The President gave a speech this afternoon where he expressed the need to fix America’s broken immigration system. He had a lot of good things to say about immigration. For instance, the President emphasized the positive effects of immigration, stating, “It doesn’t matter where you came from; what matters is that you believe in the ideals on which we were founded; that you believe all of us are equal and deserve the freedom to pursue happiness.” True. No disagreement here. He also emphasized that reforms in legal immigration “will also …
Opposition to the Obama Administration’s push for national standards and tests is growing. Yesterday, more than 100 education leaders—professors, policy leaders, public policy heads, former Members of Congress, and others—released a manifesto opposing Washington’s unprecedented overreach into what is taught in local schools. Closing the Door on Innovation charges that “current U.S. Department of Education efforts to nationalize curriculum will stifle innovation and freeze into place an unacceptable status quo; end local and state control of schooling; lack a legitimate legal basis; and impose a one-size-fits-all model on America’s students.” …
Gas prices are on the rise again. The national average is now just under $4.00 a gallon, and it’s sure to rise as the summer driving season rolls near. The pesky detail not often mentioned is that our ethanol policy is a contributing factor toward these higher fuel prices. The United States is the world’s largest producer of ethanol, with Brazil a close second. However, Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol is cheaper, more efficient, and cleaner burning than our corn-based product. Yet special interests have managed a rather sweet deal for our …
Consider three countries: 1) In Country 1, imports of goods and services are 29 percent the size of the country’s overall economy. 2) In Country 2, imports are 22 percent the size of the country’s economy. 3) In Country 3, imports are 14 percent the size of the country’s economy. Which of these countries relies the most on imports?
Conservatives have a clear objective: to drive down government spending and debt, protect America, and balance the budget without raising taxes. In New York City last night, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner (R–OH) outlined in remarks about the debt limit a useful first step to take. But, as the Speaker’s remarks indicated, Congress must take many more such steps in the journey toward that objective. The Heritage Foundation has set forth the rest of the steps on the road to that objective with its plan released …
The record will show that the May 9 extradition by Colombia of Walid Makled Garcia to Venezuela constitutes a major lost opportunity for the Obama Administration to interrogate and prosecute a Venezuelan drug kingpin with close ties to high-level Venezuelan officials and to expose the depth of narco-corruption within the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela. Makled’s extradition follows the decision by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the Colombian courts to honor the Venezuelan request for extradition over a similar request made by the U.S. In exchange for Makled, the …
Ohio small-businessman Jack Buschur has a message for Washington about job creation: Get out of the way. In a new video released by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Buschur explains how a slow economy and costly compliance with government regulations forced him to lay off 12 workers from the company he founded in 1978 — Buschur Electric Inc. “The regulations and the paperwork problems government throws at small business today is just becoming tremendously overwhelming,” Buschur says. “So much of it has nothing to do with safety …
Comparing the foreign policies of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama has been like comparing apples to, well, apples. Carter tried accommodating America’s enemies. He cut back on defense. He made humility the hallmark of American diplomacy. Sound familiar? It might be too much to argue that the current President’s doctrine plagiarized the peanut farmer. But it is not too much of a stretch. Carter and Obama not only had similar styles of engaging with the rest of the world, but both of their presidencies fell into the same pitfalls. …
Fellow Americans: Today, I am excited to announce the release of The Heritage Foundation’s comprehensive agenda that sets a new course for the size and scope of the federal government. The new report, “Saving the American Dream: Heritage’s Plan to Fix the Debt, Cut Spending, and Restore Prosperity,” lays out specific policy recommendations in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance, the tax code and federal spending. Saving the American Dream envisions real solutions for staving off America’s potential decline while strengthening the economy for current and future generations. We are …
When sitting down to write a family budget for the year, the typical first step is to list what the family will need and from there budget accordingly. So, too, is the theory for the yearly national budget. In the case of defense, however, President Obama has done things backwards. With his proposed $400 billion in spending cuts, the President has decided to reduce our nation’s defense without regard to the responsibilities and threats our military deals with on a daily basis. In her recent article in Politico, Mackenzie Eaglen …
