Libya is 700,000 square miles. It is on the list of the top 20 largest countries on earth. Obama is sending two drones —big deal. The Pentagon says they will be used to help pick out the good guys’ pickup trucks from the bad guys’ pickup trucks and then take them out. Picking out targets with a Predator drone is like trying to see the world through a soda straw. Without the bigger intelligence picture and coordination with elements on the ground, it is difficult to see how they could …
As states continue to face large deficits and budget cuts, Arizona has hit on a smart solution. On Tuesday, the Arizona House of Representatives passed S.B. 1495, a bill enhancing the power of the governor to create a state guard unit. These units, better known as State Defense Forces (SDFs), are today’s modern state militia. Unlike the images of rag-tag groups often associated with the term militia, these are professional forces authorized by the Constitution and under the command of their respective state governors.
Acid rain. Expanding deserts. Global cooling. As Reason.tv explains in its video “The Top Five Environmental Disasters That Didn’t Happen,” all of the above were moments of environmental hysteria that led to nothing. Others they cite? Frankenfoods, the end of biodiversity (the claim that 70-80% of the Earth’s species would be extinct by 1995), running out of energy, a “silent spring” (an apocalyptic prediction about pesticides), and Malthusian famine (hundreds of millions of people starving to death by the 1970s). Under the Obama Administration, concerns over the environment — and …
The debt limit debate waits for the return of a recess-refreshed Congress, but if conservatives are ready for it, they can leverage the issue to enact spending caps and advance the budget the House passed last week, says former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. “The Republicans should come back the day after the recess, pass the debt limit and attach to it caps to total spending that match the budget they just passed,” Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said this week at The Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing. …
It seems everyone except President Obama is presenting a detailed plan for dealing with our nation’s rapidly growing debt these days. The latest entry comes from the Bipartisan Policy Council. One feature of their plan, “SAVEGO,” calls for automatic spending cuts and higher taxes should Congress not reduce the debt to a predetermined share of the nation’s economy by 2021. So, if Congress fails to make necessary spending cuts, or the President vetoes them, the Treasury Secretary would raise tax rates and reduce tax deductions. This is in essence a …
Among the speakers at this week’s Heritage Foundation Bloggers Briefing, the consensus was clear: College students could stand more exposure to conservative ideas. The inherent contradiction of the liberal political consensus among students is mystifying, the speakers said. American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin put it this way: “Young people have supported [President] Obama in droves, even though they’re at a point in their life when they’re typically most rebellious — and he is going to tell them how to run every part of their life.” “Why aren’t college students …
The big three entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—promise to increase federal spending to unprecedented and unaffordable levels in coming years. Medicare in particular represents trillions in unfunded obligations, and only bold reforms can restore long-term sustainability to the program. In his recently released budget, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R–WI) takes on Medicare’s future insolvency through a proposal to change the program to a premium support model. Since its release, Ryan’s approach has received much criticism. But the fact is that nothing short of a complete transformation can …
The year 2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. Leland Ryken, a scholar of Christian literature and the Puritans, describes this as one of the most important cultural developments in the history of the English-speaking world. In his new book The Legacy of the King James Bible, Ryken records its sweeping influence on our language, education, religion, and culture. The King James Bible has been “the greatest vehicle of literacy in the English-speaking world,” by one account. Statesman Daniel Webster credited his famous oratory …
The one-year anniversary of the gulf oil spill was earlier this week. The policies that have been put in place since then have caused gas prices to skyrocket and caused the economic growth of the Gulf Region to stagnate. Join us on Friday from 12-1 ET for our “Lunch with Heritage” online chat. We will be joined by Policy Analyst Nick Loris and he will take your questions about the policies that have been implemented since the oil spill and their impact on the Gulf Region and nationally. If you …
This is how Donald Trump recently described China: “They’re making all our products. They’re taking all our jobs. And then they loan the money back and we pay them interest. It’s an amazing phenomenon.” A strong statement, but only one-third of it is true. China is not making all of our products. Imports of goods from China are just 2.5 percent the size of the U.S. economy. China is also not taking all our jobs. According to Heritage Foundation analyst James Sherk, “Research shows that trade has had little effect …
