Mayor John DeStefano of New Haven, Connecticut, wants the state legislature to allow the estimated 11,000 illegal aliens who live in New Haven to vote in municipal elections. Approving that proposal would not only condone illegal behavior, but would be fundamentally unfair to citizens and legal immigrants who go through the lengthy process of obeying the law and becoming citizens. Heritage published a study in 2008 on the threat already posed by non-citizens who register and vote illegally. It is also quite ironic coming from DeStefano, the same mayor whom …
Perhaps it was only because ‘tis the season, but there was some rare harmony on Capitol Hill at the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on Tuesday morning. Edwin Meese, former attorney general and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies here at Heritage, gave testimony, which elicited many thanks from John Conyers (D-MI). Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) seemed genuinely shocked that the witness called by the Democrats, Stephen Saltzburg, gave him high praise for introducing the bill at hand. “We really are off to a …
It seems people think that they have a right to everything these days: a right to the Internet, to free health care, to a good job, and to a free college education. The Supreme Court is famous for finding new rights in the “penumbras” and “emanations” of the Constitution. Today marks the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. What better opportunity to look at the rights the Constitution actually guarantees? A right is not merely something you want or claim. You may, for example, want a …
On December 12, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) attempted to shut down West Coast ports from Anchorage to San Diego. Protesters said that by shutting down the ports, they could shut down Wall Street’s profits. OWS organizers called their event “Day Without Goldman Sachs.” They also could have named their port protest: “Day Without Holiday Paychecks for Truckers”: “I just lost $400 today. These people say they represent the 99 percent. They don’t represent me,” said Mark Hebert, a long-haul trucker who was stranded in Oakland with 36,000 pounds of Kansas …
Yesterday, the Administration released data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey that shows, among other things, that the number of uninsured young adults declined over the last year. In a short press release, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) touted this as evidence that Obamacare is working, specifically attributing increased coverage of young adults age 19–25 to the Obamacare provision allowing those individuals to stay on their parents’ health plans. Undoubtedly, it’s true that some of those individuals did get coverage due to that provision, but HHS …
In a lengthy piece on December 13, the New York Times reported on the role Western Hemisphere drug trafficking plays in financing the Shiite, pro-Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah. The Times took a lengthy look at the Treasury Department’s investigation of the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) and the organizational structure that moves illegal drugs from South America to Europe and the Middle East via West Africa and launders hundreds of millions of dollars monthly through accounts held at LCB, as well as through trade-based money laundering involving consumer goods throughout the …
Ready for a new year and another bout with the Internal Revenue Service, deductions, exemptions, pens and pencils, calculators, receipts, 1040s, W-2s, accountants, Quicken, TurboTax, and more? If you’re like most Americans, that laundry list of income tax jargon, paraphernalia, professionals and their fees is enough to set your head spinning — and even if it isn’t, the thought of paying Uncle Sam your annual dues will certainly do the trick. America’s tax code needs reform, plain and simple. The current tax system discourages saving, investment, and entrepreneurship. It’s a drag on …
Well, we can’t say he didn’t warn us. After the November 2010 elections when the President’s party lost control of the U.S. House, Barack Obama told America that where he can’t legislate, he will regulate. In the last year, he lived up to that pledge, and now he’s promising to do even more of it in 2012. With 2011 coming to a close and the President about to embark on an election year, he is unabashedly showing his cards and telling America that he’s going to enact his agenda, whether the legislative …
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the death of Marine and U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, and the start of the political firestorm surrounding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious. An AK-47 assault rifle used as part of the operation was found at the scene of Terry’s murder, near Rio Rico, AZ. It turned out to be one of more than 2,000 firearms the ATF allowed to pass into Mexico, with the understanding the guns would be handed off to violent drug cartels. …
President Barack Obama loves to talk about “teaching moments” (so much so that a member of his own party in Congress has criticized him for it.) The latest lesson the Obama Administration is trying to teach? That its overregulation isn’t costly or unusual, despite all evidence to the contrary. Today’s Wall Street Journal takes that assertion head on. Here are three key takeaways: 1) The White House is picking and choosing numbers in order to understate its regulatory record. The WSJ reports that, according to an analysis of the Federal Register …
