If clean-energy means “low-carbon” (a definition to which I object), then the U.S. is way, way ahead of China in the clean-energy race. If it means low-everything-else, we are still way, way ahead, since China has a pathetic record on controlling genuine pollution. Getting hung up on commoditized solar-panel or wind-turbine production ignores the phenomenal increase in coal-generated power in China—an increase that swamps that country’s installed wind and solar production. From parity with the U.S. around 2005, China’s CO2 emissions will grow to roughly double America’s in 2012. Here’s …
In a recent paper published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Uzi Rubin, former head of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization, discusses the significant contribution that the Iron Dome defense system has made to Israel’s security and its implications for the future. America can learn from Israel’s cost–benefit analysis for the effectiveness of the system. Iron Dome is an anti-rocket active defense system that made its debut during the rocket attacks launched from Gaza into Israel this past April and August. Without even being declared to have initial operational capability, …
As part of President Obama’s economic stimulus, the federal government has doled out $230 million for communities to combat obesity rather than create jobs or boost the economy. In many cases, the funds are being used to attack American-made products like Coke and Pepsi. Advertisements undermining soft drinks can be found in cities from coast to coast. New York’s “Pouring on the Pounds” campaign used grotesque pictures and misleading information that even the city’s chief nutritionist called into question. The city received $15.5 million in federal funding for its anti-obesity …
When it comes to the super-committee’s duty to reform Medicare, you’ll likely to hear the same tired and unsuccessful methods for lowering Medicare’s soaring costs: raising taxes, manipulating payment formulas, or making even deeper payment cuts to doctors and hospitals. The best way to reform Medicare is transform it into a premium-support program, which provides a defined contribution to seniors’ chosen health plans, which include a variety of private plans as well as traditional Medicare fee-for-service. This approach — based on injecting consumer choice and competition into Medicare — has …
The Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) took a hit when the German government decided to withdraw its support for the system. MEADS is a ground-based terminal ballistic missile defense (BMD) system developed jointly by the United States, Italy, and Germany. Germany’s step is not surprising. In February, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to stop funding for the procurement of the system. At the time, The Heritage Foundation argued that this step would undermine allied cooperation in missile defense. This appears to be correct, because Germany’s announcement questions its …
If you think No Child Left Behind (NCLB) isn’t working, what Senators Tom Harkin (D–IA) and Mike Enzi (R–WY) have in mind for the nation’s schools is only going to make things worse. In an attempt to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education (ESEA) Act of 1965 for a ninth time, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced a proposal late Thursday night with over 1,000 pages of federal policy for local schools. (As if NCLB’s 600 pages weren’t enough.) On top of the content itself, one more …
The Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee recently submitted their recommendations for tax reform to the deficit reduction super committee. Their recommendations lay out the principles they’d like tax reform to adhere to: economic growth, fairness, simplicity, revenue neutrality, permanence, competitiveness, and savings and investment. Towards those ends, the Senate Finance Republicans offer several specific policies: An income tax rate for individuals and corporations that is no higher than 25 percent; Repeal of Obamacare and its tax increases; Full repeal of the Alternative Minimum Tax; Adoption of a territorial …
Undeterred by the underperformance of several previous efforts at mortgage refinancing, the Obama Administration has announced yet another plan designed to refinance the “underwater” mortgages of homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than their houses are currently worth. However, this version of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HAMP) has many of the weaknesses of previous versions, and it is unlikely to be any more successful. To matters worse, the cost of the refinanced loans will be borne by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which the government already controls. This …
Take a stroll through your neighborhood Occupy Wall Street protest–whether it’s in New York or Chicago, Detroit or San Francisco–and you’re likely to see a recurring theme emblazoned across cardboard signs: redistribute wealth from the 1 percent to the 99 percent, all in the name of fairness, whether or not it makes good policy. Or if you want to hear that message without fighting the crowds, you could save yourself some time, turn on the TV, and tune in to President Barack Obama’s latest campaign swing across America, this time …
On Wednesday, President Obama is expected to make an announcement regarding student loan debt. He is expected to propose relief for students struggling to make student loan payments. While it’s unclear what exactly President Obama will propose, economist Richard Vedder calls the idea of student loan forgiveness “the second-worst idea ever—the worst was the creation of federally subsidized student loans in the first place.” And he’s right: It is unfair to forgive student loans on the backs of waitresses and construction workers and the nearly three-quarters of Americans who didn’t …
