Last week, on the vote to begin debate on the New START treaty, the White House got the nine Republican votes they will need to ratify it: Senators Bob Bennett (UT), Scott Brown (MA), Susan Collins (ME), Lindsey Graham (SC), Dick Lugar (IN), John McCain (AZ), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Olympia Snowe (ME), and George Voinovich (OH). So now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) has filed for cloture, is Tuesday’s vote a foregone conclusion? No. This Sunday, Senator Graham (R-SC) told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he will vote …
Update – 10:30 a.m. Dec. 21 – MSNBC host Rachel Maddow yesterday defended Deadhead-related spending. “Sen. Coburn has picked a classic culture war target,” she wrote on her blog. “The Grateful Dead and their buckets of hallucinogens, etc., can be counted on to divide opinion, should anyone actually notice Mr. Coburn’s Wastebook.” *** The Grateful Dead have been named among the top “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” by Rolling Stone magazine. Now, they rank among the 100 worst examples of wasteful government spending in 2010. A report prepared by …
Heritage Foundation Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics James Sherk writes: “The Obama Administration recently rolled back union financial transparency reforms. New regulations will exempt many union trust funds, such as strike funds and apprenticeship programs, from financial disclosure laws. These regulations also end financial reporting for many government unions.” According to recent polling, 66 percent of union members believe their leaders mostly look out for themselves and a full 89 percent of them believe unions should disclose their spending. Sherk notes that Members of UFCW Local 7 in Colorado …
Rep. Jim Jordan (R–OH) is a man who doesn’t like to lose. His high school wrestling record was an astonishing 150–1. That bodes well for the Republican Study Committee (RSC), a group of conservative lawmakers Jordan will lead in the 112th Congress. Jordan joined the RSC’s outgoing chairman, Representative Tom Price (R–GA), at an American Enterprise Institute event, Conservatism in the 112th Congress, hosted by President Arthur Brooks this week. Looking ahead to his chairmanship in January, Jordan said he recognizes that “when you are leading the conservative group,” you …
“Duck and Cover” has been replaced by its 21st-century incarnation: “Shield Yourself.” This no doubt marks the zenith of the Obama Administration’s nuclear preparedness plan (sarcasm intended), as outlined in a recent government report detailing the methods for increasing survivability rates in the case of a nuclear blast. Unfortunately, such trivialities belie the dangerous path upon which America inexorably moves, one marked by unpredictable adversaries whose nuclear ambitions outpace America’s defensive maneuvers. Instead of stating the obvious, such as staying indoors in the event of a nuclear explosion, the Obama …
The Norwegian Nobel Committee held its annual awards ceremony last week in Oslo, where it intended to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese intellectual and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” Still imprisoned, Liu was prevented from traveling to Oslo to participate in the ceremony, and his family and friends were denied permission to leave China and accept the prize on his behalf. Also notably absent from the ceremony was U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi …
Join us today from 12-1PM EST as Heritage budget analyst Brian Riedl answers questions from our readers about federal spending. In preparation for the online chat, be sure to check out a recent paper by Brian detailing over $343 billion in potential spending cuts and browse through our 2010 Budget Chart Book.
The incidence rate of food-borne illness in the United States is dramatically lower than previously estimated, according to findings reported Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The new data thoroughly refute the misleading claims of alarmists advocating for vastly expanding federal regulation of the food supply. According to the new research published in the current edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, some 16 percent of Americans experience some form of food-borne illness annually—compared to the previous estimate of 25 percent. Best of all, the new …
The long-awaited White House Review on Afghanistan demonstrates that General Petraeus’ counterinsurgency strategy is beginning to pay dividends. The additional U.S. troops deployed to Afghanistan have helped the U.S. and coalition forces begin to uproot the Taliban from some of their traditional strongholds in southern Afghanistan. The most important task now is to gain greater Pakistani cooperation. There has been less progress on standing up civilian government in the areas cleared of insurgents, however. While the U.S. and coalition forces have shown they are capable of clearing Taliban from their …
Two hundred and thirty-seven years ago last night, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded British merchant ships and dumped an estimated £10,000 worth of tea into Boston Harbor. This Boston Tea Party, which John Adams described as the “grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened,” was not just a protest about taxation. Our forefathers did not destroy tea because of a simple tax dispute. The 1773 Tea Party were protesting the process by which the British government taxed them. They were fundamentally …
