House conservatives are holding firm on their promise to cut federal spending. Speaking this morning at Heritage, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) outlined $2.5 trillion worth of cuts between now and 2021 — a bold proposal called the Spending Reduction Act (SRA). Jordan, who serves as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said the SRA would immediately return spending to 2008 levels and eventually cut non-defense discretionary spending to 2006 levels, as well as implement a hard freeze through 2021. “I have never seen the American people more ready for the …
Congress isn’t the only entity that knows how to pick winners and losers for energy sources and technologies. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing its best to follow suit by imposing new rules on the natural gas industry and providing exemptions to the biomass industry. For natural gas, the EPA evasively posted a new rule on hydraulic fracturing, requiring a company to obtain permits if the company uses diesel when fracking. Hydraulic fracturing, a long-proven process by which pressurized water and other substances are injected into wells to extract …
The virtue of prudence dictates that one should heed the law of unintended consequences and seek to minimize the unwelcome outcomes that result from almost every endeavor. When one fails to do so, the damaging unintended consequences can be overwhelmingly; oftentimes to such a degree that any rational supporter of the endeavor must seriously consider whether it is worth the pains. This is the story of Obamacare, literally “the law” of unintended consequences. And tragically, we’re only in year one of its implementation. Most prominently, President Obama repeatedly promised that …
There seems to be a fairly significant downside to a “living” Constitution: you can’t keep it from growing uncontrollably! In the latest Constitutional Guidance for Lawmakers essay, David Forte outlines the staggering expansion in the reach of the Commerce Clause under the Progressives, from “The trafficking and trading of economic commodities” to “Any human activity or other phenomenon that has any ultimate impact on activities in more states than one.” Under the latter interpretation, the Commerce Clause has been invoked to validate most of the vast regulatory expansion of the …
Do regulatory costs matter? Not quite, according to the January 14 “Fact Checker” column on WashingtonPost.com. The column, by Glenn Kessler, criticizes Heritage’s recent “Red Tape Rising” report, which documented the growing cost of federal regulation in fiscal 2010. Noting that the study has been prominently cited by Rep. Darrell Issa (R–CA), the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee, he awards Issa a metaphorical “Pinocchio” for using data from the report. (Issa was given a second Pinocchio for using a study commissioned by the Small Business Administration on the …
Fellow conservatives, Last night, the House of Representatives, the legislative chamber of Congress closest to American popular opinion, voted to repeal Obamacare—the increasingly unpopular law which led directly to a change in the control of Congress just three months ago. Many will tell you that yesterday’s bipartisan vote of 245 to 189 was an exercise in futility—an empty, symbolic measure. Liberals in Congress, the White House and their echo chamber in the media all insist, as NPR has duly reported, that “this measure will go no further.” Don’t believe this …
While China has a seafaring past, in modern times, it has not been known for its navy. The ground forces of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—the collective name for China’s armed forces—has long been the dominant military service in the People’s Republic of China. In fact, it has been said anecdotally that the country’s founder, Mao Zedong, was so focused on the army after taking power in 1949 that it was not until 1953 that he made his first tour of the Chinese navy, spending a few days, possibly reluctantly, …
For the past 10 years, Joseph and Victoria Schwartz have owned a small endocrinology clinic in Englewood, N.J. Lately they’ve faced their share of challenges — some a result of Obamacare, the health care law that faces a crucial repeal vote in the House this week. As small-business owners, health care providers, patients and parents, the Schwartzes have been impacted by recent changes from all angles — and they haven’t liked what they’ve experienced. Dr. Joseph Schwartz is the chief endocrinologist and his wife is his office manager. Over the …
The 112th Congress is out of the gate, and so is its mantra of getting government spending under control. But there’s one piece of the spending pie that legislators can’t overlook if they plan to get the United States back on the track of fiscal responsibility: welfare. Despite the commonly held belief that the government “ended welfare as we know it” back in the 1990s, this year alone, federal and state governments will spend nearly $900 billion on means-tested programs for low-income people. (And no, this does not include unemployment …
Each week, The Heritage Foundation highlights one of its more than 275,000 Facebook Fans on its “Featured Fan” page. This week’s fan is Noelle Clemente, a former intern in The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program. Read her story, below, and be sure to become a fan on Facebook! “I guess I’m just worried about my future,” Dustin Hoffman’s character famously repeated in the classic 1967 film “The Graduate.” More than four decades later, Noelle Clemente had similar concerns after graduating from Elon University in May 2010. Amid a terrible economy and …
