On October 24, 2010, at the Warren Air Force base in Wyoming, the United States Air Force lost communication with a sizeable portion of America’s nuclear deterrent: a squadron of 50 nuclear-armed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). In the past, this type of disruption was rare and limited to individual missiles. The broad scale of this incident, however, resulted in one of the most serious and sizable ruptures in nuclear command and control in history. This incident comes in the midst of the Obama Administration’s effort to push the …
When the next Congress arrives in Washington, Members will need to get to work to reduce runaway government spending. One area that has been identified as a good place to start—especially as the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform prepares to give its recommendations on deficit reduction next month—is Social Security. Today’s Social Security will begin to run cash-flow deficits starting in 2015. Once they start, those deficits will never end. There is a trust fund that allows Social Security to receive general revenue money, but it will run …
One of the most pressing pieces of legislation that the lame duck Congress must deal with is the impending expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax relief. Led by President Obama, the Democrats have long argued for extending the tax relief for families making less than $250,000 a year while raising taxes on those families and small businesses that earn above that arbitrary threshold. Despite election results that clearly show that Americans do not want tax hikes, even if they are just on “the rich,” Democrats have devised a new …
Upside surprise: Employers add 151,000 jobs in October , the USA Today reported about the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday. And it is true: the establishment survey of U.S. businesses did report that 151,000 jobs were created last month. But as The Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk and Rea Hederman note there was also some troubling news in Friday’s report: Taken in isolation, the October household survey paints a worrying picture of the U.S. labor market. It reports that employment fell by a net 330,000 jobs and that the number of …
AFP reported late last week that Sprint Nextel will not consider bids from two Chinese companies for large telecom contracts due to national security concerns expressed to Sprint Nextel by the American government. This is probably the right outcome, but it is the wrong way to achieve that outcome. One of the Chinese companies, Huawei, has been much discussed as being closely tied to the People’s Liberation Army. The other, ZTE, is not directly tied to the Chinese military but it certainly has close links to the Chinese government, operating …
The American people know that cap and trade energy policies will lead to higher energy costs and fewer jobs. That is why even Democratic candidates like Sen.-elect Joe Manchin (D-WV) famously shot President Barack Obama’s cap and trade bill in a television commercial this fall. But the progressive campaign to force Americans to pay higher energy costs did not die with cap and trade. The New York Times reports today: Deals to buy renewable power have been scuttled or slowed in states including Florida, Idaho and Kentucky as well as …
The political math was simple and should have been fool-proof: Proponents of a high-earner income tax in the state of Washington needed only a majority of voters to approve a tax on a tiny minority of their peers. After all, Initiative 1098, which would have imposed a 5 percent tax on the adjusted gross income of individuals who earn more than $200,000 — or $400,000 for couples — and a 9 percent tax on the AGI of individuals who earn more than $500,000 — or $1 million for couples — …
The results of Tuesday’s election sent a clear message about the direction voters want the federal government to take. The recently released 2010 Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll What Americans Said about the Public Schools is illustrative. Whether it’s paying the bills, setting standards, deciding what should be taught, or holding schools accountable, Americans believe state government is the responsible agency for public education in the United States. With a new batch of conservative leaders heading to Washington, the time is ripe to promote federalism in education, reduce spending, and empower …
Last night, during a taped interview with 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama told Steve Kroft: “I thought the economy would have gotten better by now. One of the things I think you understand as president is you’re held responsible for everything. But you don’t always have control of everything.” President Obama is right: presidents often do get too much of the credit and too much of the blame for the economic performance of the country. But there is one aspect of the economy that President Obama does have control over: …
Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez recently returned from October encounters with some of the least savory actors on the international stage. His trip focused on cementing a new nexus or alignment in world affairs, some cleverly dubbed VIRUS. It is not a computer malfunction or a contagion but rather a shadowy network of cooperation linking Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and Syria. A core element of VIRUS is developing nuclear capacity and acquiring nuclear weaponry, the ultimo ratio of international power politics. Chávez did exactly that when he purchased a nuclear reactor in Moscow, …
