House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) is a man on a mission. He’s making the rounds on Capitol Hill to convince his colleagues, particularly those on the 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, that they should avoid cutting defense spending. McKeon has a point — and it’s one that is backed up by Heritage calculations from Congressional Budget Office data. This chart reveals that even if defense spending was eliminated entirely, entitlements would continue to fuel the debt crisis. Making reforms to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is …
Former President Bill Clinton recently compared voter identification laws to Jim Crow-era statutes that suppressed the black vote after the Civil War. “There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today,” Clinton told liberal activists in July. Not so, says John Fund, author of “Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy.” Speaking at Heritage this week, Fund said voter ID laws have won the …
Our country is at a tipping point, yet the last thing we need to do is start anew. “We don’t need to remake America or discover new and untested principles,” says Heritage’s Matt Spalding. At times like these, we should return to our First Principles, which provide us with the wisdom and guidance we need to get our country back on the right path. The new First Principles section of the Heritage website is a one-stop shop to access the lessons of American political thought. The place to start (especially if you …
Hugo Chavez hates Wall Street, ground zero for “savage capitalism.” Daily he dreams of bear markets bringing the U.S. economy crashing down. He certainly likes the Occupy Wall Street movement. It is tailor-made for advancing Chavez-style “participatory democracy.” Little wonder he has dispatched his star propagandist to New York. Eva Golinger, described as “a Venezuelan-American lawyer and editor of the English edition of the state newspaper Correo del Orinoco” (i.e., an arm of the Chavez regime). A well-funded apologist for Chavez, Golinger has apparently joined forces with the anti–Wall Street …
The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an appeal today with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of a federal district court’s decision refusing to issue an injunction against major portions of Alabama’s new immigration law. On September 28, Judge Sharon Blackburn upheld most of Alabama’s law, including a requirement that police officers check the immigration status of individuals stopped, detained, or arrested when they have a reasonable suspicion that the individual is unlawfully present in the United States. The inherent right of state and local police officers to make immigration …
On Wednesday, Ken Hoagland, chairman of Restore America’s Voice Foundation, delivered the petitions of 1.6 million Americans demanding the repeal of Obamacare to legislators on Capitol Hill. After the press conference, several members stayed to talk with Heritage about the problems with the current law, the progress of the repeal effort, and the sorts of conservative solutions they would like to see introduced. To learn more about conservative healthcare solutions, read our plan for America — Saving the American Dream
Tomorrow starts the 11th year that U.S. military forces will be fighting in Afghanistan. Even though President Obama twice “surged” U.S. troops on the ground there since taking office, he has been busy cutting military capabilities and dollars the entire time. During his first two years in office, the President and Congress helped accelerate the reduction of America’s military technological advantages. Advanced equipment projects killed, delayed, or modified over the past three years include: F-22 fifth-generation tactical fighter, C-17 cargo aircraft, VH-71 helicopter, Combat search and rescue helicopter, DDG-1000 destroyer …
Members of Congress, prominent military and veterans affairs experts, and Tea Party representatives raised concerns that further cuts to the U.S. military would do irreparable damage to national security, during an event sponsored by the Coalition for a Common Defense on Capitol Hill. The event took place amidst the growing chorus of Administration officials and experts raising red flags about further cuts to the U.S. military. The chorus is growing because if the congressional “supercommittee” does not reach an agreement on deficit reduction by November 23, there will be huge …
In the currently battered U.S. economy, with high unemployment and bleak growth prospects, politics has become a contest of dueling jobs plans: politicians of every stripe have them. Their motivation may be sincere, but their concept is wrong – and they are just perpetuating the myth that government can create jobs. It can’t. It can only maintain conditions that are conducive to economic growth. That is the real engine of job creation, and it’s where policymakers should place their focus. Job creation is a function of producers meeting the demands …
Democrats determined to shield the administration from accusations of political cronyism are unwittingly undermining the larger policy vision that they themselves have supported, and the president has championed: the so-called “green energy economy.” Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Diana Degette (D-CO), ranking Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and its investigative sub-panel, respectively, have released a trove of emails between administration officials regarding their support and financing for bankrupt solar company Solyndra. Their goal is to counter Republican suggestions that Solyndra received favorable treatment due to its investors’ political contributions. But in doing so, …
