Dr. Hal C. Scherz’s tenacious work bringing together doctors across America to make the case for repealing Obamacare brought him a deserved reward earlier today. During a lunchtime ceremony in Dallas, the Atlanta physician accepted The Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Salvatori Prize for American Citizenship. Heritage annually presents the $25,000 prize, named for the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Henry Salvatori, to an American who advances the principles and virtues of the nation’s Founders. Dr. Scherz, a tireless advocate for patient-centered health care reform as well as managing partner of Georgia Pediatric …
Paper or plastic? How about neither? If you live in Evanston, Ill., be prepared to kiss your plastic bags goodbye . . . and maybe your paper ones, too. Some in the city council are prepared to take a stand against what some see as a terribly pernicious threat to the environment. The Chicago Tribune reports: I hate plastic bags, and I’m prepared to vote tonight to eliminate plastic bags or brown paper bags — whatever it takes to get rid of them,” said Ald. Ann Rainey. The proposal remains …
For years, Wake County, North Carolina, has had a “busing” policy aiming to create socioeconomic diversity in county schools. The district’s experiment to better integrate schools left many students having to take long bus rides to schools far from their homes. “Parents and residents … said busing for the purpose of economic diversity poses an unfair burden on families, in terms of costs to the district and in time that children could spend on learning rather than being transported,” according to an account in the Christian Science Monitor. The current …
When Congressman John Kline (R–MN) served as a Marine, “one of [his] assignments was to carry the ‘football’—the package containing the nuclear launch codes—for presidents Carter and Reagan,” writes George Will in profile of the House Education and Workforce Committee chairman last week. Now Kline is quarterbacking the House approach to the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which, Will says, “soon will be 10 years old and may not recognizably survive to see its 12th birthday.” As Will reports, Kline “emphatically favors ‘a greatly reduced federal footprint’ in …
You could substitute a newspaper article from June 2008 with today’s gas price stories, and no one would know the difference. The story is the same: politicians blaming speculators and big oil while ignoring supply and demand issues and the impact of a weak dollar on oil prices. It’s been easy for politicians to point the finger of blame at oil companies since the Gulf spill—although a large majority of Americans support offshore drilling. When politicians attack big oil, it’s important to remember who owns these companies and where that …
What a difference a few hundred years makes. Throughout most of American history, barriers to commerce were imposed at the state level. States would engage in protectionism by imposing tariffs on other states goods, thereby restricting trade opportunities between the states. In the Constitution, the framers give Congress the power to promote commerce between the states by lifting any restrictions placed upon it. Now, Congress itself creates legislation that hinders commerce.
A group of senators is urging President Obama to reconsider a draft executive order to require would-be government contractors to disclose political contributions. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), ranking member on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) yesterday sent a letter signed by 25 of their Republican colleagues to the president to ask him to keep politics out of federal contracting. “We urge you not to issue the draft EO,” the letter states. “To ensure that taxpayers receive the best value for federal …
Amid a continuing war in Afghanistan, a new operation in Libya, ongoing military efforts in Iraq and a failing foreign policy doctrine, President Barack Obama has proposed cutting the already overstretched U.S. military by $400 billion. And today, he is expected to nominate CIA Director Leon Panetta to serve as Secretary of Defense, replacing the retiring Robert Gates. As Panetta stands for confirmation, the Senate must ask whether Panetta is the right man for the job of helping to provide for America’s defense. The Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano, Ph.D., writes …
Well, the Chinese finally have a green-energy idea worth stealing: arrest government officials who foist overpriced, underperforming, debt-ballooning, money-losing projects on taxpayers. Earlier this year, Liu Zhijun, Minister of Railways in the People’s Republic of China, was arrested following investigations into cost overruns and poor performance of the ministry’s showcase bullet trains. To be fair, the arrests were made when the investigations uncovered potential corruption in addition to the mismanagement. But the corruption problems likely would have gone unnoticed had the bullet train program not become such a boondoggle. (The …
On Easter Sunday in Washington, D.C., thousands gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the annual sunrise service. The freedom to gather at this public monument and for churches across America to hold outdoor sunrise services is a freedom we often take for granted. Not so in China. The Shouwang (“Lighthouse”) Church in Beijing is one of the most well-known of “house” churches, which are not officially sanctioned by the communist government. Started in 1993, the church now has 1,000 members. As The New York Times recently reported: Shouwang, according to …
