Paul Krugman recently lamented the fact that in recent years, “manufacturing, once America’s greatest strength, seemed to be in terminal decline.” His analysis, though, misses the mark. He reached this conclusion because “in the 1990s, U.S. manufacturing employment was more or less steady. After 2000, however, it entered a steep decline. The 2001 recession hit industry hard, while the bubble-fueled expansion of the decade’s middle years — an expansion marked by a huge rise in the trade deficit — left manufacturing behind. By December 2007, there were 3.5 million fewer …
As the debate heats up over how best to control runaway Medicare spending, one provision of Obamacare has received growing attention. The new law creates accountable care organizations (ACOs) primarily to address fragmentation and rising costs in the health care system, but supporters tout ACOs as a key solution to Medicare’s looming insolvency. As more details come to light, however, government establishment of ACOs appears to be more difficult than purported. Writing for The Heritage Foundation, Rita Numerof, Ph.D., explains: ACOs are merely the latest in a long history of …
The House of Representatives today is due to take up the 2012 funding bill for the Department of Defense, and as Heritage’s Cully Stimson writes in today’s Washington Times, it’s bringing with it some controversy: [The bill] reaffirms that the United States is in a state of armed conflict with “al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces” and that the president has authority to “detain certain belligerents until the termination of hostilities.”Neither statement presents anything new. The first simply reflects the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). The …
The government isn’t very good at picking technologies to invest in. Undeterred by this track record, however, some members of Congress now want to create a new subsidy program for cars powered by natural gas. Time to remember two great moments in government technology policy. In the early 1960s, an adviser told President Kennedy that failure to enter the supersonic transport market would cost the United States 50,000 jobs, $4 billion in income, and $3 billion in capital. In 1968, the federal government began subsidizing the development of the Boeing …
When President Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate in West Germany and famously demanded that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev “Tear down this wall!” he brought to Europe—and indeed the world—America’s conviction that freedom and democracy are a powerful liberating force whose time had come for those living under communist oppression. By contrast, as President Barack Obama travels throughout Europe this week and meets with U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom and Poland, he brings with him the baggage of his presidency—more than two years of a foreign policy that …
The City of Chicago is preparing for the absolute worst. No, it’s not the financial crunch they’re worried about. While cities across the country are considering closing libraries, cutting services and even pleading for bankruptcy in order to avoid economic Armageddon, the Windy City is preparing for a global-warming-induced environmental apocalypse. The New York Times reports on the dire predictions and what Chicago plans to do about it: If world carbon emissions continued apace, the scientists said, Chicago would have summers like the Deep South, with as many as 72 days …
The list of cases illustrating conflicts between homosexual rights and religious freedom continues to grow. According to a story published earlier this month, a Catholic adoption agency in the United Kingdom has been told that if it wishes to provide adoption services, it must be willing to facilitate adoptions involving homosexual couples, even though doing so would violate Catholic teachings. The burden on the charity’s religious freedom reportedly stems from laws that confer protected status on sexual orientation. As a result of these laws, of 12 Catholic adoption agencies in …
In the midst of a debate over how and where to cut government spending, Congress needs to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to defense during wartime. There is undoubtedly need for Congress to continually demand efficiencies in the defense budget, but Congress should allow the military to use any savings that it generates to pay for urgent priorities. Policymakers must be honest and start with national security strategy and military missions before approving arbitrary cuts. Only then will they be forced …
On Sunday, May 22, the team at Heritage Libertad hosted their monthly talk show on WEBR Fairfax public radio. The bilingual show – with the first half in Spanish and the second half in English – featured commentary on a broad range of topics. The English segment covered the economy, debt ceiling, the Heritage budget plan, and included a special interview with Rep. Peter Roskam (R – Ill.), Chief Deputy Whip in the House, who discussed energy prices. In addition to drilling, can more be done to bring down oil …
According to The New York Times, Russia is seeking written guarantees that missile defense systems deployed in Europe by the U.S. and NATO in the future will not threaten Russia. The U.S., NATO, and Russia are in the midst of negotiations regarding the broader topic of missile defense cooperation. On the face of it, it would appear that the Russian demand is reasonable, because missile defense systems are not offensive and inherently pose no threat to the territory of any state. Surface appearances, however, are deceiving—because Russian statements last year, …
