Major Chicago pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories will be forced to cut 1,900 jobs (more than 2% of their entire workforce) it announced late yesterday afternoon. As Bloomberg notes, these cuts follow almost 9,000 jobs the company cut just last September. In a statement announcing the cuts, a spokesman explained that Obamacare had already cost the company $200 million in the past year and that the layoffs were “in response to changes in the health- care industry, including U.S. health-care reform and the challenging regulatory environment”. Maybe this time the White House will …
Iranian political dissidents are notorious for their bitter factions and for not being able to work together—probably the single biggest cultural asset the Islamic Republic regime has. However, the Iran Democratic Transition Conference showed Iranians finding unity on a common purpose, bringing democracy to their home country where the longing for it runs deep. Taking place over the weekend at George Washington University and sponsored by the Institute for World Politics, the conference concluded on Capitol Hill Monday with the announcement of the creation of the Iran Freedom Caucus in …
The U.S. on Monday officially removed export controls on several Indian space and defense-related organizations, signaling a new era in U.S.–India nonproliferation cooperation. By removing several subsidiaries of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization and the Indian Space Research Organization from the Department of Commerce’s so-called “Entities List” barring export of certain dual-use technologies, Washington followed through on a key pledge that President Barack Obama made during his historic visit to India last November. The U.S. took the additional step of removing India from several other export control lists that …
Today, the color-coded threat system, officially known as the Homeland Security Advisory System, will be nixed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. She should be applauded for getting rid of a system that has zero credibility and has done little to achieve its goal of informing the public about potential threats. The color-coded system has long been the butt of late night talk show jokes since it was created after 9/11. Who could forget Jay Leno teasing that the Department of Homeland Security had “added a plaid [to the color …
In his Tuesday State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said Americans must “understand [that] if we don’t take meaningful steps to rein in our debt, it could damage our markets, increase the cost of borrowing, and jeopardize our recovery—all of which would have an even worse effect on our job growth and family incomes.” This is all true. But then in a total failure of leadership, President Obama went on to completely abandon his own deficit commission’s spending cut proposals. Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that …
On the heels of President Obama’s State of the Union address last night, which was fairly heavy on education policy, this morning Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) announced that they will introduce a bill – the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act – to reinstate the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program: a voucher program for low-income students in the nation’s capital. Speaker Boehner’s commitment to this issue is underscored by his inviting D.C. Opportunity Scholarship students and advocates of the program as his …
Last night in the State of the Union address, President Obama stated that “the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it—in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes. This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit. Health insurance reform will slow these rising costs.” Is it possible that the President has already forgotten that the health care law included a …
America can learn a lesson from the recent Moscow bombing: Just because we’re fortunate enough to live in America, where suicide bombings thankfully don’t happen – and God-willing won’t ever happen – we need to remain vigilant and ramp up our national security. After a couple recent close calls, particularly from terrorists Faisal Shahzad (Times Square bomber) and Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab (Christmas Day bomber), securing our country is still of utmost importance. But what does this suicide bombing mean for Russia? What will likely retaliation be? And what will it …
Before the State of the Union address, Heritage Foundation scholars laid out five foreign policy and national security commitments that needed to be in the speech. The President scored about 1 out of 5. The speech did nothing to dispel concerns that the Obama Doctrine just does not make the grade. A Commitment to Peace and Prosperity Through Strength. Grade: “0.” The President’s call for a federal spending freeze did not include “security.” The problem is that the White House’s five-year budget forecast already calls for cuts (in constant dollars) …
Forgive me if I seem skeptical of President Obama’s assertion last evening in his State of the Union address when he said that he was “willing to look at other ideas to bring down [health care] costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.” The president has in the past made clear his opposition to such reform, saying that he did not “believe malpractice reform is a silver bullet.” This despite the fact that abusive tort litigation against medical providers greatly increases …
