What do marriage and family have to do with economic growth? A lot, in fact. According to a new international report, there are multiple links between a strong economy and marriage and family. The Sustainable Demographic Dividend—put together by the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project, the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, and other universities throughout the world—highlights these links and argues that “the long-term fortunes of the modern economy rise and fall with the family.” The “great population boom of the last two centuries is waning,” the authors write, …
The Obama Administration’s Iraq policy is in disarray amid reports that negotiations have broken down with the Iraqi government over extending the U.S. military presence past the end of the year. The Associated Press reported on Saturday that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq by December 31, except for 160 active-duty troops attached to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. The Obama Administration denied this report, maintaining that negotiations were continuing and no final decision had been made. The Obama Administration had been negotiating to extend the U.S. military presence, now …
President Obama is fond of saying he hasn’t raised anyone’s taxes. How soon he forgets the $500 billion tax hike in his health care law. Obamacare raised 18 separate taxes and included a brand new 10 percent excise tax on tanning beds. The tanning bed tax started in July 2010. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) should have little trouble collecting this ridiculous tax. It already collects several other excise taxes on things like alcohol, tobacco, and gas. And the federal government has collected excises since the beginning of the republic. …
In its never-ending efforts to be hip, the U.S. State Department last week launched a new Web site called “Discover Diplomacy.” It has video clips, it has audio tracks, it has interactive maps and images—it has it all. The site is the work of the U.S. Diplomacy Center, an office in the Bureau of Public Affairs. But instead of being aimed at foreigners, it targets U.S. high school and college students as well as their professors, for whom the site is billed as a teaching tool. Possibly due to the …
Last Tuesday, Senator Tom Harkin (D–IA) introduced a much-anticipated proposal to rewrite No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and has announced that committee markup on the legislation will begin this Wednesday. Those hoping for a package that would follow in the footsteps of the House Education and the Workforce Committee by beginning to reduce the failed federal role in education will be disappointed. Harkin’s proposal piles new federal directives, rules, and regulations on top of the existing 600-page law. The proposal continues to wager that this time Washington’s education reform efforts …
Last week, The Heritage Foundation hosted a discussion entitled “Burma Policy: Hope and Reality,” which revolved around breaking developments in Burma and appropriate responses to them. The panel for this event included Tom Malinowski, Washington director for Human Rights Watch; Aung Din, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma; Jared Genser, founder and president of Freedom Now; and Walter Lohman, director of Heritage’s Asian Studies Center. Recent events in Burma heighten this discussion’s relevance. Indeed, the 20-year debate of engagement versus sanctions has resurfaced and has been energized by a …
Today marks the 1,000th day of Barack Obama’s presidency, and unfortunately for America, those days have been marked by deeper deficits, lost jobs, prolonged unemployment, and bigger government. Meanwhile, many of those charged with leading the federal government have all but abdicated their responsibilities. The national debt stands at $14.9 trillion–$4.2 trillion of which has been added since Obama took his oath of office. Fourteen million Americans are unemployed–that’s 9.1 percent of the workforce. The unemployment rate has been above nine percent for 840 of the 1000 days, and the average unemployed worker has …
Senate Cloakroom: October 17 – October 21 Analysis: This week the Senate will move to a large appropriations bill which will wrap several individual appropriations together into one legislative package. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) will offer an amendment to the House passed Agriculture Appropriations bill which will add the Commerce, Justice and Science as well as the Transportation and Housing and Urban Development appropriations bills. It will be important to watch what the top line budget number for this so called “minibus” will be and whether they remain at the …
The soon-to-be-effective ban on traditional incandescent light bulbs creates more concerns than just the forceful shift of market shares; it also raises questions regarding individual freedom and even general well-being. Howard Brandston is a renowned lighting designer who has over 50 years of experience and an impressive project record: To date, he has designed over 2,500 projects, one of which was the 1984 relighting of the Statue of Liberty. When Brandston makes a statement about the relative quality of the two types of light, as he did in The New …
When Bank of America announced a new $5 debit card fee in late September (along with a slew of other banks), President Barack Obama condemned it, and yesterday some Democrat Members of Congress called on Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation. Unfortunately, they’re setting their sights on the wrong target. Instead of taking banks to task for the new charges, they should focus their attention on the “Durbin Amendment” to the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform law, authored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). This week, five House Democrats sent a letter to Holder …
