On February 12, America will celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s 202nd birthday, but will conservatives celebrate his legacy? Lincoln is a pivotal figure in American history, yet some conservatives are wary of him. Lincoln, the Left proclaims and the Right fears, is the father of big government. Conservatives shouldn’t be fooled. If big government means a permanently large and growing federal budget and a vast civil service (see William Voegeli’s Never Enough: America’s Limitless Welfare State), then Lincoln may deny paternity for both. As Allen Guelzo explains, while the federal budget indeed …
The idea that there might be a simple fix to all our problems has seduced many thoughtful and well-intentioned men and women over the ages. If only we could do this, then all would be well. We stand with our persevering friends and allies. But let’s not be fooled. By the very nature of man and the imperfection of politics, there are no silver bullets. Such is the case with the proposal to hold an Article V constitutional amendments convention. A perennial question in American history, it seems on its …
The unclassified summary of the National Security Space Strategy (NSSS) of the Obama Administration was released in January 2011. The NSSS is supposed to provide a guiding principle for the next 10 years for all government-related agencies that use the information provided by the U.S. space assets. Unfortunately, President Obama’s preoccupation with arms control won over prudent space policy guidance. The strategy rightly recognizes that space is vital to U.S. national security and describes the three major trends that drive the current strategic environment: congestion, contest, and competitiveness. The strategic …
In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, numerous unemployed but hard-working Americans have turned to federal job training programs. These programs, held up as a beacon of good government by politicians, are actually riddled with fraud, waste and mismanagement, according to a new report from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK). The most egregious accounts in Coburn’s “Help Wanted” report include a program that exposed youth to asbestos “under the guise of involving students in work experience and job training programs,” a shopping spree by a job …
Suppose the government forces a company to take all the money it would have paid person A and use it to hire person B instead. How many jobs have been created? If you said, “One direct job, one indirect job, and a number of uncounted induced jobs,” call the University of Massachusetts, because you qualify to do economic analysis at their Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). The trick to the perverse PERI analysis is to ignore the cost of taking the money from person A and from the people who …
So far, the House GOP is not including Obamacare among the programs proposed for de-funding next week. Why not? Although the Appropriations Committee has produced a bill that de-funds many other programs, it does not undo the billions of dollars that the last Congress appropriated to implement Obamacare. That omission can be and should be corrected by amendment when the legislation reaches the House floor next week. Rescinding the billions appropriated to Obamacare would help reach the GOP’s well-publicized pledge to cut spending by $100 billion in their first year …
On February 2, 37 U.S. Senators signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seeking information about the Obama Administration’s reported plans to join the European Union Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. The letter is a step in the right direction for the Senate, which needs to guard against international agreements that could undermine U.S. national security. Specifically, the letter reminds the Secretary that Section 1251 of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2010 expresses concern about the possible negative consequences for U.S. security resulting from …
The decline of marriage in recent years not only signals trouble for the men and women missing out on the stability of the institution; it can also threaten the future success of children born outside the economic protection of marriage. The 41 percent of children born in the U.S. to never-married mothers are at a higher risk of experiencing poverty at some point in their lifetimes than are those born to married parents. With a high rate of unwed childbearing among young women and a lack of education among never-married …
Our federal government is currently $14.1 trillion in debt. The vast majority of the American people believe this number is far too high and on track to go far higher. Fortunately, Congress created a mechanism to force itself to reexamine its spending habits when budget deficits got out of control: the debt ceiling. Once total outstanding federal debt reaches the limit, the Treasury Department is no longer authorized to issue new debt. Like the states and family budgets, the federal government would then be forced to make do with tax …
Elected officials in Washington finally seem to get it that something must be done to reduce federal spending. Last week, House Republicans unveiled a plan to cut $74 billion from President Obama’s budget request for this year, and members of the Republican Study Committee have proposed an even more ambitious plan to cut $2.5 trillion over the next decade. Members of both parties in the Senate are eyeing plans for long-term deficit reduction. Even President Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union address, confessed that “we have to confront …
