Many of us will give thanks for family this week. Sadly, more than one hundred thousand children awaiting adoption from the foster care system don’t have a family to be thankful for. More than 400,000 children are in the foster care system, and about a quarter are in circumstances that will prevent them from being reunified with their family of origin. They need adoptive homes. November is National Adoption Month, and this year’s initiative aims to find permanent parents for these 107,000 foster children. That’s a call advocates of limited …
Last Friday, this author had the opportunity to dine in the company of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, his senior staff, and the attendees of the annual Valdai Club meeting at Le Cheval Blanc, a gourmet restaurant in Moscow. Responding to the Valdai Club report that found Russia’s “managed democracy” is running out of steam, Putin retorted that Russia’s current political system has not exhausted itself yet—as he is running for president. Asked who are the next generation of politicians, he named President Dmitry Medvedev, then stalled and said more …
They came, they saw, and they debated. Last night in Washington, D.C.’s, Constitution Hall, eight Republican contenders for the presidency engaged in a debate on foreign policy and national security co-hosted by The Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and CNN. When the dust had settled after the two-hour debate, Americans had a clearer picture of where each of the candidates stood on the seminal issue of how to best protect America. The candidates addressed questions ranging from Afghanistan to Pakistan, Africa to South America, and border security to terrorism. Critically, …
When the Supreme Court agreed this month to hear the Obamacare constitutional challenge, it didn’t surprise most Court watchers, but the amount of time it set aside for oral argument is highly unusual. That is surprising for a few reasons, most of which should be unsettling to the current administration that is defending the law. The Supreme Court’s Nov. 14 orders were a bit ambiguous on one point, but it seems to have scheduled 5 ½ hours of oral argument on issues related to the one case brought by 26 …
Conventional wisdom has it that China’s growing economy poses a serious threat to America’s status as a global economic superpower. The media and politicians repeat time and again that the United States is losing much of its manufacturing base to China and that American jobs are disappearing as a result. Many Americans who believe these claims vote for politicians who promise to “protect” American jobs from foreign competition. A look at the numbers reveals that, contrary to the assertion that corporations prefer to invest in low-wage countries like China, the …
North Korea: A Neglected National Security Threat – Bruce Klingner It’s hard to overlook half of the globe, but that’s what happened during the Republican presidential debate on national security. Despite the critical importance of Asia to U.S. economic and security interests, the region was largely ignored. China was mentioned only in passing during the candidates’ closing remarks, and there was no mention of America’s economic partners and treaty allies. Iran’s continued efforts to develop nuclear weapons figured prominently in the evening’s debate, with wide-ranging discussions on the impact on …
Congress is at it again. Earlier this month, Representatives Bennie Thompson (D–MS), Edward Markey (D–MA), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D–TX), sent a letter to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) demanding to know how the agency planned to meet the congressional mandate requiring the 100 percent screening of air cargo. This letter came just days after the TSA announced it did not plan to meet the December 31 deadline for the screening of all international U.S.-bound cargo. In 2007, Congress passed the Implementing 9/11 Commission Recommendation Act. The bill included a …
Tonight, the GOP presidential candidates square off in Washington, D.C., at the CNN/Heritage/AEI debate to discuss foreign policy and national security. But so much of U.S. foreign policy depends on how to secure American independence in an age of global governance. How, then, should we think about international organizations? In his new addition to the Understanding America series entitled “How Should Americans Think About International Organizations?,” Heritage’s Brett Schaefer argues that the United States should determine its level of involvement in international organizations by carefully considering each organization’s effectiveness and …
With the failure of the super committee to recommend at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, Congress’s latest attempt at budget control has collapsed. There will be many analyses of why the process did not work, but it’s worth stepping back to recall what generated the need for this extraordinary procedure and what the exercise actually produced. From early in the year, it was generally accepted that the divided Congress would be unable to agree on a budget through regular procedures. Republicans chose to use a necessary vote on the …
Students at the City University of New York rioted yesterday in protest of the school’s planned tuition hike. The proposed change: an extra $300 per year, bringing the total in-state tuition for full-time students to $5,430 per year – significantly less than the $8,244 nationwide average for in-state students at 4-year public universities. The mob descended on CUNY’s Baruch College campus, where dozens were reportedly arrested. These videos captured some of the mayhem: The riots were apparently orchestrated by a group called “Students United for a Free CUNY.” The group, …
