“There will be no earmarks in the 112th Congress. Period.” That is what House Majority Leader-elect Eric Cantor (R-VA) tweeted in response to a Politico article last week reporting that some GOP House members were contemplating breaking their no-earmark pledge. Good for Cantor. Ending earmarking is an essential step toward cutting Washington spending. Unfortunately some of Cantor’s caucus need an education about the unnecessary harm earmarks cause. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) told Politico: Let’s look at transportation. How do you handle that without earmarks, since that’s a heavily earmarked bill? …
Yes, the terrorists are trying to kill us. Breaking news from the Christian Science Monitor reports, “Two explosions rocked central Stockholm Saturday evening in what Swedish police have called a terrorist attack. One man, who appears to have been a suicide bomber, was killed, and two people were injured. The explosions occurred about ten minutes after a Swedish news agency and police received a threatening e-mail that referred to Sweden’s troops in Afghanistan and a Swedish cartoonist’s controversial 2007 depiction of the Prophet Muhammad. The attacks bring the struggle with …
The U.S. military has undergone a crash course in economic development while fighting the war in Afghanistan, and development agencies could stand to learn some of the military’s lessons. Take for example the National Guard unit out of Indiana. The unit is called an “Agribusiness Development Team” and is teaching Afghan high schoolers about agriculture and business. The unit provides lesson plans on over 60 subjects, including financial management and record keeping. U.S. Army Major Jeremy Gulley is quoted as saying, “Improved education will illuminate the path to a future …
House Cloakroom: December 13-17, 2010 Analysis: The House is scheduled to be in session this week but the agenda is unclear as a waiting game ensues to see what action the Senate takes on the proposed tax relief deal framework proposed by the Obama administration. Right now there is no sealed tax deal in place and many contentious issues must be resolved if there is a chance of the bill being able to move through the House & Senate next week as both sides of the aisle have significant disagreements. …
Any piece of legislation must be both constitutional and improve the condition of the American people. When President Obama and Congressional Republicans first announced their tax deal early last week, our reaction was to hold our noses against its bad elements; on balance, we thought the extension of the current tax rates was laudable. Now, however, the full text of the bill has been released and we see all the bad things that were in the original deal. Meanwhile, liberals in Congress are walking away even from that deal, and …
The adamant refusal of the Chinese Communist government to allow Liu Xiaobo to travel to Oslo to receive the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize is more than disgraceful—it is a flagrant violation by the Chinese regime of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly, including China. Liu Xiaobo is only the fourth laureate to be honored in absentia and prevented from going to Norway to accept the prize. The others are the German peace activist Carl von Ossietzky—imprisoned by the Nazis–the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, and …
The tax bill (still being drafted in secret) is becoming a lobbyist’s dream, just in time for Christmas. The Democrat opposition to President Obama’s compromise has increased the negotiating power of every Representative and Senator, especially the Democrats. The vote by the House Democrat Caucus to denounce the unwritten bill “in its current form” is a negotiating ploy; it gives them leverage to bargain for sugar plum pork. Now they’re the ones holding the bill hostage.
James L. Buckley, the former U.S. senator and federal judge who for 40 years advanced the conservative cause in all three branches of the federal government, last night received the Clare Boothe Luce Award, which is The Heritage Foundation’s highest honor for contributions to the movement. “Jim Buckley has devoted his life to defending the same constitutional principles of liberty, prosperity and civil society that Heritage pledged to champion from our inception,” Heritage President Edwin J. Feulner (left) said before the ceremony during the annual President’s Club meeting in the …
As newly-elected members of the Senate pointed out in a letter to Majority Leader Reid: “no bilateral strategic arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union or Russia has ever been ratified during a lame duck session.” Let’s go further: Has any major bilateral U.S. treaty ever been ratified during a lame duck session? The 20th Amendment (ratified in 1933) established the current dates of Federal office terms, and consequently made possible the modern Congressional “lame duck” session. Since 1933, there have been a total of eighteen lame duck sessions, including …
Jamie Dupree recently reported for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the number of waivers granted by the Obama Administration for a certain provision in the new health care law has now reached 222. That’s double the amount of just three weeks ago. The waivers apply to a provision of Obamacare prohibiting annual limits on health plans. For employers that currently provide their low-wage employees with so called “mini-med” health plans—which offer a limited benefit capped at a certain dollar amount—that provision presents a clear problem. Since the new law doesn’t specify …
