Bravo Zulu is navy parlance for “job well done.” South Korea’s naval commandos certainly earned that accolade by successfully rescuing all 21 hostages held aboard a South Korean freighter. On January 15, pirates armed with automatic rifles, heavy machine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades seized the Samho Jewelry ship 800 miles off the Somali coast. In an early morning attack, a South Korean SEAL unit seized control of the ship and freed all hostages. Eight pirates were killed, five were wounded, and none escaped. The daring rescue was fraught with risk. …
Colombia has unmistakably made political and economic transformation over the past years. As pointed out by Freedom House, in a world where authoritarianism is advancing and electoral democracy is unfortunately recoiling, Colombia has made notable improvements that make the country stand out against such a trend. Along with its free presidential election in 2010, the country has achieved “an improved equilibrium between the three branches of government and the end of surveillance operations that had targeted both civil society and government figures.” Equally noteworthy is Colombia’s continuing march toward greater …
It’s National School Choice Week, and school choice advocates across the country are coming together to promote educational opportunity for the nation’s children. But just what is “school choice,” and why is it so important? School choice takes a variety of forms: private school choice, pubic school choice, charter schools, virtual education, homeschooling, or a combination of methods. Perhaps more importantly however, is that for children—from rural towns to inner cities—school choice means a greater opportunity for academic success in a nation where public education is too often failing to …
This is only President Barack Obama’s second State of the Union, but his failed economic agenda has already forced him into early reruns. After more than $800 billion in Keynesian economic stimulus spending, our nation is still mired in a post World War II record 20th consecutive month of near double digit unemployment. Our national deficit stands at $14.06 trillion and we may hit the $14.29 trillion debt ceiling as early as this spring. Our country desperately needs a change in direction, but that is not what we will get tonight. …
This section is commonly referred to as the Appropriations Clause stipulates that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time,” and effectively grants the legislative branch the influential “power of the purse.” Today, however, public opinion agrees that Congress has clearly abused this privilege. Congress’s decades-long spending spree is on everyone’s mind these days. Most (successful) Republicans ran on a …
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been ordered to issue job-killing regulations that the agency and industry both agree are faulty and unfeasible. The EPA’s blunder is an object lesson on the costly consequences of reckless rulemaking and regulatory excess. The impending regulations address emissions from industrial boilers and incinerators. Agency officials have projected that the new standards will kill (yes, kill!) between 5,000 and 10,000 jobs—and cost nearly $10 billion to implement. In contrast, an independent study by IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, determined that 16,000 jobs …
The Wall Street Journal reports: “President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday … Mr. Obama will argue that the U.S., even while trying to reduce its budget deficit, must make targeted investments to foster job growth and boost U.S. competitiveness in the world economy.” The Obama administration clearly believes that more government spending is necessary for better economic growth. But what does the data say? The 2011 Index of Economic Freedom reports: Whatever the ideal …
The 38th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision occurred over the weekend, renewing public attention on the question of taxpayer-funded abortion. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, staunchly defending the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), told The Hill newspaper that the law known as Obamacare “provides no taxpayer funding for abortion.” For much of the media, that assertion has come to loggerheads, with irreconcilable differences of interpretation of the terms funding and subsidies and arguments about the scope and effectiveness of President Obama’s executive order. …
Today marks the beginning of National School Choice Week, a time when school choice advocates across the nation will hold events to highlight effective educational options for every child. Less than ten years ago there were only a few school choice programs serving the needs of US families. But by 2006, eight states had enacted new school choice programs or expanded existing options. These options include taxpayer-funded scholarships to help students attend private elementary or secondary schools of choice, as well as tax credits or deductions for educational expenses. In …
Recently, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it was creating a new center to substantially increase the number of I-9 form audits it conducts of businesses. Though the increase in paper audits come at the expense of worksite raids, the audits are having an impact on the hiring of illegal immigrants. According to ICE, in the last fiscal year, it conducted audits of more than 2,700 companies. When illegal immigrants are discovered during the audits, the companies terminate them. Just …
