President Obama’s decision to release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will continue to reverberate on Capitol Hill today. Yesterday’s decision came as a surprise but was swiftly condemned. My colleague Rory Cooper writes for the Daily Caller that the SPR shouldn’t be used to “drive down prices whenever the president finds himself politically vulnerable.” Obama’s action came on the same day the House Energy and Commerce committee approved legislation to expedite a final decision on the Keystone XL pipeline to transport oil from Canada. That …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. Walking Away from Biden-led Negotiations Was Right Call Put free trade to work: Congress spurns jobs that new pacts would create Cut, Cap and Balance: The Way Out of Debt Afghan Drawdown Plan Draws Mixed Reactions U.S. border security: Huge costs with mixed results Come September, no more healthcare waivers Comparing Obama and Romney health laws Mica’s idea to privatize Amtrak a good first step GOP and Dems get taxpayer …
The launch of the redesigned Foundry also brought with it exciting changes for the Center for Media and Public Policy, Heritage’s investigative reporting operation. More than a year after refocusing our mission on journalism, we now have a prominent place to showcase that work. Click here to join us right now. we are joined by Rob Bluey, director of Heritage’s Center for Media and Public Policy. He is taking your questions about think tank journalism and the stories his team will pursue on unions, energy, regulations, and other policy issues. Lunch with Heritage …
In May 2011, Representative Kevin Brady (R-TX), a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives, introduced the Freedom to Invest Act of 2011 (H.R. 1834, 112th Congress). The bill amends Section 965 of the Internal Revenue Code to allow companies that do business both inside and outside the United States the opportunity, for one year, to bring to America earnings they hold overseas, without paying most of the extra tax to the U.S. that would otherwise apply to the earnings. The bill cuts taxes, …
While the rest of the country talks about the urgent need to reduce the crushing debt burden and get the U.S. fiscal house in order, Senators such as Harry Reid (D–NV) and Charles Schumer (D–NY) propose spending even more. But unlike the main character in the musical “Spend, Spend, Spend,” these stimulus advocates didn’t recently win a fortune. On the contrary, President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package increased the federal deficit and took the country deeper into debt without delivering on the promise to create jobs. Faced with the failure of …
The 28 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil reserves—2 million barrels per day over 30 days—to offset the supply disruption as a result of the political unrest in Libya. The Obama Administration announced that 30 million of those barrels will be met by releasing supplies from our domestic Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The problem is that releasing reserves from SPR does not pass legal, rational, or economic muster. A much more prudent move for the Administration would be to open …
It’s difficult to find a television program that holds conservative ideals, let alone refrains from mocking them. Hollywood, it seems, is monolithically liberal. This is because conservatives underestimate the value of narrative and emotion, author Ben Shapiro contended in his talk “Primetime Propaganda: The True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV,” held last week at The Heritage Foundation. “Narrative matters,” Shapiro said. “Unfortunately, conservatives have abandoned narrative as an emotional tool…you hear it on talk radio all the time. We have all the logical arguments; we …
In the face of an unpopular war and an upcoming re-election campaign, President Barack Obama addressed the American people last night from the East Room of the White House to inform them of his plans to rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The President’s decision, though politically expedient, jeopardizes the successes made in Afghanistan over the last 10 months and will signal to allies and enemies alike that the United States is more committed to extricating itself from the fight than it is to ensuring that stability in the region is achieved. The …
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill turn their attention to the budget as Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, testifies before the House Budget Committee. He’ll be talking about the CBO’s Long-Term Budget Outlook. In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hear from the middle class about their economic struggles. Thomas Clements, who appeared in a recent Heritage and Institute for Energy Research video, is among the witnesses. Today at Heritage we’ll host freshman Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY) for the monthly Conservative Women’s Network lecture. …
The American Medical Association lost 5 percent of its membership last year as the physician group faced fallout from its endorsement of Obamacare and refusal to retreat from the law’s most controversial provisions. As physicians and medical school students back away from the well-known organization, they’re turning to upstarts like Docs4PatientCare and the Benjamin Rush Society, two alternatives to the AMA. Docs4PatientCare maintains contact with about 4,000 physicians who are primarily concerned about preserving the doctor-patient relationship. Many of them became active after the AMA’s endorsement of Obamacare in 2009. …
