If you’re looking for an expert in revisionist history, look no further than former Governor Jennifer Granholm (D). For the past several months, Granholm has been trying to erase from people’s memories the economically-destructive record she left behind in Michigan. And now, Granholm is trying to rebuild the image of the equally unpopular government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler. Neither effort is likely to successful. Governor Granholm has been on television, in print and online for weeks now extolling the virtues of the auto bailout. On May 24, she …
As Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) pushes the debt ceiling debate back another month, Americans remain skeptical about how such legislation can really help solve the current financial crisis. And while much ado has been made regarding the vote, it is really beside the main point of our economic distress. When considering the nation’s $14 trillion debt and bankrupting out-of-control entitlement spending, it is ridiculous to focus on how much more to spend rather than how much to save.
Unemployment in the United States increased again last month to 9.1 percent, with the Obama economy adding only 54,000 jobs—the fewest in eight months. Today’s terrible jobs report is much worse than expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had grimly predicted 160,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent earlier this week. But despite the dismal news that 13.9 million Americans remain unemployed, President Barack Obama is holding a victory party today at a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, trumpeting the only jobs he can manage to create—those …
Earlier in the week, the media reported the Pentagon’s position that a serious cyber attack might require a military response—to which the only logical response is: You think? Now we have the findings of a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey that 53 percent “of voters agree with this proposed new strategy and think a major cyber-attack on the United States by another country should be viewed as an act of war.” Here, the only logical question is: What is wrong with the other 47 percent of the people surveyed? …
White House press secretary Jay Carney declared that on Libya the White House has “consulted Congress every step of the way.” Well, Congress begs to differ. Congress has been mulling all week over how to give Obama an earful. Unfortunately, some of these proposals would not pass constitutional muster and could put the troops of America’s allies at risk. Now Bloomberg reports that “House Speaker John Boehner moved to head off a resolution seeking an end to U.S. military involvement in Libya by proposing an alternative demanding that President Barack …
In a matter of weeks, the Republic of South Sudan is scheduled to gain full independence. This step is the culmination of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) that is intended to permanently resolve the decades-long civil war that led to an estimated 2 million deaths. However, this peace and independence process is threatened by continued violence in the disputed border area of Abyei (the South Kordofan region). Abyei has long been one of the most …
A few weeks ago, The Heritage Foundation released its plan to balance the budget and reform entitlements and health care called “Saving the American Dream“. There is also a debate raging in Congress about the whether or not we should raise the debt limit. Join us from 12-1 ET for our online chat. We will be joined by Heritage’s Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Alison Fraser. She will be taking your questions about the debt limit and Heritage’s budget plan. If you would like to be reminded …
On April 27, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a Clean Water Act jurisdictional guidance document that would drastically expand the EPA’s ability to regulate private land and water. Just as the EPA used regulation to get around Congress’s rejection of cap-and-trade legislation to tax carbon dioxide, the agency is again ignoring Congress after policymakers failed to move legislation forward. Last Congress, Representative Jim Oberstar (D–MN) and Senator Russ Feingold (D–WI) tried to expand the powers of the EPA by introducing legislation that would replace the term “navigable waters” in …
Typically, demonstration programs exist to prove the effectiveness of a reform proposal before implementing it nationwide. This was apparently forgotten in the drafting of Obamacare, which relies heavily on accountable care organizations (ACOs) to curb runaway spending in Medicare and the health care system at large. Supporters claim ACOs, a form of managed care run by hospitals and physicians, will reduce health care spending and improve quality of care by encouraging better coordination and communication among providers. But the results of a five-year demonstration program show this won’t necessarily be …
Secret ballots protect voters from intimidation. As long as a vote remains private, no one can retaliate against individuals for voting the “wrong” way. The leadership of the union movement wants to replace secret ballot union elections with “card-check”—a system where workers would unionize by signing union cards in the presence of union organizers. Publicly, union leaders insist that union organizers would never intimidate workers if they knew how they voted. But it turns out union bosses know full well that without secret ballots, union organizers would intimidate workers. Two …
