Professor Colin Dueck argues in Hard Line that dedication to a strong national defense is the most enduring theme of conservative and Republican foreign policy since World War II. In spite of “apparent oscillations between internationalism and isolationism,” conservatives have demonstrated “a hawkish and intense American nationalism … committed to building strong national defenses, determined to maintain a free hand for the United States internationally.” There’s a reason for this. Though skeptical of government’s domestic ambitions, conservatives instinctively understand it has a special role — spelled out in the preamble …
Lost amid the national election coverage Tuesday night was the defeat of an important ballot initiative in Florida. Amendment 8 would have relaxed the state’s strict caps on class size, adding three to five students per class depending on grade level. (The amendment received about 55 percent of the vote, but it needed 60 percent to become law.) The current caps have proven costly to implement. The Orlando Sentinel described some of the struggles: To free up money for smaller classes, districts cut electives, combined classes, shifted student schedules, and …
As American children spent last weekend trick-or-treating, many bringing home donations for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with their hauls of candy, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice congratulated the organization’s 60-year Halloween fundraising campaign. Parents who were worried about how much sugar their little ones consumed would surely be even more concerned if they were aware of the mischief and nonsense that has become run of the mill at UNICEF and its sister U.N. entities. The past several decades have brought a transition away from UNICEF’s founding focus on …
California voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 23, the ballot initiative that would have suspended the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) until the state’s unemployment level dropped below 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 aims to return greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. Many Californians saw Proposition 23 as a battle between out-of-state oil producers versus environmentalists and in-state venture capitalists spurring a clean energy revolution, so it’s no surprise California rejected it by a 61 percent to 39 percent margin. But the vote …
Senator McConnell reflects on the message of the people to Capitol Hill following the elections and examines a policy agenda for moving our nation forward. To view the full text of his remarks, click here.
On October 15, 2008, well after the financial collapse had begun, President Barack Obama promised the American people during the third presidential debate: “What I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.” The verdict is out on how many Americans believed President Obama then, but the verdict is in on his first two years in office: instead of a net spending cut, federal spending has exploded. Since 2008, federal spending has surged from $25,000 to $30,000 per household. And under President Obama’s budget it would reach …
As Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner explained yesterday, the American people sent a strong message on Tuesday. They clearly rejected the wasteful spending and growing government that has so far defined the Obama Administration and insisted that our country return to fiscal sanity. As we explain in our new web video, this new Congress was elected on a mandate to lead and the American people are demanding that they live up to its promises. They must immediately 1) Cut and Freeze Spending; 2) Repeal Obamacare; 3) Stop the Obama Tax Hikes; 4) …
Big Labor’s number one priority in the 111th Congress was the Employee Free Choice Act. Also known as check, the law would have allowed union organizers to publicly solicit workers’ signed union authorization cards. If a majority of a company’s workers signed cards, then all workers would be forced to join the union without any opportunity to vote in a secret ballot election. Since union organizers would know exactly who did and did not sign cards, they could pressure the holdouts to change their mind. Fortunately, card check did not …
Since 2003, the Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News have cooperated in the form of the National Election Pool (NEP) to produce one set of nationwide exit poll data. First, representatives from each news organizations form a committee that comes up with the specific question for that cycle’s poll. Then the NEP contracts with Edison Research to conduct the actual polling on Election Day. In 2008, as they had done in previous cycles, the NEP asked respondents “Are you currently married?” and “Do you …
As NATO leaders head to the alliance’s summit in Lisbon later this month, they should applaud the Czech Republic for increasing their troop contribution to the mission in Afghanistan during one of the most crucial periods for the counterinsurgency strategy. In December 2009, President Obama announced that America would deploy an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. Great Britain, Poland, Georgia, South Korea, and Italy pulled together a further 7,000 troops to support the population-centric strategy. However, France, Germany, Belgium, and other European countries once again failed to equitably share …
