Driving the conversation: CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller marked a grim milestone for President Obama in a post on the network’s website last night. “The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion,” Knoller writes. “It’s the most rapid increase in the debt under any U.S. president.” Byron York takes on a bit of conservative conventional wisdom on the budget in his Tuesday column. “Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit”, the headline …
President Barack Obama has a problem on his hands when even his stalwart allies at The New York Times have no choice but to admit to a glaring reality: The President’s “green jobs” promise has failed miserably. On Friday, the Times printed a harsh assessment of the state of the “green” economy—including a conclusion that the President’s promise to create five million green jobs over 10 years has proven to be nothing more than “a pipe dream,” with California’s Bay Area providing a particularly poignant example of how “green” jobs have …
Forget the economic news, the fighting in Libya, and the American Idol summer tour and pay attention to the weather report. Hurricane Irene is wending its way across the Caribbean and heading for the East Coast of the United States, where it may make landfall along the Carolinas. When the storm reaches the U.S., it may reach Category 4—that’s a serious storm. The definition of Category 4 is: “Catastrophic damage will occur.” Before the storm hits, it is worth revisiting the danger Americans may face. A hurricane is a particularly …
With continuing unemployment problems driving more and more Americans to seek Social Security disability benefits, that program’s already weakened trust fund faces a bleak future. Just as unemployed older workers have been forced to apply for Social Security retirement benefits much earlier than they expected, thousands of other unemployed people who have disabilities, or hope that they might qualify, are applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. SSDI benefits are somewhat more generous than retirement benefits and turn into retirement benefits once the recipient reaches full retirement age. In …
Russia’s military-industrial complex is offering an ominous weapons system in the international arms market called the Club-K cruise missile system. It consists of a quadruple launcher for Club cruise missiles hidden inside an innocuous-looking cargo container that serves as cover for the missiles’ Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) and the control cabin, where two operators would handle the satellite communications and the missiles’ targeting and launching. The Club missiles are known by NATO as the SS-N-27 “Sizzler.” Fittingly, the marketing name given to the system is “Pandora’s Box.” The container-looking weapon system can …
It seems that Canada, America’s friendly neighbor to the north (and beloved by the left for its universal health care system) has a new enemy to the south—environmental activists. Its crime? Wanting to use its natural resources. In the Natural Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) “onearth” blog, Andrew Nikiforuk lambastes Canada for a Calgary-based company’s attempt to build the Keystone XL pipeline to carry tar sands oil (“bitumen,” a type of petroleum) from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico—bringing upwards of a million barrels of oil per day to refineries in …
Fifteen years ago today, after lengthy battles between a Republican-led Congress and a Democratic White House, President Bill Clinton signed into law the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, otherwise known as welfare reform. Among other changes, the act inserted work requirements and time limits into the nation’s largest cash assistance welfare program. As a result, five years after the reform, 3.5 million fewer individuals lived in poverty, and the poverty rate for black children dropped to its lowest level in the nation’s history. However, there have been …
Warren Buffett’s demand last week that the federal government stop “coddling” the country’s wealthiest citizens – meaning that it should take more of their income with even more confiscatory tax policies – has earned him rebukes from a few fellow members of the billionaire club. In today’s Wall Street Journal, former American Express CEO Harvey Golub writes: Governments have an obligation to spend our tax money on programs that work. They fail at this fundamental task. Do we really need dozens of retraining programs with no measure of performance or …
President Obama plans a big jobs announcement—right after he finishes his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. Expect him to say that green jobs are the key to recovery—that they will generate millions of jobs and a new era of prosperity. Oh, you’ve already heard that one? So has everyone else. Even The New York Times has begun to debunk Obama’s claim, headlining, “Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises.” Obama’s claim is getting quite old and quite expensive, but remains just as false as ever. If Congress’ “super-committee” …
Catching you up on clips, commentary and news of the day. Sign up for the daily email update from Scribe. The Politicized Hiring of Eric Holder’s Employment Section – Hans A. von Spakovsky, Pajamas Media Energy States Lead in Job Creation, Financial States Struggle – Dennis Jacobe, Gallup Did health law bring economic doldrums? – James Sherk, McClatchy Ag. Secretary Says Food Stamp Program Is Stimulus – Stephanie Samuel, Christian Post Seattle’s ‘green jobs’ program a bust – Vanessa Ho, Post-Intelligencer No Child Left Behind by Executive Overreach – Lindsey Burke, …
