, published today, showcases the disturbing trend of Americans becoming more dependent on their government – via their fellow non-dependent tax paying Americans – than ever before. The surge in the Index of 13.6% over last year takes the Index to an all time high. Government support for dependent persons has grown from $7,293 per person in 1962, to $31,950 per person in 2009, both amounts expressed in 2005 dollars. Many Americans pay no federal income tax for the dependency related programs …
The Heritage Foundation is taking its technological reach even further this week with the release of the new Heritage mobile application, available for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Available for immediate download from the iTunes store, the application features the latest posts from our Foundry blog, the most recent Heritage Foundation reports, opinion articles appearing in newspapers across the country, original Heritage videos, and useful one-page fact sheets on current events. We hope that you will take advantage of this free new app and recommend it to friends and family.
Just two years ago, President George Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency lowered the ozone standard from 84 parts per billion (ppb) to the current 75 ppb. Ozone is a naturally occurring molecule made up of three oxygen atoms that can be unhealthy at high levels. It is often created when vehicle and industrial emissions (from manufacturers and refineries) react with sunlight. The EPA normally waits at least five years before revising their ozone standard, but their is nothing normal about the Obama EPA. In January 2010, the Obama EPA proposed reducing …
This Monday Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Kit Bond (R-MO) talked with Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney on Secure Freedom Radio about the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). Gaffney asked Bond about a recent assessment he completed for the committee. Bond responded: Obviously, the classified details are available to my colleagues in the secure reading room. I can certainly share with you my conclusions. I think that pushing this new START treaty the administration is taking us down a dangerous path. I …
Waiting for Superman has left moviegoers rightfully outraged at the state of America’s education system. It’s an accurate portrayal. In many of the nation’s largest cities, fewer than half of all children graduate high school. Academic achievement and graduation rates have largely stagnated since the 1970s while countries around the world now outpace the United States. Producer Davis Guggenheim rightly lays the blame squarely at the feet of organized labor. Education unions consistently stand in the way of promising education reforms such as school choice, which they view as a …
Today, the 235th birthday of the U.S. Navy, Heritage thanks all of America’s sailors and their families, retirees, and veterans. On October 13, 1775, Congress enacted legislation providing for the outfitting of America’s first two warships. While Navy missions have evolved significantly from searching for munitions ships supplying the British, the essential role America’s maritime forces play in securing our nation and allowing prosperity to flourish is unchanged. The U.S. has the finest men and women in uniform on, above, and below the high seas safeguarding our national interests at …
According to The National Bureau of Economic Research, the most recent recession began in December 2007, lasted 18 months, and ended in June 2009. The recession which most closely resembles the most recent one began in July 1981, lasted 16 months, and ended in November 1982. No two recessions are exactly the same. No two recoveries are exactly the same. But as two-time Super Bowl champion coach Bill Parcells still liked to say: “You are what your record says you are.” Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow J.D. Foster read us the …
In his Monday “Hey Small Spender” column, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman bizarrely denied that federal spending has significantly expanded over the past two years. He asserted that “[t]here never was a big expansion of government spending” and “the big government expansion everyone talks about never happened.” Yet for his talk about a “fact-free” disinformation campaign, Krugman curiously provides no data on total federal spending. This may be because all official budget data reveals a different story. According to President Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget—the keepers of …
With their meeting in Hanoi, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie are expected to revive military-to-military relations between the two major powers, on hold since the sale of U.S. arms to Taiwan at the beginning of this year. Yet, recent reports indicate that there is little actual warmth, much less trust, between the two sides’ defense establishments. Indeed, it is important to recognize that, despite the announcement that Secretary Gates will be visiting China early next year, the return of military-to-military contacts is the …
Today, Michelle Rhee is expected to announce her resignation as D.C. Schools Chancellor. While speculation had been growing about her fate as the D.C. public schools head in the wake of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s primary loss last month, some who had their ear to the ground expected Rhee to stay in her chancellorship for some time. Since taking office two years ago, Rhee has fired hundreds of ineffective teachers and administrators, closed poor-performing schools, and reworked contracts to include performance pay. Not surprisingly, union opposition to Chancellor Rhee’s reforms has …
