In his opening remarks at the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) hearing Tuesday morning, Kevin Chavous, chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, stated: By any measure, by any test, by any rational standard, this hearing should be about how we can expand this program not just in Washington, D.C., but into other parts of our nation. Instead … we’re here trying to save the very program that should be a model for our nation. Despite the DCOSP’s track record of success—manifested by the significantly higher graduation rates of …
As Americans continue to feel the effects of President Obama’s anti-oil agenda at the pump, defensive liberals are circling back to a familiar line of counter-attack: blame Bush. The media vacuum on gas prices has made this line of attack all the more promising with very little national coverage being given to the president’s destructive domestic drilling agenda. Unfortunately it misses an obvious point. President George W. Bush was mostly attacked for wanting to drill too much (or being “cozy” with the oil industry), while President Obama’s policies are rooted …
On Tuesday, March 2, arms control experts met at The Heritage Foundation’s conference “New START: What We Now Know and What’s Next.” They discussed the lessons learned with regards to future arms control negotiations. The Honorable Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute explained the rationale behind New START negotiations, which were centered on an outdated Cold War approach focusing on the nuclear arsenal of the two superpowers. This approach is no longer relevant, because the threat the United States faces today is different and does not come from the …
The Obama Administration has declared its support for the U.N.’s efforts to negotiate an arms trade treaty (ATT) that would regulate the transfer of conventional arms. This is unwise for many reasons. The following stories show just how an ATT, far from saving civilians, would actually tie the hands of democracies in resisting dictatorships. On Monday, the second round of negotiations to create an ATT began under U.N. auspices in New York. Britain has been, and continues to be, the leading advocate for an ATT. British newspapers routinely support its negotiation, …
The March 3 working meeting between Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and U.S. President Barack Obama loomed as a showdown over Mexico’s sputtering war against crime and increasingly prickly relations between Mexico and the U.S. The encounter, however, took a sunny turn when the two presidents agreed to focus on trade, regulation, and energy issues rather than come to dagger points over Mexico’s seemingly out-of-control crime war. The presidents agreed on a plan to settle a long-standing dispute over a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) commitment to allow a limited …
The fight to balance Wisconsin’s state budget intensified yesterday as Governor Scott Walker issued an ultimatum to Democratic Senators who have refused to return to the capital to vote on the budget repair bill. The ultimatum comes as Wisconsin approaches a crucial deadline to restructure its debt. But while the fight has become more intense, there has never been a shortage of heat in this debate. Union leaders have been especially vocal, with SEIU President Mary Kay Henry characterizing Walker’s proposal to weaken collective bargaining, as part of a “struggle …
Mark your calendars for July 1st. That is the day that Obamacare’s failed health care model will crash head on to the fiscal reality of strained states budgets. For all the headlines that Obamacare’s individual and business mandates get, perhaps the dirtiest little secret about Obamacare is that over half of the health insurance coverage gained through the law is accomplished through Medicaid. Medicaid already covers one of every six Americans, eats up 22 percent of the typical state budget, and total federal and state Medicaid spending has quintupled over …
In the name of balancing his state’s budget, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has taken a strong stand against union bargaining privileges, braving weeks of protest and relying on the Republican majority in the state legislature to eventually override the 14 Democratic state senators who retreated to Illinois to dodge a vote on his budget-repair bill. In a new video by Reason.tv, Heritage labor analyst James Sherk said the protests in Wisconsin — strictly speaking — have never been about Walker’s bill. “The real purpose of the protests in Wisconsin …
The House Judiciary Committee finished its mark-up of H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act on Thursday and voted 23–14, on mostly partisan lines, in favor of the bill. Puerto Rico Delegate Pedro Pierluisi was the only Democrat to vote for the bill. H.R. 3 seeks to prohibit federal funding of abortion by permanently codifying an array of protections against government subsidies for abortions. Keeping federal taxpayer money out of the hands of abortion providers is no small task. From appropriations for the Department of Health and Human …
Yesterday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar testified before the House Natural Resources Committee on the Department of the Interior’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget proposal. When pressed by Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) about the de facto offshore drilling moratorium the Obama Administration has inflicted on his district, Sec. Salazar responded: “When you look at the production within the Gulf of Mexico, even in the midst of the national crisis of the Deepwater Horizon, the production has remained at an all-time high.” This is an audaciously out of touch statement. According to the …
