Today on the Senate floor, John Kerry (D-MA) informed 15,304,498 voters from 16 states that their democratic voice is better left unheard. Kerry’s remarks came during a speech in which he urged the ratification of the ill-conceived New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) with Russia. Kerry and other Senate liberals are striving to ratify the treaty during this winter’s lame duck session, the last chance for Senators who have received their walking orders from the voters to pass the kind of legislation that got them kicked out of Washington in …
The Senate plays a vital role in the treaty-making process. The Senate is required to provide due diligence in the considerations of treaties. The Founding Fathers set a high procedural bar for ratification and entry into force of treaties, expecting that the Senate would serve as a quality control mechanism. Thus, they gave the Senate the power to amend the text of any treaty brought before it. This includes New START, a strategic nuclear arms control treaty with Russia. In addition, the Senate must adopt a resolution of ratification for …
“It’s great to smell the fresh air of London again” announced infamous WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after he was released on bail this evening in London. While Assange enjoys his limited freedom until his hearing—he’ll be under “mansion arrest” as well as wearing a tracking bracelet—a host of other issues regarding his continuous dump of classified documents on the Internet awaits him. First and foremost of these issues is what action (if any) the U.S. intends to take against Assange for the disclosure of classified U.S. national security information. This …
While Congress tackles all the responsibilities it should have already dealt with this year, Senator Harry Reid (D–NV) is hoping to sneak through legislation comprised of more than 100 bills that couldn’t pass on their own merit. This drastic expansion of federally owned lands has not even been introduced as a bill, but Reid hopes to jam it through before Christmas. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2010 is set to designate hundreds of thousands of acres of land under the control of the federal government. Yesterday, Michelle Malkin …
Update – 9:00PM: Earlier this evening, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) decided against proceeding with the omnibus bill, promising instead to pursue a short-term continuing resolution. As we reported this week, Congress is considering a new $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. This 2,000 page monster is the result of a refusal by Congress to pass a budget and a partisan desire to bind the hands of the next Congress with an expansive spending bill rather than a short-term continuing resolution. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) office has demonstrated how a simple, one-page …
It is an obligation of the Congress to make sure that the United States will focus more on preservation of its strategic triad, especially its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and intercontinental-range ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Maintaining the triad has been essential to the efficacy of the U.S. strategic deterrent for decades. A healthy solid rocket motor industrial base is the bedrock for the U.S. ICBM and SLBM force. For all these reasons, it would be wise for the Senate to consider an amendment to require the Obama Administration to submit a …
On this day in 1773, a group of colonists disguised as Indians boarded British merchant ships and dumped into the Boston Harbor an estimated £10,000 worth of tea as a protest against British colonial policies. John Adams declared this event, that we celebrate today as the Boston Tea Party, to be the “grandest event which has ever yet happened since the controversy with Britain opened.” What led once loyal colonists to protest the World’s leading power? How should we think about the Tea Party two hundred thirty-seven years later? The …
On March 11, 2009, while signing the the $410 billion, 8,500 earmark laden, Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009, President Barack Obama said: This piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand. … I expect future spending bills to be debated and voted on in an orderly way, and sent to my desk without delay or obstruction, so that we don’t face another …
The lame duck Congress is a clone of Marvin K. Mooney. He’s the Dr. Seuss character who refused to leave. Refusing to accept the voters’ record-low approval of Congress (13 percent according to Gallup) and refusing to accept their rejection by voters, those running the show are clinging to their last strands of power until the last possible moment. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) announced, “There is still Congress after Christmas. So if the Republicans think that because they can stall and stall and stall, that we take …
Although Belize has made some progress on its Index of Economic Freedom score in the past few years, recent actions by the government of Prime Minister Dean Barrow and the supermajority his United Democratic Party enjoys in Parliament may have put that progress at risk. Belize is increasingly wracked by violent crime, while its high debt burden is a strain on public finance. The illegal drug trade and money laundering are entrenched problems. The Barrow government took office in February 2008 and has close relations with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, …
