Clips, commentary and news from the day. Send us your tips at scribe@heritage.org. How to reform entitlements and save the American dream – without raising taxes Obama vs. Congress Over Libya — Will Qaddafi Be the Ultimate Winner In This Showdown? Paul Ryan’s use of Part D as a model for reform has the critics taking up arms Obama’s Food Police in Staggering Crackdown on Market to Kids NLRB Moves to Speed Up Union Elections Obamacare’s Premium Subsidies Will Stifle Small Business Obama has Congress over a barrel in Libya …
Two of the energy subsidy debates in Washington focus on tax credits for the ethanol and natural gas industries. The growing opposition to the $6 billion ethanol blender’s tax credit became quite clear when the Senate voted 73–27 to remove the subsidy—even though the credit is set to expire at the end of the year. When it comes to natural gas, bipartisan support has been cast to create, expand, or extend preferential tax treatment to subsidize the production, use, and purchase of natural gas vehicles (NGVs), although several Members of …
Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has been aggressively reinterpreting the law to foist unions on workers—whether they want them or not. The Board famously filed charges against Boeing for creating jobs at a nonunion plant in South Carolina. Today the Board announced its most aggressive move yet: snap elections. Currently the NLRB takes between five and six weeks to conduct unionizing elections. Under the procedures the Board just proposed that time would fall to between 10 and 21 days.
Congress is currently waiting for the Obama Administration to send it three pending free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama. While these FTAs would boost economic activity and strengthen ties between participating nations, the Administration and many in Congress want passage of the FTAs to be linked to the reauthorization of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. This ineffective and costly program provides job training, relocation allowances, and unemployment pay for workers who lost their jobs due to foreign trade while they attempt to shift into new …
House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) said there is bipartisan support in Congress to move forward with the nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain, noting that lawmakers could reaffirm that decision in a vote this summer. Upton, speaking at The Bloggers Briefing this afternoon, criticized the actions of Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko, whose opposition to the Yucca Mountain project was the subject of a harsh inspector general report earlier this month. “I’m convinced there is bipartisan support for Yucca and I suspect we’ll have a vote on …
It’s bad enough that nationwide unemployment has risen back to 9.1 percent, but for some Americans that rate is significantly higher. Low-skilled workers, many of whom are African-American, are experiencing the worst of the down economy. The African-American unemployment rate stands at an outrageous 16.2 percent—not a number the Obama White House wants under the mantle of the nation’s first black president. While CBS News reports that the national black unemployment rate is usually higher than the overall unemployment rate, these figures stand at Depression-era levels. Worse? Black teenagers have …
While the national debt continues its climb above $14.3 trillion, the day is fast approaching when Congress will, once again, vote to increase the debt limit. This brings new urgency to the need to rein in Washington’s out-of-control spending binge. Since entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) are the largest sources of deficit spending moving into future decades, they must be at the center of any solution. Social Security in particular is in big trouble. Americans pay into this program and rely on it for income security during retirement. …
When it comes to crushing debts, unsustainable entitlements and ballooning deficits, Americans and Europeans are all in the same sinking boat. Where they part ways is in their response to the looming crisis. Faced with out-of-control government spending and the prospect of a bleak economic future, Americans from across the country have rallied under the banner of the Tea Party and sent a clear message to Washington: Enough! In a vigorous manifestation of that greatest of all checks on government—the “vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America”—citizens …
Video chat rooms at Ustream Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, visits Heritage today for The Bloggers Briefing at noon. Watch it live here on Scribe or click through to Ustream.tv. You can also listen at BlogTalkRadio.
You might be surprised to find out where sex-selective abortion in China and other Asian countries began. A new book on sex-selection abortions, a practice The Economist magazine memorably labeled “gendercide,” examines the astonishing worldwide dimensions of this problem. What’s more, the book, written by a feminist author, demonstrates how a generation of Western population activists helped to create the sex-selection tragedy by advocating unlimited abortion and the targeting of female fetuses in the womb. Fueled by new and often beneficial technologies like ultrasound, the ability to identify sex before …
