President Obama just announced a partial two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers. Under the President’s plan, federal employees will not receive cost-of-living increases in their pay in 2011 and 2012. However, most federal employees will still receive seniority-based pay increases over the next two years. The President’s decision is an important symbolic step. President Obama has brought federal pay closer to market rates—which is progress, considering that many liberals insist that federal workers do not get paid enough. However, a partial pay freeze does not fix the underlying problems …
When unemployment is reaching heights we have not seen in years, and cities are on the brink of bankruptcy, what is the Obama administration focused on? Street signs. Not the broken ones that need to be replaced, but all of them, even if they are brand new. The reason? Most of them are written in all caps and according to the new 800 page book of Uniform Traffic Control Devices signs in ALL CAPS are not good enough anymore. In places like Dinwiddie County, VA there are not many people, …
The political ground has been shifting rapidly ever since the American people delivered a vote of no confidence on the current direction of public policy when they went to the polls earlier this month. Nowhere is that shift more evident than in the recent release of a bipartisan plan to dramatically reform the nation’s health entitlement programs. Sponsored by incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and former Clinton administration budget director Alice Rivlin, the “Ryan-Rivlin” plan represents a real breakthrough in the long standoff between the parties over how …
The recent attempts to explode packages aboard U.S.-bound airliners, linked to elements within the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), underscore the perpetual danger posed by radical Islamists and their ideological brethren. Not relegated solely to attacks against Western interests, AQAP has leveled a series of regional attacks aimed at local government and civilian populations, most recently an attack aimed at a procession of Shiite worshipers that killed dozens. These dual attacks, and the divergent nature of their respective targets, illustrates the global threat that now often defines …
President Barack Obama announced today that he will ask Congress to freeze federal worker pay for the next two years saving $5 billion through 2012. Good for him. This is a welcome acknowledgment on two fronts: 1) that, as Heritage research has definitively shown, federal workers are paid more than their private sector counterparts even after accounting for skills and education; and 2) that our federal budget deficits are driven by a spending, not a revenue, problem. But while President Obama should be congratulated for this small step toward fiscal …
On Friday, a Somali-born man attempted to blow up a van full of explosives at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon. The FBI, however, had supplied him with a fake bomb and was able to arrest him immediately as part of a well-orchestrated string operation. Kudos to the FBI for taking this plot down. Similarly to the recent D.C. Metro plot, the public was never in any danger—and that, of course, is a good thing. What isn’t a good thing, however, is the recent focus on throwing security …
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report last week on the fiscal accountability of D.C. Public Schools (DCPS). While their analysis suggests that DCPS has “enhanced internal controls over federal payments for school improvement,” it also clearly shows that the well-known inefficiencies of the school system persist. According to the Washington Times: The Government Accountability Office report said the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) “continues to be designated as a “‘high risk’ grantee” and that D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) continues to have “systemic problems in its internal …
There is nothing positive that can be said about the release of more than a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables by the rogue hacker organization WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks has recklessly and inexcusably put lives at risk. Any U.S. person who cooperated with WikiLeaks has committed a crime and should be prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law. That said, WikiLeaks is not the end of the world. The fundamentals of U.S. relationships with other nations remain unchanged. Leaks are not going to stop nations from cooperating with the U.S., or …
The climate change conference starting in Cancun Monday is doomed to failure. Many factors contribute to this, such as a healthy skepticism about how much should be spent to remediate climate change, but one alone guarantees failure: Chinese coal production and policy. When climate change soared up the American agenda with the election of President Obama, those not swept up in blind optimism were doubtful China could be convinced to go along. The debacle of the Copenhagen summit last year finally brought the administration and its supporters back to reality.
Obama’s “reset button” with Russia has been an integral part of America’s new innocuous and ineffective diplomatic approach, and has culminated in the nuclear arms reduction treaty, New START. But the current disconnect between the negotiations surrounding this treaty and Russia’s human rights record is troubling. Boris Nemtsov, former Russian deputy prime minister and founder of the pro-democracy Solidarity movement in Russia, has stated that “Russians do not know what Obama thinks about human rights and democracy.” In the debate over ratification, we must realize that America’s traditional role as …
