There he goes again. President Obama is proposing yet another huge tax hike. Maybe we should cut to the chase and just ask our Taxhiker in Chief to state his final figure—what he thinks the total level of taxes and the tax distribution should look like. Then we could have an honest debate about tax burdens. As it is, all we know for sure is that he wants more, more, and more, and that he believes that those who make the most cannot pay enough. From the presidential campaign on, …
The Obama administration has decided to terminate the suspensions of issuance of temporary munitions export licenses for exports regarding C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft that will be used in oil spill response operations at sea that might involve the People’s Republic of China (PRC). That’s bureaucratese for lifting restrictions on the use of U.S. made C-130s for use in China – part of a much more general restriction regarding U.S. military equipment in place since the 1989 Tienanmen massacre. The move is wrongheaded, not for the specific assistance it provides China, …
Indications are that the Progressive Movement is headed for a crushing defeat two weeks from now. Political analysts Stu Rothenberg and Charlie Cook both peg the number of competitive House races at around 100. Separately, both analysts are also predicting Democrats will lose between 45 and 60 seats (39 are needed to switch control of the House). Striking back against the electorate’s small government fervor, AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman penned a strategy memo last week claiming “Union Voters are the firewall for candidates that support working families.” And sure …
Today’s announcement that Social Security recipients will not receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) again in 2011 brought an immediate reaction from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–CA). She proposed that the lame duck Congress vote on giving seniors another $250 one-time payment supposedly to replace the COLA. This seemingly altruistic gesture would help Social Security recipients, but the real effect would be raising their grandkids’ taxes. These checks would be paid for with borrowed money, money that today’s children would have to repay with interest. Today’s Social Security is seen as …
Google is coming to a (future) offshore wind farm near you. In an announcement Tuesday, the technology giant said it is joining with investment firm Good Energies in a $5 billion investment to secure permitting for and begin constructing an underwater electricity transmission line. Also party to the venture is the Japanese trading company Marubeni and the Maryland transmission company Trans-Elect. The electricity “backbone” will extend 350 miles in federal waters off the Atlantic Coast, from northern New Jersey to Norfolk, Virginia. In the article, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman …
As NATO gears up for its summit in November, one of the top agenda items for discussion is missile defenses — namely, whether NATO will make it a core mission and how the alliance can cooperate with the United States in building a transatlantic missile defense umbrella. The Obama administration’s approach to missile defense is two-fold — much the same approach as the Bush administration. President Obama is talking to nations bilaterally about hosting U.S. facilities such as radar and interceptors, which he wants to build up in several phases. …
This week, Chinese government censors tried their best to stop the spread of the news jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Liu is serving 11 years in a Chinese prison for signing a document called “Charter 08,” a declaration of human rights that any American can take for granted. Dr. Lee Edwards speaks in this week’s Heritage in Focus podcast on the meaning of this significant Peace Prize award, and the state of human rights in China in the historical context of totalitarian communist regimes. …
Earlier this week, Maya MacGuineas, a fiscal policy expert at the New America Foundation, ranked Congress’s options in addressing the pending expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. A little more than two months remain before an automatic tax hike on all American earners sets in, and Congress has yet to act. Here, we compare MacGuineas’s rankings to our own solutions. Above all, MacGuineas favors sweeping tax reform, describing the current system as “outdated, overly complex, a drag on economic growth, and as leaky as an old fisherman’s dingy.” …
You know that guy who steps into a picture at the end of an event, making it look like he was there all along? This week, President Obama tried to pretend he wasn’t late to the party by hosting a photo shoot with the five children featured in the education reform documentary, Waiting for Superman. But while he poses with the five poster children of the reform movement, don’t forget how he left 216 kids just like them out in the cold. Waiting for Superman takes the viewer through the …
The prospects for new nuclear energy in the U.S. were purportedly set back this weekend when Constellation Energy pulled out of the Calvert Cliffs 3 nuclear energy project in Maryland. They argued that the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program was too expensive and complicated to be workable. No loan guarantee, no new nuclear project. And this was consistent with what many on the nuclear industry have been saying. To move forward, industry argued, they needed the federal government to back up the multi-billion-dollar investments. This credit subsidy would give …
