The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) just released its 2011 Trade Policy Agenda, which highlights several initiatives designed to boost exports. Nowhere in the 443-page document is a mention of the biggest barrier to U.S. exports: the federal budget deficit. Budget deficits require the government to borrow money that otherwise could be spent on U.S.-made exports or invested in our economy’s productive private sector. In 2010, the federal government financed its deficit spending by selling $708 billion in Treasury securities to foreign buyers. To put that in perspective, …
The fight to cut government spending is entering a new phase as the Senate yesterday rejected two pieces of legislation to fund the government though a long-term continuing resolution (CR) for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Senate seems incapable of negotiating with the House, because they can’t even get a simple majority vote to pass the House Republicans’ or the Senate Democrats’ CR spending proposal. This vote does not bode well for a resolution of the stalemate on funding the federal government’s discretionary functions for the remainder of …
In what Reuters is calling “a confrontation with unions that could be the biggest since then President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers nearly 30 years ago,” the Wisconsin Senate approved a scaled-down version of Governor Scott Walker’s (R) budget-repair bill last night that would rein in government union collective bargaining powers. After securing approval from three widely respected nonpartisan agencies—the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the Legislative Council, and the Legislative Reference Bureau—Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald removed the appropriations measures from Walker’s budget, thus eliminating the need for any …
The Obama Administration has pursued an incentive plan for Sudanese President Omar al Bashir to try and secure his cooperation and support for the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Sudan and the nascent independent state of Southern Sudan. One of the Obama Administration’s preliminary offers was the removal of Sudan from the state sponsors of terrorism list. Aside from rewarding Bashir (accused by the U.S. of genocide in Darfur) for promises of support that may prove ephemeral and are certainly unenforceable, it would also willfully ignore the possibility that Sudan …
As gas prices in the United States continue to soar, policymakers in Washington are eager to point fingers and offer solutions. Most of the ideas are not new, and some are certainly much better than others, but they will inevitably be part of the debate. As legislators turn their attention to gas prices, here’s a straightforward list of what not to do. 1. Don’t increase subsidies for biofuels. The most popular subsidized biofuel, ethanol, produces less energy per unit volume than does gasoline, contributes to food price increases, costs taxpayers …
Does the United States spend enough on education? Many messages in the media and from Capitol Hill would suggest that there is a dearth of taxpayer dollars spent on American education today and that if the U.S. can only spend more, student achievement will flourish. However, years of increased spending have led only to bigger budgets and bloated bureaucracy—not improved student achievement—and have similarly failed to empower those with the greatest stake in a child’s education: the family. Research shows that families play a large role in a child’s educational …
In the Sunday New York Times, Paul Krugman argued that the only way to “restore the middle-class society we used to have” is by shoring up collective bargaining rights for unions—”so that ordinary workers as well as superstars have the power to bargain for good wages.” The same day, a Washington Post op-ed went further, claiming that “public workers’ pay, benefits, and bargaining rights” are not “what is really at stake” in the Wisconsin fight. No, the authors argued, Gov. Scott Walker (R) is waging war on the middle class …
After weeks of delay, the Obama Administration finally went ahead and did it. Early last night, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a notice of appeal in Florida v. HHS, the multi-state lawsuit that has the best chance of striking down Obamacare. And this morning, DOJ filed a motion in the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals for expedited review of the case, which was a condition the district judge imposed on the DOJ to grant its request for a stay of the judgment pending appeal. This is a significant …
The book Ballistic Missile Defense: Its Past and Future by Jacques Gansler is yet another contribution to the ongoing debate on the role of ballistic missile defense (BMD) in the U.S. strategic posture. Unfortunately, a middle path to ballistic missile defense proposed in the book stems from incorrect premises about the effects of BMD systems and their role in the protection of the U.S. homeland. The author argues that it is necessary to negotiate a new Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty that would allow only limited defenses against rogue states but …
The future of democracy is at stake in Wisconsin. According to Paul Krugman, “what Mr. Walker and his backers are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy.” Thousands stormed the Wisconsin state capitol to protest Scott Walker (the “Mubarak of Madison”) and his proposals for public-sector unions. Over the past few weeks, state Senators hid out in an Illinois Motel 6, protesters littered war memorials with posters and pamphlets, doctors wrote fake notes for …
